Château Lafite: a case of the 1986 for the birthday boy
Yaya Touré, who plays for Manchester City, is apparently having another 'birthday party'. This follows a party 'he had' at the end of November 2011 and at this rate he will be older by the end of 2012 than the veteran Ryan Giggs!
On 16th January 2012 Jim's Loire carried a story about a Luxembourg fine wine dealer being scammed by a fake football agent posing on behalf of Yaya Touré and Didier Drogba. Now the scamsters have targeted another fine wine merchant but this time in Belgium – T Kasteelke in Beveren-Waashttp, just to the west of Antwerp. Touré apparently has a 'new agent' called Ryan Campbell (email: sales-ryan@live.co.uk). The previous agent, Marc Bolane, appears to have disappeared. Touré – see below – has never heard of this Ryan Campbell.
On 16th February Steven Verstraeten, who runs T Kasteelke, was phoned by someone purporting to be Touré, who told Verstraeten that he was having a birthday party and would he contact his agent Ryan Campbell to sort out an order. Verstraeten sent a list of high-end wines he had available and received an order within half an hour.
Fortunately the following day Verstraeten started to become suspicious when Campbell started pushing hard for the wine to be delivered as soon as possible. The initial impression given was that there was plenty of time – Touré's birthday is 13th May. Now he was told that the party was on 26th February.
Verstraeten: 'So I started to call some friends, because Yaya Toure played 5 years ago in my hometown Beveren, and they were saying that it was impossible because Yaya doesn’t drink alcohol. So I went on the internet and found the article on Decanter on In Vino Gildas.
Campbell's order:
'HAVE INFORMATION BY MR YAYA TOURE FOR ORDER WINE REGARDING IS HOUSE PARTY AND FOLLOWING IS BIRTHDAY PARTY.
PLEASE THE ORDER IS:
2008 Romanee conti QTY 1
2008 Montrachet QTY 1
2008 La Tache QTY 3
2008 Richebourg QTY 3
Petrus 1998 QTY 12
Petrus 2008 QTY 6
Petrus 2005 QTY 3
Lafite Rothschild 1986 QTY 12'
PLEASE THE ORDER IS:
2008 Romanee conti QTY 1
2008 Montrachet QTY 1
2008 La Tache QTY 3
2008 Richebourg QTY 3
Petrus 1998 QTY 12
Petrus 2008 QTY 6
Petrus 2005 QTY 3
Lafite Rothschild 1986 QTY 12'
The agreed price was 103,349.50 euros. The delivery address given to Verstraeten was 182 Hither Green Lane, London SE13 6QB, UK – the same South London address used in the previous scam.
Fortunately the following day Verstraeten started to become suspicious when Campbell started pushing hard for the wine to be delivered as soon as possible. The initial impression given was that there was plenty of time – Touré's birthday is 13th May. Now he was told that the party was on 26th February.
Verstraeten: 'So I started to call some friends, because Yaya Toure played 5 years ago in my hometown Beveren, and they were saying that it was impossible because Yaya doesn’t drink alcohol. So I went on the internet and found the article on Decanter on In Vino Gildas.
On Friday 18th February Campbell emailed Verstraeten:
'I SPOKE TO THE ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR MR YAYA TOURE REGARDING THE TRANSFER,I SEND ALL THE PAPER WORK TO HIM .
THE TRANSFER CAN BY DO ON TUESDAY AND YOU WILL RECEIVE THE CONFIRMATION FOR THE TRANSFER BY FAX AND YOU CAN SEND THE GOOD WHEN YOU RECEIVE THE CONFIRMATION FOR THE TRANSFER BY BANK NATWEST.
THANK YOU FOR YOU CORPORATION
DELIVERY ADRESSE
182 HITHER GREEN LANE
SE13 6QB
LONDON
UK
MR
RYAN CAMPBELL
AGENT FOOTBALL YAYA TOURE'
Then as promised came confirmation from the bank.
Fake notice of 'irrevocable transaction' from NatWest: 21st February 2012
On February 21 Verstraeten received a faxed notice of an 'irrevocable transaction' purporting to come from the NatWest branch at 57 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HP, tel: (0044) 07404922677, email: inquiries@natwest-payment.com. The phone number of the fake document is a mobile number, whereas the real number for the bank is 0845-3030943. In the previous scam a fake confirmation had been sent purporting to have come from a Barclays bank in Manchester.
Verstraeten continues: 'Yesterday morning he also called as a person of Natwest bank. He just confirmed the payment for mister Yaya Touré. But at that moment I already knew it was fake so I played the game.
And then yesterday afternoon they cancelled the order and since then he has disappeared.
I also contacted Manchester City for this – see additional mail.'
He received the following reply from Paul Banks, player care officer and personal support, Manchester City Football Club:
He received the following reply from Paul Banks, player care officer and personal support, Manchester City Football Club:
Steven,
I have checked with Yaya and he has never heard of Ryan Campbell and he certainly hasn't ordered any wine.
Kind regards,
Paul
*
First Luxembourg and now Belgium, fine wine merchants in northern Europe should be on the look out for this scam.
