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AIBU?

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Original poster

Been scammed

301 replies

Fuckfuckbollocks · 19/02/2020 07:30

NC for this. Feel really terrible right now. My husband bought a car through a website that sell on behalf of the actual seller and deliver the car to you. The money is paid to the company and after the car is delivered the funds get released to the seller. The company have a glossy website and claim to do all checks on said car.

Anyway we found this car and checked all the history out and were sent the service history with all the garages names on so we phoned them all and they all had record of this car being serviced with them etc. Multiple reviews online for this company saying how good they are and forums with people saying they've used them and it all seemed fine.
Husband transferred the money and got a confirmation type email with delivery date and time and the car didnt turn up.
I feel so awful for him, he isnt stupid and was weary about it but did so many checks and paid for checks to be done but everything we questioned there was a plausible answer for. Nothing seemed wrong at all. The company even comes up on Google maps with reviews. Apparently all fake

Sorry this isnt an AIBU I just needed to get it out and hopefully warn anyone considering buying a car this way. We feel so stupid and have lost a lot of money.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
DreemOn · 19/02/2020 13:11

TheQueef
Not always Dreem even people exchanging physical cash for a physical item (car) can end up with the police confiscating

Absolutely agree. I did say 'most' not 'all'.
There are lots of ways to get scammed but not doing bank transfers for things that you aren't in physical possession of is a good way to help prevent being scammed.

PurplePi · 19/02/2020 13:13

Whenever you are unsure if something is legit or not, search the company name + scam and see what happens. Usually that unearths similar stories.

In this case, it looks like the scammers have just created a website using a fake company name & also created fake forum pages containing bogus reviews. So when the OP & DH googled Devsales, they found (fake) good reviews.

Chances are that the scammers haven't used the Devsales name for a scam before, and will set up and use a completely different name for the next one.

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:14

The registered office address of the company is used by multiple companies - ie it is not the ‘trading’ location of the company.

As is standard enough, a firm of accountants providing company secretarial services also provide their address to be the registered office address for companies that avail themselves of the firm’s company secretarial services

www.andrewwilkie.co.uk

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:14

The registered office address of the company is used by multiple companies - ie it is not the ‘trading’ location of the company.

As is standard enough, a firm of accountants providing company secretarial services also provide their address to be the registered office address for companies that avail themselves of the firm’s company secretarial services

www.andrewwilkie.co.uk

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:14

The registered office address of the company is used by multiple companies - ie it is not the ‘trading’ location of the company.

As is standard enough, a firm of accountants providing company secretarial services also provide their address to be the registered office address for companies that avail themselves of the firm’s company secretarial services

www.andrewwilkie.co.uk

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:15

The registered office address of the company is used by multiple companies - ie it is not the ‘trading’ location of the company.

As is standard enough, a firm of accountants providing company secretarial services also provide their address to be the registered office address for companies that avail themselves of the firm’s company secretarial services

www.andrewwilkie.co.uk

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:15

The registered office address of the company is used by multiple companies - ie it is not the ‘trading’ location of the company.

As is standard enough, a firm of accountants providing company secretarial services also provide their address to be the registered office address for companies that avail themselves of the firm’s company secretarial services

www.andrewwilkie.co.uk

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:15

SORRY - NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED THERE!

Roussette · 19/02/2020 13:18

I really hope OP you get your money back, you didn't go into this blindly and the duping was sophisticated.

Can I suggest to everyone on here to use the Companies House search.

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

I won't deal with anyone i don't know without having a good old nose around their accounts. As a PP said who'd looked at DevSale, they had nothing to their name. But looking at it on Companies House, I am wondering if it is the right DevSale and the only one there is listed under nature of business as...

78109 - Other activities of employment placement agencies

Which could explain the wrong Isle of Man connection?

acatcalledjohn · 19/02/2020 13:18

SORRY - NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED THERE!

We've been SPAMMED

Grin
kiwiblue · 19/02/2020 13:21

@mencken thank you!

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:21

The occupation of Darren McCaughey - one of the x2 directors of DMC - is that of a courier - not that I want to come across as a resounding snob!

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/nvs9bTLPuSMitbRU9zhYcwoZtBU/appointments

Aridane · 19/02/2020 13:23

@acatcalledjohn - yep, spamming you all with details of a Scottish accountancy firm providing company secretarial services Grin

PurplePi · 19/02/2020 13:24

@Roussette
The scam is nothing to do with the Devsales company on Companies House. The scammers have just used the same name, having registered the devsales.co.uk domain in January this year to do this scam. Linking to their details is not helpful, and could lead to people and organisations being wrongly accused of crime.

Areyoufree · 19/02/2020 13:24

Blimey. So since the original post, we’ve found the company details, someone’s done a drive by of their purported offices, someone else who works at that address has confirmed the office doesn’t exist, determined the true identity of the people featured on the fake website, proposed a couple of suspects, had friends of those suspects vouch for them, disclosed the company hosting aforementioned website...

I know where I’m coming if I ever get scammed.

Hope it works out okay, OP. At the very least, you have probably helped prevent this happening to someone else.

Roussette · 19/02/2020 13:27

The scam is nothing to do with the Devsales company on Companies House. The scammers have just used the same name, having registered the devsales.co.uk domain in January this year to do this scam. Linking to their details is not helpful, and could lead to people and organisations being wrongly accused of crime

I haven't linked to their details.

I have just suggested that people use the Companies House website and if you click on my link it brings up an empty box whereby you can type in a company name if you so wish.

I understand now about just using the DevSales name now though Smile

Roussette · 19/02/2020 13:29

Sorry meant to put @PurplePi above. Smile

Bawbags · 19/02/2020 13:31

I simply cannot understand how these fraudsters do it. Setting up a bank account was a nightmare when I did it years ago. I needed photo ID, proof of address, further proven by my documents being sent to the address given... I'm surprised they didn't want the blood of my firstborn too! How do they get their bank accounts? And if they use the bank account and then transfer the money to their own then why does the paper trail not lead directly to them? Surely banks need to be doing more. Instant chargebacks when scams are involved for starters.

PhilCornwall1 · 19/02/2020 13:32

@Areyoufree it's like Shakespeare and Hathaway Private Investigators on this thread! Smile

mcmooberry · 19/02/2020 13:37

@Areyoufree, great summary and lol!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 19/02/2020 13:42

The domain for the website was registered on 6th Feb 2020

So how come they appear to have created reviews going back to 2017? Unless they keep tweaking the company name, I guess ... ?

Anyway I confess it's a scam I've not heard of before, so due warning taken

Puzzledandpissedoff · 19/02/2020 13:44

The scam is nothing to do with the Devsales company on Companies House. The scammers have just used the same name, having registered the devsales.co.uk domain in January this year to do this scam

Ah, I see ... apologies, I didn't notice this before posting Blush

userxx · 19/02/2020 13:51

@Bawbags Someone on the inside at the bank. Scary really.

DowntownAbby · 19/02/2020 13:53

So how come they appear to have created reviews going back to 2017? Unless they keep tweaking the company name, I guess ... ?

If you look at the forum ones - like this:

www.forum-mbclub.co.uk/forum/clube-bussines/review-view/Anyone-heard-of-DevSale-Trading-Group-Forum-forum-mbclub.co.uk.html

They are actually creating fake pages which come up when you Google 'devsale' and which appear to be part of the real forum website which is forumS -mbclub.co.uk not 'forum' without the 's'.

If you then click on one of the links on their fake forum page it actually takes you to the real forum website.

Quite clever what they've done.

It's VERY obvious they're scammers though just from reading the fake forum posts. They're obviously written by someone without English as first language.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 19/02/2020 13:59

Thanks, DowntownAbby; I corrected myself fter seeing a previous remark about this, but your explanation's superb Flowers

And every time you think you've heard it all, something else comes along ...

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