Chinese copycat companies entering a brand new level of FAKE

[Sariel]

Thanks, reported the website to GoDaddy already and exploring other options at the moment.

[Mylenium]

12 hours ago, Sariel said:

Any idea if there's a legal solution?

What legal solution? Unless you have the funds to hire a regional lawyer in China or wherever this may actually be, you have no way of even talking to them. Simply forget it. At best you can achieve a takedown of the website itself, but that won't stop them to open a new one five minutes later. It's a hopeless cause.

Mylenium

1 hour ago, Ankoku said:

@Sariel You may want to try this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/contact

It is a program on the BBC which deals with rogue companies, scams etc.

...and by the time they've done their research and put out any info, the company operates under a hundred different names and websites. Simply forget it. It's not even relevant beyond the AFOL scene, so nobody will go out on a limb for it.

Mylenium

Edited September 25, 2018 by Mylenium

[Sariel]

At least I can spread the word:

 

[Aleh]

Looks like a large piece of sh..t.. The only hope is that this is a like one-day site which will disappear soon..

It's impossible to reverse-engineer the whole car from photos.. What they are selling? Maybe just stealing plastic card numbers...

[MxWinters]

I have less than 30 people in my FB friends list, still, I have shared the link to the video above on my FB (I hope you don't mind). Sorry I can't do anything else.

[Sariel]

Thanks!

[doug72]

You could put it on the Lego Technic facebook page.

[Aleh]

7 minutes ago, Sariel said:

Thanks!

Oh, I did the same. Did not see the link before. Don't thank me - it's our responsibility and obligation!

1 minute ago, Doug72 said:

You could put it on the Lego Technic facebook page.

Could you share the link please?

[Sariel]

4 minutes ago, Doug72 said:

You could put it on the Lego Technic facebook page.

Only if I was its admin, I think.

[doug72]

12 minutes ago, Aleh said:

Oh, I did the same. Did not see the link before. Don't thank me - it's our responsibility and obligation!

Could you share the link please?

https://m.facebook.com/LEGOTechnic/

[Itaria No Shintaku]

I posted a video on my LEGO italian vlog to warn all users.

[Ankoku]

7 hours ago, Mylenium said:

...and by the time they've done their research and put out any info, the company operates under a hundred different names and websites. Simply forget it. It's not even relevant beyond the AFOL scene, so nobody will go out on a limb for it.

Not entirely true. This company has been around for 10+ years and at least some of it is UK based, since they are posting stuff from within the UK and are registered here. Also, finding their endless torrent of fake sites is easy, so you don't have to worry about the most recent ones already being shut down.

@Sariel Another one to consider is this:

https://www.facebook.com/fakebritaintv/

The guy in the banner image is actually from BBC's Watchdog, but this particular show is more specific in nature, purely dealing with fake and scam companies (Watchdog often dealt with big legit companies and their, on occasions, dubious practises).
Also, it provides an email rather than online form for contacting them.

[Ankoku]

Amusingly, said company is an issue within the Wig community. That seems to be the origin of this particular company.

https://wigs-scam-alert.com/chinese-rip-off-web-sites/

[Ankoku]

There is also:

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud

[Mylenium]

1 hour ago, Ankoku said:

Not entirely true. This company has been around for 10+ years and at least some of it is UK based, since they are posting stuff from within the UK and are registered here. Also, finding their endless torrent of fake sites is easy, so you don't have to worry about the most recent ones already being shut down.

You're missing the point. Journalism requires due diligence and so does legal stuff. Nobody is going to put any info on a public site without the necessary background checks. That's all I'm saying. Beyond that I don't think there's much point to it, anyway. Such companies are slippery as fresh eels and will always find ways to keep continuing their shady business practices.

Mylenium

[Ankoku]

Just now, Mylenium said:

You're missing the point. Journalism requires due diligence and so does legal stuff.

I don't see where the issue is. e.g. these are template sites, all claiming to have the same contact details, the domain registered by the same company. If one goes down, it doesn't matter as there are plenty identical sites to choose from. If you are doing investigative journalism, the number of sites just makes life easier and how quickly disappear tells a story.

The links I have suggested deal with just this type of shady company and their forever transient style of doing business.

There difference here, the hook from a journalism point of view, is that you not only have customer fraud, but you have them using other people's IP and it is one of those people who is making the complaint. If it was just another person who got scammed, that isn't that interesting. When it is a IP owner who is in the mix as well, it makes it far more of a story.

[MxWinters]

9 hours ago, Sariel said:

Thanks!

 

9 hours ago, Aleh said:

 Don't thank me - it's our responsibility and obligation!

Totally agree, no thanks needed.

[Meatman]

I wonder if these people were associated with the person who bid and won the car that you were selling on Ebay? Either that or they seen the amount and figured that it was a good time to jump in and use it to scam. It could be worth it to someone to pay a high price for a one off piece and then mass produce it.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Meatman

[KD123]

I think if they were able to reverse engineer your models they could have taken their own photos vs use the ones you took.  As such I appreciate the collective efforts to try to prevent others from getting scammed.

 

[Ankoku]

They stole the images, they didn't reverse engineer anything, neither were they the ones to buy the eBay Sariel car auction.

If you look at their other sites, non-LEGO related, they just takes images from anywhere of anything and stick them on their site at random prices. The idea is to get someone to buy it and then never actually ship them anything at all or as people have mentioned, the equivalent of a potato. That is how the scam works. All they need is for the images and prices to be temping enough for people to enter their creditcard details. Be it wigs, LEGO, motorcycle helmets or anything else.

One person who got ripped off by them, had bought 11 items off them. O_o;

[Sariel]

4 hours ago, Ankoku said:

They stole the images, they didn't reverse engineer anything, neither were they the ones to buy the eBay Sariel car auction.

That's 100% certain, since the guy who bought the car refused to pay.

[Lucio Switch]

22 hours ago, Sariel said:

Only if I was its admin, I think.

No, you should not be the admin...anyway, shared for you!

[Bartybum]

3 hours ago, Sariel said:

That's 100% certain, since the guy who bought the car refused to pay.

Omg storytime pls. Did he really try jib you??

[Aleh]

10 hours ago, KD123 said:

I think if they were able to reverse engineer your models they could have taken their own photos vs use the ones you took.  As such I appreciate the collective efforts to try to prevent others from getting scammed.

 

Nothing to discuss even. Such sites sell air and nothing more. My last job was with such fraud operations and chargebacks. And I remember cases whan people bought any stuff at such sites and got nothing.

[MattL600]

On 9/26/2018 at 4:30 PM, Sariel said:

That's 100% certain, since the guy who bought the car refused to pay.

Who actually won?