A Black Watch veteran faces losing his business after being stung for £5,000 in an elaborate credit card fraud just one day after his father passed away.
Jim Melville set up Fair City Removals to ensure his son Jamie, who has cerebral palsy, would have a job for life. However, he faces having to sell both the firm’s removal vehicles in order to repay the cash.
Well-wishers have since set up a GoFundMe page in a bid to help the 59-year-old meet the bill.
Jim said the scam had made him feel “stupid” and that he wanted to prevent others falling victim.
He agreed in October to pick up artwork from Edinburgh airport and transport it to an address in West Lothian but the scammer later contacted him to say the Spanish firm would not take a credit card payment.
The woman, who spoke with a Scots accent, asked Jim if she could send him £5,000 and for him to then pay the Spanish company.
However after completing the transaction, Jim was contacted by World Pay, the firm which runs his card payment machine, to say the credit card the woman had used was stolen.
He attempted to reclaim the cash from Spain but was horrified to find the account had been emptied and closed down.
Jim said: “I told her my father had died. She had the courtesy to say sorry for your bereavement, but she still stung me for £5,000.
“I would have thought they might have had some sort of conscience and thought again about doing it, but they didn’t. I feel stupid as I got caught out.”
He said repaying the cash could cost him his business, as well as robbing his son of job security.
“For me to give them £5,000 I’ll have to sell our two vans, and without the vans we have no business,” he said.
“When Jamie came out of college he didn’t want to do a job collecting baskets at Tesco or working in McDonald’s.
“I was in the Black Watch for 24 years so moving was second nature to us – so we came up with the idea of starting the removal firm. It gives him a job and a future – it was so he was so he was secure instead of relying on government hand-outs for the rest of his life.”
Last week a crowdfunding page was set up, which has already raised more than £1,300 to repay the cash.
