poss scam involving Banksy print/Pest control, by withnail69 on Aug 29, 2019 22:43:14 GMT 1,

Aug 29, 2019 21:49:09 GMT 1 moron said:

May 23, 2018 21:09:08 GMT 1 withnail69 said:

Guys I would really appreciate some help/advice here. Please be 100% assured that everything I am about to say is 100% the truth... 

In 2005 I entered a lottery draw with Pictures on Walls (exclusive banksy outlet closed in 2017) to win the chance to purchase a banksy print. ( I was a regular on pictures on walls and Had already purchased girl with balloon from them and much later would purchase one of the doughnut prints). Luckily I won the chance to purchase a limited print from them and bought it as a 60th birthday present for my Father. Until very recently it has been hanging in the same spot since then. In January my mother sent images to pest control in order to obtain a certificate of authentication. She received an email saying they were very busy and would be in touch later.. That was 4 months ago. 
My parents are in the process of moving out and weren't at the property where the banksy has (until recently) been for the last 13 years. A friend of the family who has keys arrived today to pick something up for them and when they went to leave they were pounced on by CID and Magistrates with search warrants. They claimed to be looking for a stolen banksy print and had a printout of the same print I had bought for my father. The friend told my mother they searched the property for 2 hours (which is crazy. Its a small place and its practically empty) looking for this banksy print. The friend wouldn't give out personal details. Waited for them to leave and got a number that they asked for my parents to call them back on. My mother told me all this over the phone about 7pm tonight. I went crazy at her. Of course this wasn't the police they were coming to scam you out of the print and steal it. your emails to pest control must have been intercepted etc... My brain was going at 100 mph at this stage... Turned out the phone number appears to be genuine police. The police read my mother the same limited edition number that is on the print and said it was reported stolen in 2010. It gets weirder and weirder. All this urgency with magistrates and search warrants for not even a print in banksy's most valuable and for a fictitious crime that was sposed to have been perpetrated 8 years ago. The Policeman said he believed my mother and if she hands over the print then it will be returned to them when the investigation is over.... More questions racing through my mind.. The only solid facts I can think of are... Instead of sending a certification of authentication Pest control contacted the police and told them my parents had a stolen banksy print.. How can the people reporting it stolen even prove it was ever in their possession? Its simple. They can't because it never has been.. I can't get pictures on walls to verify my story cause they no longer exist. My virginmedia email doesn't go back further than 2010 and I can't search my bank statements further back than 2007.. What else can I do? Does anyone on here know pictures on walls and how I can contact them to help resolve this? Thanks for your time and reading all this. I am so wound up that someone would try to do this to my parents I can't even begin to tell you.... What if the fraudsters managed to get a fake authenticated all that time ago or someone at pest control is involved in this scam?

 Going by what you write and i'm not making any kind of judgement either way. I can think of two theories on how this might have come about. If allegedly someone who was working at POW at the time handling sales pocketed the money and sent out a print. Which I think would not be easy to do below management level. Or if allegedly the print was paid for with a rubber cheque or stolen bank card or something similar and the print was sent out before the bank notified POW. Then POW made a record of the print number with an alert notification if and when they get sent that print number to their system.

  I think POW should actually say why they believe the print is stolen and reveal the circumstances in their words that it was stolen under.

Hi mate thanks for this post. Your first theory sounds feasible. We think the payment was made on a card of my mums with a bank that no longer exists so even the police didn’t manage to get the bloody bank statements. Just to expand. The print was t reported stolen until 2011 whereas we bought it in 2005 so wouldn’t have been flagged for first 6 years it was in our possession

Aug 29, 2019 21:49:09 GMT 1 moron said:

May 23, 2018 21:09:08 GMT 1 withnail69 said:

Guys I would really appreciate some help/advice here. Please be 100% assured that everything I am about to say is 100% the truth... 

In 2005 I entered a lottery draw with Pictures on Walls (exclusive banksy outlet closed in 2017) to win the chance to purchase a banksy print. ( I was a regular on pictures on walls and Had already purchased girl with balloon from them and much later would purchase one of the doughnut prints). Luckily I won the chance to purchase a limited print from them and bought it as a 60th birthday present for my Father. Until very recently it has been hanging in the same spot since then. In January my mother sent images to pest control in order to obtain a certificate of authentication. She received an email saying they were very busy and would be in touch later.. That was 4 months ago. 
My parents are in the process of moving out and weren't at the property where the banksy has (until recently) been for the last 13 years. A friend of the family who has keys arrived today to pick something up for them and when they went to leave they were pounced on by CID and Magistrates with search warrants. They claimed to be looking for a stolen banksy print and had a printout of the same print I had bought for my father. The friend told my mother they searched the property for 2 hours (which is crazy. Its a small place and its practically empty) looking for this banksy print. The friend wouldn't give out personal details. Waited for them to leave and got a number that they asked for my parents to call them back on. My mother told me all this over the phone about 7pm tonight. I went crazy at her. Of course this wasn't the police they were coming to scam you out of the print and steal it. your emails to pest control must have been intercepted etc... My brain was going at 100 mph at this stage... Turned out the phone number appears to be genuine police. The police read my mother the same limited edition number that is on the print and said it was reported stolen in 2010. It gets weirder and weirder. All this urgency with magistrates and search warrants for not even a print in banksy's most valuable and for a fictitious crime that was sposed to have been perpetrated 8 years ago. The Policeman said he believed my mother and if she hands over the print then it will be returned to them when the investigation is over.... More questions racing through my mind.. The only solid facts I can think of are... Instead of sending a certification of authentication Pest control contacted the police and told them my parents had a stolen banksy print.. How can the people reporting it stolen even prove it was ever in their possession? Its simple. They can't because it never has been.. I can't get pictures on walls to verify my story cause they no longer exist. My virginmedia email doesn't go back further than 2010 and I can't search my bank statements further back than 2007.. What else can I do? Does anyone on here know pictures on walls and how I can contact them to help resolve this? Thanks for your time and reading all this. I am so wound up that someone would try to do this to my parents I can't even begin to tell you.... What if the fraudsters managed to get a fake authenticated all that time ago or someone at pest control is involved in this scam?

 Going by what you write and i'm not making any kind of judgement either way. I can think of two theories on how this might have come about. If allegedly someone who was working at POW at the time handling sales pocketed the money and sent out a print. Which I think would not be easy to do below management level. Or if allegedly the print was paid for with a rubber cheque or stolen bank card or something similar and the print was sent out before the bank notified POW. Then POW made a record of the print number with an alert notification if and when they get sent that print number to their system.

  I think POW should actually say why they believe the print is stolen and reveal the circumstances in their words that it was stolen under.

Hi mate thanks for this post. Your first theory sounds feasible. We think the payment was made on a card of my mums with a bank that no longer exists so even the police didn’t manage to get the bloody bank statements. Just to expand. The print was t reported stolen until 2011 whereas we bought it in 2005 so wouldn’t have been flagged for first 6 years it was in our possession