Been scammed

[Fuckfuckbollocks]

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.

I have just used my courier website to put in their postcode to see what business comes up. There is no such address as 11 Minto way on there or the royal mail postcode finder. I have found some google reviews and each one is a fake profile only ever reviewing Devsales, The only 1 star review is from a real person stating its a scam.

Interesting that the fraudsters had all the service history details to allow you to call the garages, that suggests they have had some contact with the actual car, or was that all an elaborate con too?

I wonder whether OP was ringing an actual garage or not? As in, did she google the garage and call from there, or just take what the seller said as golden and use the number they provided?

*Place

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

Actually, Buster Jack is now at
www.facebook.com/oneeyed.jack.1291/

It's very difficult to get money back from a bank transfer. Although not impossible. The bank may be able to track the funds. Usually with this sort of scam the money is transferred to many different back accounts making it virtually impossible.

Try your bank though. It's worth a shot. Good luck

@Bezalelle what a nasty comment!

ZeroFuchsGiven, you're right, they are using 8 Minto Place in the picture they are using on Google and it's an empty office building, there is no 11 Minto Place. All the other units are taken by quite well known businesses. There's no way a small courier service could afford to lease that building

Which bank, OP? Some have signed up to a code to protect customers from this.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/07/two-banks-denied-scam-victims-p50k--despite-new-refund-rules---u/amp/

Yappity - brilliant!

Their positions vacant as well...

Language skill: Latin, English.

Latin?

Bastards.

Thanks so much @YappityYapYap

I know it's all so glaringly obvious now but people fall for this stuff for a reason. The service history was an actual copy of the service book with stamps from different garages in it. We phoned them after searching for them on google and they all were able to find the car on their records. Definitely were phoning the actual garages

www.onlinefilings.co.uk/people/officers/search/179268690001/

Matthew Parsons 6476 director appointments including dev sales most dissolved.

same name and address as this entity

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200219093612/indigostrategic.co.uk/legal/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20200219093612/indigostrategic.co.uk/legal/

First direct is our account. Currently on the phone to police reporting it

ZeroFuchsGiven, you're right, they are using 8 Minto Place in the picture they are using on Google and it's an empty office building, there is no 11 Minto Place. All the other units are taken by quite well known businesses. There's no way a small courier service could afford to lease that building

Indeed. The people behind this have probably never been to Aberdeen in their lives. OP, if you have the sort code you paid the money into, that should at least tell you where their bank account is located.

That's great, OP. First direct have signed up to the APP scam protection code so you should be able to claim your money back from them under it:

www.which.co.uk/news/2019/05/scam-victims-to-be-reimbursed-under-new-code-has-your-bank-signed-up-to-protect-you/

Op, I really hope you manage to get something sorted.

This thread is really supportive.

The bank said last night that we may get some money back but they cant confirm how much until they've investigated. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
You never think you'd fall for anything like this I'm so shocked that it's happened

I am really grateful to everyone on here honestly. I just wish now I'd asked on here before it happened!!! Lesson learnt

OP does your bank offer charge backs? Look into it, you might be able to get your money back this way.

The domain name was only registered on the 6th Feb

devsale.co.uk

Data validation:
Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a 3rd party data source on 06-Feb-2020

Registrar:
Namecheap, Inc. [Tag = NAMECHEAP-INC]
URL: www.namecheap.com

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 06-Feb-2020
Expiry date: 06-Feb-2021
Last updated: 06-Feb-2020

Registration status:
Registered until expiry date.

Name servers:
dns1.namecheaphosting.com
dns2.namecheaphosting.com

And it's hosted with Namecheap

www.namecheap.com/?from=co.uk

It may be worth contacting them - if it was one of my web hosting clients, we'd suspend the site pending further investigations.

Hope this helps

I can't even find their website, only fake reviews.
I recently did a bank transfer myself via telephone banking, I had to answer endless questions as my bank won't replace fraudulent transfers /money lost. It must be so common now unfortunately.

OP

I study long cons, mostly related to cults and serious organised crime

I just took a look at an archived (for safety) PDF document produced by these same scammers which you can see here:

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200219094433/indigostrategic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Indigo-Strategic-Full-Brochure.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20200219094433/indigostrategic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Indigo-Strategic-Full-Brochure.pdf

I do not know what exactly is going on here but your being scammed appears to be the tip of the iceberg

The fake HR payroll services adrertised by this entity suggest a criminal network invovled in long, complex online cons.

In this instance they are probably involved in compromising the online banking of small compaines via their fake company

Is there anyone who works in law enforcment here who can forward this to the appropriate people in the police service?

Action Fraud are overwhelmed and NFA mny of the intel reports they receive

There is an opportunity here to catch some nasty, serious criminals if the cops can act quickly

I wish people would stop calling the OP stupid. Yeah ok it looks obvious NOW because we all know what we're looking for so it's easier to spot those little clues but this company have clearly gone to great lengths to look legitimate. A lot of people would fall for it, including some of you if you didn't now know better.