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 feel so awful for him, he isnt stupid and was wary about it but did so many checks and paid for checks to be done

What kind of checks did you have done that you have to pay for?

In my extensive Gloria Hunniford viewing (bed recovery from illness ) the range and complexity of the newer scams has convinced me genuine people don't stand a chance.

I disagree. A simple refusal to pay for anything by bank transfer would scupper most scammers activities.

I know it's not the OPs fault but I bet if she had posted about wanting to buy an unseen car by bank transfer she would have had a million replies telling her not to.

@HopefulButScared

Please don't take people's concerns about your posts personally

Scamming is such a horrible thing and once you start to educate yourself about it it can be hard to trust anyone, especially on the internet where anyone can claim to be anyone

I found your posts helpful, took them seriously and have asked my posts to be deleted.

Nobody should be scammed, but equally nobody should be defamed and it is easy to get carried away with following the leads of others and ending up putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5

One of the very serious consequences of online scams is that that real innocent people do get blamed for the crimes of people who have stolen their identity or who have simply been named in error

So I am grateful for you for posting here

@HopefulButScared

They can vilify me if they want, I am thick skinned. Frankly, I spluttered my coffee when I read the absurd accusations against you.
First off, these are sophisticated scammers, almost certainly organised crime. If they are to be traced at all, it will be as a result of in depth forensic investigation by specialist law enforcement and they will need access to information that Joe Bloggs can't get. The scammers will not be caught because they stupidly used their own name somewhere.

Also, the scammers know they have a limited window once they start pulling in the cash. People realise they have been scammed and word spreads quickly. The scammers will almost certainly be shutting this scam down as we speak and moving on to the next one. They won't be farting about pretending to be friends of one of their fictitious characters to undermine the MN detective agency.

None of those forum posts are real. If you click on any link on the page you'll notice the URL subtly changes to the actual forum URL. The fake 'forum-mbclub.co.uk' changes to the real 'forums.mbclub.co.uk'

Another thing that people should pay attention to, and I hope this doesn't sound xenophobic, but the OPs and all replies on those "forum" posts are clearly ALL written by people whose first language is not English. This is a big red flag.

"disagree. A simple refusal to pay for anything by bank transfer would scupper most scammers activities."

Not sure about most, for example, hidden rebilling "free trial" scams have raked in huge amounts of money, one individual Canadian scammed people out of over half a billion dollars (Google: Jesse Willms scam) and that's just one of many, many similar scams.

All done via credit and debit cards, not bank transfers. By the way, for scamming people out of half a billion dollars, he served not 1 day in prison, there was not even a trial, just a 'settlement agreement' with the FTC where he had to pay back some of what he had stolen (large amounts of it had been spent already of course, on things were were not assets that could be sold to recoup money, eg luxury holidays, private jet charters etc...

@UnaCorda paid for checks to be done on the car like viewing the MOT history and that it hadnt been in any accidents. Didnt pay the scammers you can get this information from other websites like parkers I think. Obviously it all checked out because the car exists! The scammer even emailed us the v5 with his name (obviously fake) and an address in Inverness

Absolute bastards, how do these people sleep at night.

Never pay by bank transfer for sale of goods.

Genuine question, sorry if this is stupid of me. How should we pay for a car? I'm looking for a used car at the moment and assumed we would pay by bank transfer (we're intending to buy a car from a dealership, not an individual, so it should all be above board). I assume we won't be able to pay by credit card. Should we use debit card or cheque? Is that safer?

These "forum posts" are so eye opening!

I googled the company name and top hit was that BMW club one.

it's such a convincing conversation thread! Now after I read any forums posts I'll be checking the websites are real!

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

If you have many many free hours I recommend the BBC scam programmes, they really do learn as they go.

I second never to use bank transfer for goods or services. I lost about £900 to a company that went bust. If I had paid by credit card I could claim it back or by debit card then the bank could have charged it back. Expensive lesson.

Fingers crossed that the police can help you OP. Best of luck.

Just did a search for Devsale cars and your thread was in the first page of results OP.

Hope you get your money back.

I'm so sorry OP. I actually felt a bit sick when reading this as a few years ago we bought a car online as well. It was OK but I can see now how easily it couldn't have been.

Really hoping that your bank sorts it out , I'd be interested whether they do as I bank with first direct as well and it would be good to know if they actually come through when it matters.

Maybe write to a customer champion like Katie Morely at the Telegraph as that puts pressure on the bank to deal with it in a customer centric manner.

All done via credit and debit cards, not bank transfers.

True, but there's a lot more protection when you use a card, and basically none if you use bank transfer, even with the new refund scheme. It's a long way to being even half as secure as using a credit card.

@kiwiblue if buying a car from a dealership - pay by credit card if you can, debit card if they won't take credit. Or at least pay £100 of the bill on a credit card, that gives you the protection.

you need to put the money in your bank account in advance, and then contact the bank to warn them of the large transaction coming up.

if buying privately - pay cash at the address on the V5. (no sane seller will take a cheque).

and of course always run your own cheques for write off, finance etc; a registered dealer should be kosher but for the £2 it costs, do the check!

Really hoping that your bank sorts it out , I'd be interested whether they do as I bank with first direct as well and it would be good to know if they actually come through when it matters.

While I very much hope that First Direct can recover at least some of the money, it's been over a week since the transfer was made and these seem to be professional scammers. It's very likely that they'll have laundered this money from the receiving account through at least two more by now, and quite possibly through third-party systems that make it very hard to recover, or even Bitcoin right now.

If they can do anything at all in these circumstances, it'll be good going. I studied financial crime over 8 years ago now and there's very little that the bank can do unless they're immediately notified, and even then it's challenging. There's little legal protection for people to transfer money, and it often relies on the police...

Who I hope OP has already involved, so that they're not also a week behind the scammers. There should be a lot of IP addresses recorded for things like the forum tech, which may help to narrow this down.

the OPs and all replies on those "forum" posts are clearly ALL written by people whose first language is not English. This is a big red flag

Scammers aren't paying UK based people to write their fake reviews. We're too expensive. Anyone who's a native speaker can tell the difference between someone whose SPAG is a bit off, and someone whose first language is not English. It's the phrasing, the way they express themselves. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork are rammed with people offering review writing, mostly from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India or West Africa. They will work for PENNIES.

One of the Upwork profiles says "Thank you sir for visit my profile. If you are looking for a really good worker for your project then you are the right place. I am always cooperative, happy, hard-working and reliable contractor on Upwork." Rate? $5 per hour. £3.85. Pay peanuts, get people who can't string a sentence together.

And most self-respecting freelancers (like me) wouldn't touch that sort of job with a bargepole. Can you trust people who commission fake reviews to pay you???

Nothing helpful to add but that I feel so sorry for you, OP.

People I know were scammed out of a huge amount of money, along with many others, and they thought they'd checked and verified everything. The scam was elaborate and convincing.

The perpetrators were jailed but not a penny of the money was recovered of course.

Nothing seemed wrong at all. The company even comes up on Google maps with reviews. Apparently all fake

Companies House check? Chances are, nothing comes up, but worth a shot. You can do this online.

• Just looked them up. The parent company is DMC LOGISTICS (SCOTLAND) LTD. Company numberSC551995*

Sorry. Someone's already done it.

@UnaCorda paid for checks to be done on the car like viewing the MOT history and that it hadnt been in any accidents. Didnt pay the scammers you can get this information from other websites like parkers I think. Obviously it all checked out because the car exists! The scammer even emailed us the v5 with his name (obviously fake) and an address in Inverness

Ah, I see. Thanks. Hope you get at least some of your money back.

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

Looks like the scammers have been doing the same thing for at least 2 years. It's got all the familiar signatures - car originally on eBay, fake company based in Aberdeen, fake reviews online, no way to contact scammer on expected delivery day, etc. You're not the only one to be taken in, OP. Maybe contact Action Fraud like the victim in the article?

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/jessica-investigates/dcammed-ebay-4499-car-can-get-money-back/

Check with the FCA too as they claim to be FCA regulated

They are NOT FCA regulated nor are their directors FCA approved persons