My husband had an expensive watch for sale on marketplace. We had the usual scam messages which we ignored, then a message from a male who seemed genuine and he arranged to come to our home this morning. We are quite remote so said we would meet him at the local petrol station snd he could follow us back. He called to say there was nowhere to park at the petrol station and was waiting in the nearby pub car park. He brought his brother along, they followed us home, they were Irish and were visiting family about 30 minutes from us, but they lived about 5 hours away. I had a bad feeling about the whole thing, especially when they started asking about our home and who lives with us. They were happy with the watch and ‘paid’ via bank transfer. After 20 minutes the money hadn’t reached our account and things were getting a little tense because we wouldn’t let them take the watch. So tense that I discreetly text my husband to ask if I should call our son & uncle to come over, when my husband replied saying yes, I was worried sick. So. Uncle came over with his wife and we waited for the funds transfer to go through, all the while contacting our banks. After an hour or so, things were going downhill, the 2 guys were getting agitated, one of them told my aunt to be quiet and keep out of it when we were trying to reason with them. The strange thing that struck us was every time he called his bank he got through to the same woman and she was not in the least bit helpful, saying the money had left his account and the couldn’t do anything for 24hrs and that it was down to our bank to chase the money, we obviously knew that was wrong, our bank even spoke to the 2 guys and explained it wasn’t in their system so they couldn’t chase it. We went around in circles for 3 hours with them sat in our home saying we either had to give them the money back or the watch and they weren’t leaving without one or the other they became threatening and aggressive. At some points they were talking to each other in Irish dialect. We mentioned the police but my husband said they probably wouldn’t be interested (he was trying to keep things calm) until eventually, an hour later, one of the guys said himself that he was going to ring the police and I told him to do it - that was when they accepted my husbands offer of sending the watch via courier to them once funds cleared, as they lived so far away. That was over 5 hours ago and we still haven’t had any money come through, but strangely, no further communication from these guys. We’ve logged it with the police, they have said it was likely a scam, probably didn’t want to park in the petrol station because of cctv etc. I’m worried sick because they obviously know where we live and I’m scared they will be back. Police told us to keep our eyes open, especially as we are so rural, which only makes me more concerned. My husband thinks its all way to elaborate to be a scam. Has anyone else heard of anything like this?
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