Online con website 24automove.com

A friend who lives in mainland Europe sent me am email today asking about a “London” based company that was going to ship car to him. He was supposed to pay 50% of the cost of the car and the remaining 50% on delivery, the company in question is called 24automove.com . I was to have a quick look at the company just to ensure its a reputable company. The moment I got to the homepage on 24automove.com I could tell it cannot be anything but a fraudulent company, for a start, a company that claimed it has been trading since 1954 does not even have a telephone number.

It claimed to have its head office in UK, a quick search at companies house show the company with the registration number on its website (MC249800) does not exist, that is not even the format of a UK company registration number. If has a registration page which was supposed to be secured by SSL, no padlock appears when you try registering.

I did a whois on the domain name, there was an interesting result, website was registered only a few months ago, its hosted on a Romanian server. This website is definitely a fraud.
If you come across this website, you want to run a mile from them, don’t give your money to them, here is and email send by one of the fraudsters behind the site:

————————
Hello,
The payment has to be sent to the shipping company using bank
transfer.After the deposit is sent to them the shipping will start.
When you get the car you will have 5 days to test it…If you like the
car you can keep it and pay the rest of the money.
If you don’t like the car you can tell them to take it back and they
will give you a full refound.Also they can deliver the car at any
address you want.
If you are ready to start this transaction go to
http://24automove.com/ check the shipping company web site and let me
know after that so I can start the transaction, after the transaction
is started you will receive all details about the payment and
shipping.
You can use this link to register with them : http://24automove.com/register.php
—————————————–

Some clarifications I got from the friend who almost use them follows:

I found them one on a popular German car selling site www.mobile.de
and also on polish www.otomoto.pl
On mobile.de initial contact is with 999pkw@gmail.com which was later changed.

But on both site the story if this
1, You’ll get offered a car at a price far below what any other is offering
2, You get told the story that they had to move to the UK an as such
the left-hand steering car is not convenient
3, They send you a picture of the car
4, You are given a car moving company to register with through which
the transaction can be completed.
5, They offer you 50% payment up front after which the car will be
brought to you.
6, 5 or 6 day test driving of the car after which if you like it you
pay the rest of the fee or you call the auto move company to came and
take it back and you will be fully refunded.

I am sure they are using other car selling sites also to defraud others.

I found other names which they have used on this site
http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page=gallery&layout=61

They always use the same professional looking web page but with different names

Once you’ve paid they just take the site of line and you are left hanging.

I hope this helps.