Has anyone heard of or dealt with Allan Hui?

[Islatate]

Hello fellow TRF members,

I maybe a victim of a scam so I would like to ask if anyone has heard of or dealt with someone by the name of Allan Hui.

Yesterday, I made a payment to Allan Hui for a watch with assurances from him that it would be shipped out by the end of the day. Allan was very prompt in replying when I requested his bank information for the wire transfer. As soon as payment was made and received, he went silent.

I have emailed this seller numerous times in the past 24 hours to find out if he has shipped the watch. He emailed back only once, at midnight saying that he could not ship as promised because he has "a friend who fell ill and had to be at the hospital all day to visit him".

Is this a scam artist I am dealing with or am I being paranoid?

If anyone has dealt with Allan Hui before, please let me know your experience with him. He may also go by Christopher Banks as that was the name provided as the Beneficiary on the bank account that he provided for the wire transfer.

Thank you in advance for any insight you may be able to provide into this situation. Ken B.

[simongpaez]

Was the deal made here?

[Cc1966]

I hate reading posts like this when the wired monies are involving two different people...

[Welshwatchman]

"Allan Hui" asked you to wire funds to Christopher Banks and then goes silent after payment, bar the usual "someone close is in hospital" delay email.

Contact your bank ASAP, though your method of payment may have left you irrevocably without the cash.

Hope it wasn't for too much.

[Foxy1]

aErrr I hope I am very wrong but Allen Hui ( could be a common name) was a character in a Jet Li film, the only reason I know is I was looking up the name for you, did you get it from a website ? tell us more, here is a link to the film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bodyguard_from_Beijing

[subtona]

doesn't sound good.

[dysondiver]

bad start ,,,, hope it gets better though.

[HL65]

Sorry to hear but I still can't for the life of me understand how anyone would wire money to an unknown when there are so many highly regarded long standing trusted sellers with stellar reps! Why take risks when it comes to hard earned money? Sorry to hear again but I can't emphasize this enough and it is always the case when it comes to scam threads. What kind of homework did you do? How many references did you get for him? Did you search for feedback on him on the forums? Again sorry to hear but this just does not happen when people do their homework in advance and deal with long standing trusted sellers with pages of feedback and references. As for bank wire once it is gone it is gone--your bank can't do a thing.

[Islatate]

Hi again everyone,

I truly appreciate your concerns and advice. In the past 12 months, I have been fortunate to have bought many watches from TRF without incident. Every transaction was done in an honest and professional manner. This deal with Allan Hui was the first from outside of TRF and it will be the last time. It was definitely an error in judgment on my part to rush into a deal without doing the necessary "homework". I had been in the market for a PAM98 for quite some time but without much success. So when Allan offered me his piece at a seemingly decent price, I jumped at the opportunity.

As it stands, I had emailed Allan Hui several times in the past 12 hours, threatening to go after the Christopher Banks whose name is associated with the bank account where the funds were sent to. Mr. Hui finally emailed me at 7:30 this evening, and promised that he will refund my money Monday. Let's hope he is true to his word.

In the meantime, if any of you happen to know someone who's looking to sell a PAM98, please let him/her know I am very interested.

Thanks again for all your concerns. Ken B.

[Welshwatchman]

Originally Posted by Islatate

Hi again everyone,

I truly appreciate your concerns and advice. In the past 12 months, I have been fortunate to have bought many watches from TRF without incident. Every transaction was done in an honest and professional manner. This deal with Allan Hui was the first from outside of TRF and it will be the last time. It was definitely an error in judgment on my part to rush into a deal without doing the necessary "homework". I had been in the market for a PAM98 for quite some time but without much success. So when Allan offered me his piece at a seemingly decent price, I jumped at the opportunity.

As it stands, I had emailed Allan Hui several times in the past 12 hours, threatening to go after the Christopher Banks whose name is associated with the bank account where the funds were sent to. Mr. Hui finally emailed me at 7:30 this evening, and promised that he will refund my money Monday. Let's hope he is true to his word.

In the meantime, if any of you happen to know someone who's looking to sell a PAM98, please let him/her know I am very interested.

Thanks again for all your concerns. Ken B.

Just remember that there is an extremely high chance that any promises will be empty and purely an attempt to buy payment-clearance time.

The Banks' fraud departments are open 24hours (at least card payment types). I hope you already have started proceedings to stop the payment.

[subtona]

Originally Posted by Welshwatchman

Just remember that there is an extremely high chance that any promises will be empty and purely an attempt to buy payment-clearance time.

The Banks' fraud departments are open 24hours (at least card payment types). I hope you already have started proceedings to stop the payment.

Well said

please tell us you have taken some action...

[hdrazor251]

Originally Posted by subtona

please tell us you have taken some action...

x2

[southtexas]

Hopefully he's on the phone with bank now and too busy to respond?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AbsolutelyROLEX!]

This is not going to end nicely, just the fact that he doesnt defend himself and right away offers to refund the money is proof enough!
Anyone who reads this, if you are going to buy a watch without doing research on the seller, and the sellers bank account name is different (and in this case different nationality) from his online name, is a first definite indication to stop the deal!

[Islatate]

In case you're wondering, I did 2 wire transfers to Allan Hui for his PAM98. I was able to get Chase to reverse their payment. However, my Citibank branch said they couldn't do anything about their wire until Monday as the department which handles this type of request only works Monday to Friday (I had called them on a Saturday). So I will have to wait until Monday to see if Citibank is able to put a stop payment to the seller. Hope for the best.

Thanks again to everyone for your helpful advice.

[AbsolutelyROLEX!]

I hope it works out for you! Crossing fingers!

[jfwoodman]

Allan Hui recently replied to my WTB ad for a Zenith A3817, offering to sell one at an aggressive price, wire or money order only. All his communications were vague and suspicious. I suspected scammer, and it sounds he is. What a parasite. I hope you prevail.

[Islatate]

Hi everyone,

Just want to give you all an update. It has been 5 days, and Allan Hui has not returned the $3,000 that he took fraudulently, despite several requests by my bank to the receiving bank (Armed Forces Bank in Fort Myer, Virginia) to return the funds. The beneficiary (Christopher Banks) whose name is registered to the bank account at Armed Forces Bank is the only one who can ask A.F. Bank to return the money but he has not come forth to do so. As long as he remains silent, A.F. Bank can not do anything to help get my money back.

At this point in time, I don't expect Allan Hui or Christopher Banks to have a sudden change of heart, and ask their bank to return the money. I will chalk this up as a loss, and a tough lesson learned.

I sincerely hope none of the members on this forum (and other watch forums for that matter) will get victimized by these 2 fraud artists in similar fashion.

Thanks again for all your concerns

[Urosfan]

Sorry to hear islastate

[Islatate]

Hi everyone,

Finally some good news to report. After 2 weeks of countless phone calls and unnecessary stress, Citibank was able to get a "refund" from Allan Hui/Christopher Banks' bank (Armed Forces Bank), albeit 10% less than the amount I had wired to these crooks' account. At the end of the day, a loss of several hundred dollars is much easier to swallow than several thousand.

This is a good experience for me to learn from. Never again will I deal with someone who is not a reputable seller on the watch forums. Hope no one else will be on the wrong end of Allan Hui or Christopher Banks' fraudulent schemes again.

Thanks again for everyone's concerns.

[Cc1966]

Outstanding! Lesson learned mate...

[Lgear080]

Please file a police report and ic3 report.

[ralpie]

Originally Posted by Islatate

Hi everyone,

Finally some good news to report. After 2 weeks of countless phone calls and unnecessary stress, Citibank was able to get a "refund" from Allan Hui/Christopher Banks' bank (Armed Forces Bank), albeit 10% less than the amount I had wired to these crooks' account. At the end of the day, a loss of several hundred dollars is much easier to swallow than several thousand.

This is a good experience for me to learn from. Never again will I deal with someone who is not a reputable seller on the watch forums. Hope no one else will be on the wrong end of Allan Hui or Christopher Banks' fraudulent schemes again.

Thanks again for everyone's concerns.

This is great news- and a relatively inexpensive lesson!

[perpetualman88]

glad you got 90% of your cash back but please DONT let this crook off that easy. Make sure you file a police report and stay on his arrse for your other 10% and let him know he can't get away with it.