Online Money Transfer Scam in Australia

Scammers, cheaters and fraudster are all around us and all over the world. Unfortunately, every individual on this earth become a victim of these smart robbers and online scammers of some sort at least once in their life. It can create a big shock or small shock along with anger, depression, and frustration based on the damage caused by the event. Fortunately, I have never been a victim of these until last year. It actually happened due to my trust on an individual who is from same nationality and overconfident on protecting consumer rights in Australia. I thought I would have some sort of enforcing support to recover money through judicial procedure. I could not do much probably due to my ignorance of taking appropriate actions against this company. I feel so angry about this every time I remember this.

The story begins here,

In February 2016 I have sent $2000 to Bangladesh through www.worldfx.com.au website. The director of this company, Kamrul Huda is operating the business under the name of “Worldfx Pty Ltd” of Ghisla Close, Cherrybrook NSW 2126. It seemed to me a legitimate website and business since I can see the ASIC registration and valid business name etc.  Apparently, this guy operates many online business websites for various purposes e.g. money transfer, bKash, mobile top up etc, couple of them I know off are www.worldcards.com.au, www.fastremit.com.au . I am not sure if they are operating this money transfer business legally both in Australia and Bangladesh. It is hard to imagine that he is doing dodgy business at the first instance. He closes one business and open another business when he rip off enough money from the customers. Customers can do nothing apart from cursing him. He is a sucker, so it does not make any difference even if you say all the rude words to him.

I have transferred the money into their Common Wealth account according to the website instruction.  I have decided to use their service because they were offering higher currency rate than the local bank exchange rate. I have received a confirmation email after submitting the order and the money has been transferred from my account to their account immediately. I was waiting for the money to be received in Bangladesh. Waiting. waiting and waiting, a couple of weeks had gone past the money had never received in Bangladesh. I called the number from their website and spoke to a person named Kamrul Huda. He introduced himself as the owner of this business. I wanted to know about the money transfer and he seemed to be very unprofessional and acting like he does not care about this. I told him to process the order as soon as possible since my family needed the money urgently. Anyway, another week has gone by but the money had not received in Bangladesh. I was angry and called him again to find out what was going on. I asked him to refund my money urgently so that I can send through Western Union or Money Gram. Apparently, he refused to refund my money and asked me to do whatever I can do against him. I have reported this matter to Australian Consumer Protection (ACP), ASIC, Financial Ombudsman etc. but none of them seemed to do anything. I have been told they cannot handle this matter since it is a financial matter and advised to contact Financial Ombudsman services. They couldn’t do anything about this either since this company is not a registered financial organization. Here you go, I  knew nothing about this. I thought I can go to them and seek help to recover my money since I have all the evidence. Anyway, I have tried again calling this guy and requested to refund my money but he ignored my call and request as usual. He probably knew that I couldn’t do much to get the money from him and an experienced cunt stealing others money like this. I was still feeling confident that I will get my money since I have all the evidence and bank transfer records.

Anyway, as a last resort, I had to take this matter to the civil court and lodged a claim case against this company. Spent a few hundred bucks for court fees and other associated expenses. I was still hoping that I would get my money through the court order. This person tried to delay the court hearing couple of times. Finally, the honourable judge made the order against the company to pay my money back along with all the costs. I was feeling a bit happy after all this frustration. But it didn’t end here. I have mailed him the post order claiming $4250. I thought he will obey the court order and pay off my money. Nope, he declined and didn’t even respond to the letter.

Now what, things are getting difficult now. This guy lives in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) and I live in Perth. I spoke to the court and got some legal advice for the next step. Everything costing me more and more money now. I have transferred the case to NSW local court and paid the fee to file the case. I have applied for the Garnishee order since I knew his bank details. I thought I would be able to get my money from his bank. The court approved the Garnishee order and I sent the order to the Common Wealth Bank. A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from the bank saying the company does not have any valid account with them. What a smart cunt, he closed his bank account but why? Probably he knew that this was going to happen. My money recovery mission failed again.

I didn’t give up there. I wanted to give him a good lesson and spread the word about Mr Kamrul Huda’s fraudulent activity so that no one will become a victim of this guy and his company. I have applied for a writ order to cease the company assets to recover my money. The application for the writ cost me about $100. Still hoping to get my money back. A few weeks later, I have received a letter from NSW Court Sherriff. Basically, the Sherriff could not cease any assets from this guy because he said the company does not have any assets. All are his personal belongings. Wow, I was a  bit disappointed that Sherriff could not do anything about this even though it was his business. How can someone runs a business and gets all income from it but when it turns around he just refuses everything and claims everything as his personal assets.

I guess at least the Sherriff went there to chase him which might impact on his honour and respect if he has any.

I still did not get my money back. This guy still operating all his dodgy website businesses and probably changing the bank accounts frequently. Now the claim amount is more than $5600. I feel so angry about this every time I remember this.

After this event, I have never sent money overseas through this kind of dodgy websites. I always use Western Union or Money Gram for overseas money transfer. Very legitimate way, no more dodgy ways.

He has deregistered his business now after this incident. You can imagine what kind of pity business man he is.

Please be very careful and think twice when sending money through this kind websites. This was a good lesson for me. I thought I should share this and make you aware of this kind of activities in Australia.