A More Sinister Bait & Switch
Anyone who has tried to buy photographic equipment online is familiar with “bait & switch”, understood as a scheme where a webstore lure you with a very low initial price – then contacts you by phone to sell you a lot of extra junk at inflated prices.
Uk-based(?) webstore DexDigital.co.uk (gone, but resurrected as MobiTeh.co.uk, EastElectronics.co.uk, Gonex.co.uk, AnviDirect.co.uk, cxMusic.co.uk, wMusic.co.uk, DJOnLineStore.co.uk, Aigars.co.uk, OrvisInc.co.uk, StarkDigital.co.uk, DrumTeh.co.uk, Nexton.co.uk, wxComputers.com, DigiEquip.co.uk, DirectInc.co.uk, Xdigi.co.uk, DigitalSys.co.uk, Inteh.co.uk, PactElect.co.uk, PCDale.co.uk, DigitalDale.co.uk, wLogic.co.uk, CarsAudio.co.uk, WizMusic.co.uk, Instrum.co.uk, Euden.co.uk, Axcor.co.uk, Calemet.co.uk and PCdigital.eu) has given this concept a new, and far more sinister, twist. Read on to learn how the scam works.
Dexdigital.co.uk lists their address as “London Business Center, 203 Edgware Road #03-32, W2 1ES – UK”. There is no “London Business Centre”, nor a company named anything like “DexDigital”, at that address – only a reputable company that has been supplying “ironmongery, bathroom and electrical accessories” for years.
If you are an overseas buyer, the only payment option offered by DexDigital.co.uk and its successors are Western Union wire transfer and direct debit. Nothing new here: You transfer your money to them, they steal it.
But if you are an UK-resident, they say you can pay by debit or credit card. And indeed, if you indicate that you want to pay by card, you are taken to a “Secure Payment Page”, which is running a secure protocol as indicated by the padlock symbol. The secure payment page is part of an e-business solution operated by WorldPay – which is a subsidiary of the reputable Bank of Scotland (click on image to see whole page):
As it turns out, bad design on WorldPay’s part (and/or lax security at a website operated by a legitimate WorldPay merchant) has allowed the fraudulent webside to “hijack” the merchant’s secure payment page. If you go through the motions of completing payment, the transaction will initially go through, but then be caught by WorldPay and recognized as freudulent, which will lead to reversal of the transaction (after some time).
As far as I am able to tell, the thieves are not able to use WorldPay/credit card route to steal any money. However, by having a real and working credit card checkout page as “part of” their otherwise very fake web shop, they are able to appear to the casual visitor as to be a “real” webshop recognized by credit card companies (as opposed to the obvious fake sites that “only” accept payment via Western Union).
For some general advice on how to spot online fraud, please see my page on web scams.
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August 15th, 2006 at 11:41
Thank you very much for this info on Dexdigital. I was so close to buying a Canon EOS 20D on the 15 Aug 2006 from them but baulked a bit at using Western Union and having to send the money to Dexdigital’s “salesperson”. Also I didn’t want to pay Western Union their charges.
I will now be buying my camera in Australia. I too was attracted by the lower prices and wondered why no one else seemed to be able to match them. Once again thanks for the info you saved me a lot of money and heartache.
August 23rd, 2006 at 21:00
Hello, I have already send them the money by Western Union. Now I realize that I have just lost my money. I want to know if there is a slight posibility to recover the money and what do I have to do to track them. The site Dexdigital does not exist anymore and I discovered a new site that looks exactly like Dex: mobiteh.co.uk.
August 25th, 2006 at 13:11
You can try contacting Western Union to stop the transfer. But if the money is already collected, I think there is very little you can do beside reporting it the police.
Thanks for the head’s up on mobiteh.co.uk. I agree – it looks like the same site, even down to the fake “live” cams.
August 28th, 2006 at 10:47
Hi Gisle, didn’t know you had a blog too – but should of course have thought so:-)
Thanks for sharing this bad experience – and in every necessary details – so that others can avoid it. Looking forward to the updates too!
Have a great week ahead:-)
September 11th, 2006 at 17:46
Thanks a lot for this blog. I just placed an order for Canon EOS 350D on eastelectronics.co.uk, but will definetly not do the wire transfer now :-). Thanks again.
September 11th, 2006 at 19:59
Thank you for blogging this, you just saved me 1969$…. Thank you very much!!!!
September 12th, 2006 at 22:31
I tried to call them few times and he only thing I heard was: ‘All operators are busy at the moment. Please call us later’. I sent them five emails and I have never received any answer.
I ordered gps tom tom, they took preauthorisation from my debit card and hold my money for few days. No-one contacted me.
September 13th, 2006 at 22:43
[This correspondance with the Worldpay Customer Relations and Service Departments was posted on this site by a reader. It has been slightly edited for clearity, and I've removed some proper names. Edits are indicated with square brackets. (- Admin).]
September 15th, 2006 at 02:39
Hello. Thank you for posting this information. Unfortunately I’ve only made a search on Google now to confirm that I’ve been scammed by Eastelectronics.co.uk. I live in Portugal. What are the legal authorities to whom I should report? Local police? Any European Union organization?
September 22nd, 2006 at 01:49
Thanks for setting up this post. I was tempted to try to get scammed but decided to do a search on the company and hey presto.
I think that companies like WORLDPAY and WESTERN UNION should have a black list of these types of crooks and REFUSE to accept any transaction from people trying to give them money. If this is legally heavy to do I think that at least these companies have a moral obligation when processing the transaction to clearly state that ‘A number of Complaints have been received regarding this Payee’
On the other hand why should they. Western Union and co have got their money plus a hefty commission so why bother – bad bussiness is business for them.
October 5th, 2006 at 17:29
Hi people!
I made an order through this www.mobiteh.co.uk
I sent them 550 EUROS by Western Union and nobody answers the email.
I made order on September 6.
I think I got scammed by them. But how to recover?????
I lost a lot of funds. :(
I don’t know where to find help or something like this.
October 6th, 2006 at 03:39
Mobiteh.co.uk is now going by another fake site called “Gonex.co.uk”.
My uncle was scammed by Mobiteh and as I was researching for “mobiteh fraud” this article came up as well as their new site. The original site where my uncle supposedly purchased a camera for 400 euros and paid via western union because he was in Spain turns out to be no longer searchable.
BUYER BEWARE of this new site “gonex.co.uk” and please spread the word!
October 6th, 2006 at 14:09
I was about to buy a laptop through eastelectronics.co.uk, when I decided to look at their terms and conditions – http://eastelectronics.co.uk/terms_and_conditions.html – the page purports to claim that there is no contract between the buyer and eastelectronics.co.uk, this is contrary to English law and unenforcable, but may be sufficient to convince anyone scammed that they have no rights.
Nevertheless, I decided to phone them on 0208-343-6237 – long wait and no answer.
I may well call in at 86 Beaufort Street, London, SW3 6BU and see what’s there.
I am grateful to your page and should always remember, “If it is too good to be true, it probably is.”
October 6th, 2006 at 02:19
Hi Vitalie,
I am sorry to hear about your lost money.
You should report the perpetrator to the local police and/or cybercrime authorities in your country. For the US, this is the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
If you know how to trace an IP-address, you should also report perpetrators to their ISP hosting company and Internet Registrar.
You should also contact Western Union and file a formal complaint.
I don’t like to be the bringer of bad news, but with this type of scam, the chances of recovering lost funds are slim.
October 8th, 2006 at 02:30
Hello people!
I am again Vitalie, the defrauded customer who paid to this damned Mobiteh I thought is reputable. But now I see, it’s a real scam and site full of thiefs who only steal funds. I already contacted local police and CCCEC (CENTER ON THE FIGHT WITH THE ECONOMIC CRIMES AND THE CORRUPTION OF REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA).
But I have an ask to you people there a favour in the name of God Allmighty. I’d like to ask you if someone could help me with some money (with return of course).
I lost 560 EUROS with Mobiteh. I’d like to ask you if you could help me. I guarantee I will pay you back only through traceabled payment method where payment is easy traceable and secured.
I can provide to you my working and home address and you can send as verification a letter with a special PIN code or something like that and needs signature uppon mail receival.
I am available on ICQ, Yahoo MSN, MSN Messenger, Skype. I have also webcam and I can provide to you info who I am and with who you deal with.
If someone is willing to help me (with repayment of course), may contact me anytime at:
Please people, I beg you in the name of God: Help me!!!!!
I am very discouraged now. :(
I need your help people!
October 9th, 2006 at 11:49
Hi all,
I’ve seen your warnings a little too late. I sent a money transfer for an lcd (1200$) for 3 weeks now and nothing has arrived. I did this at eastelectronics.co.uk. Can anybody tell me if there’s anything I can do to have my money back?
Thanks.
October 9th, 2006 at 17:11
www.anvidirect.co.uk
www.cxmusic.co.uk
Similar sites!!!!!!
October 9th, 2006 at 19:23
Thanks, TommoUK. I’ve added those to the list.
October 6th, 2006 at 14:02
I am sorry to hear about your uncle’s money being stolen.
Thanks for the head’s up on Gonex. I’ve added them to the list.
October 11th, 2006 at 15:22
God, what a sigh of relief!! I was about to place an order for a laptop, two expensive canon lenses and an EOS 350d from Mobiteh. Just to be sure I would get quality products, I sent in e-Mail to ask. No reply. I then asked myself how come these guys could be sooooooo cheap. Now I have the answer. Their website does not longer exist. You’ve saved me a fortune, just by informing me that a handful of such sites exist in the UK. Thanks. Jerry.
October 12th, 2006 at 00:18
My pleasure. It looks like the Mobiteh and Gonex sites are now offline… thank goodness. But I guess those fraudsters will be designing new websites to replace them…. so keep you eyes open folks.
October 13th, 2006 at 16:04
Anvidirect is no longer up either, paid £127 for a DVD carousell through Worldpay. I await my next credit card bill in the hope that the funds cannot be collected as you say and have been credited back to my account.
October 15th, 2006 at 20:43
Eastelectronics offline too at this time. Only cxmusic left online… But unless these scumbags have been arrested then keep you eyes open for new websites, probably with the old pictures and webcam…cos the scumbags seem a bit stupid like that !!!!
October 20th, 2006 at 05:17
I cannot believe that that these crooks who operated companies names like “Dexdigital” and ripped me off by AUS $1835 are still in business, looking for new victims by constantly changing their company names, they adopted the same website as before, now trading as “AIGARS.CO.UK”. The local enforcements must be total gutless wonders.
Anyone who robs a store of any kind would find themselves behind bars. Not these parasites. Seems all you have to do is to find more innocent victims, and keep relocating and recloning yourself under a different name and keep ripping people off.
They seem to thrive by constantly collecting money, and no chance of ever seeing your order being processed. I was exused by their server being down and data been lost, and they would get back to me. I’m still waiting. They must pay a small fee for their webcams presence of some South Korean warehouse being monitored, which looks so legite, as do their office counterparts, who never answer your call.
Why for heavens sake can’t these parasites be removed and put out to pastures.
What is wrong with our laws, toothless tigers they are, anyone who keeps registering a company with fraudulent background should be kept offside from the law makers in charge. I’ll be surprised if any of these parasites pay any taxes, and probably sunning themselfes in the Caribbean Seas.
I find myself in the helpless position of not knowing who to turn to, in having my case heard. It would be a great story for the media. There is not enough protection being offered as it stands to innocent consumers, when they blatanly advertise how much customer support they offer, for a smooth transaction.
These companys have a lot to answer, if they mean legitimate business. I can only say “BEWARE” of ever dealing with these sort of companys. They have nothing on offer, a glossy website. I’m surprised the manufacturers stand behind these companys, they obviously don’t carry any stock what so ever, in the meantime they collect another millions. The complaints pile up, they relocate and start all over again. And get away with it.
There is definitely a big problem with the UK law establishment as it stands, to prevent these illegal practises happening in the first place. They should be wound up permanetely.
October 20th, 2006 at 14:19
Helmut, I am sorry to hear about your loss.
However I think you are mistaken about how these crooks operate. Their webshop is not a real company that has registered with the authorities or are backed by the manufacturers whose goods they pretend to sell. All there is, is a website that has been registered in the name of some poor victim of identity theft. The product images, the descriptions, the “testimonials” from satisfied customers, the credit card and VeriSign logos, the “live” video webcams – all these things are just graphical elements they’ve stolen from some other website. The general layout, testimonials, product images and other content seems to be ripped off from Tiger Direct, while the video loops are stolen from Expansys. Both Tiger Direct and Expansys are legitimate sites, but when you put stuff on the web, you can’t stop someone from copying it and using it on their own site.
You deride the “local enforcements” and “UK law establishment” for not arresting these thieves. But the people that run the bogus webshops are probably not located in London – not even in the UK. You can register a “.co.uk” domain from anywhere in the world over the web, and their London “addresses” has always been the premises of some other company.
The money you sent to pay for your camera is picked up by a “mule” – some poor local recruited through spam mail as the “accountant” or “representative” of some legitimate sounding offshore business. These “mules” pick up the money from Western Union, take 5 % off as their fee, and transfer the rest to somewhere a lot more shady than London, like Lagos, Nigeria or Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania where it reaches the hands of the gangsters behind all this. The “mules” may occasionally be arrested and charged with money laundering, but they don’t know who they are working for, so they can’t help the police even if they wanted to. And arresting the “mules” do not stop the fraud, as there seem to be an endless number of people willing to sign up for these jobs. Some of them might not even realize they are involved in illegal money laundering before the police knocks on their door.
That is why it is so difficult for the authorities to catch this type of operators. They use unregistered cellphones and work out of Internet cafes. To pay for services such as domain registration and advertising, they use stolen credit cards and stolen identities, so the police can’t just follow the money. They can be caught, but that requires a lot of tracking of IP-addresses, surveillance and a well-coordinated international sting operation. I hope the police at one point will muster the resources to do that, but I am not too hopeful.
At one point in the future, enough people will understand that paying for goods over the Internet with Western Union or E-gold is not a very good idea, and this scam will no longer work. But in the meantime, there is little we can do except publish warnings on the net.
October 24th, 2006 at 21:08
Bunch of bastards. The site should be pushed offline. And those guys should be put in jail. Luckily I searched in Google and found them here. Thanks guys!
October 24th, 2006 at 23:32
Helmut… I think it was said further up this thread, but the webcam image of their “South Korea Warehouse” is actually a live webcam belonging to a legitimate company in Manchester UK, and is actually their warehouse in Manchester.
The legitimate company have been told about the “mis-use” of their webcam feeds, and it would appear that they have decided not to remove the webcam feeds from their own website… which I find a strange decision as their name is starting to become associated with the scammers for all the wrong reasons.
Just like previous scam websites, the Aigars website is illegally using various images, company logos, etc.
I wasnt aware of this new(?) site until your post. So if nothing else, take a little comfort that you have hopefully save others from losing money to these scam scum, espcially as we near Christmas where folk will be looking for bargains!
October 26th, 2006 at 16:36
Thanks so much for publishing this. I just fell over a site named “aigars.inc”, where they offer electronics for incredible prices. I can imagine that there are many people out there who think these prices are real.
Thanks again! Martin
October 27th, 2006 at 08:23
Thanks a lot for this blog.
I found aigars.co.uk via an Google Adsense ad on a website. The prices were too attractive for me to be real. So I used Google (sometimes also helpful!) to find people which made experience with these guys. And I found only this blog which explained my how this clever fraud works.
Thanks again and greetings from Germany!
October 27th, 2006 at 14:28
The ONLY reason that these scumbag parasites (including the ones on Ebay) exist are because people are DUMB enough to wire funds via an insecure method across the world!
They are sitting back and laughing at your greed.
Do you really think a genuine camera or electronic item can be that cheap? And legitimate? Thankfully some of you asked yourselves that question before wiring your money.
NEVER EVER EVER EVER (either to a shop or Ebay) – NEVER EVER pay by Western Union. You may as well toss your money out your window or give it to the local homeless person.
Until people who should know better (and though I feel sorry for you – that’s what you are) stop sending money to complete strangers they know nothing about, these sites and crimes will continue unabated.
You all must know how easy it is to set up a website, steal some product pics and put a stupid price on???? Can be done in 24 hours. Unless you know of the store – have independent ratings or recommendations just steer well clear!
If the store is legit the good vibes will be all over the net.
Hope you get your money back but I think there’s more chance of Kim Jong Il turning to capitalism….
October 28th, 2006 at 02:31
Thanks a million, man. I found Aigars.co.uk ten minutes ago by googling for a certain camera. I thought getting one for 2,200€ in my home country was a bargain and couldn’t believe I could actually order it online and save 900€ more. well, turns out I can’t. I’ve ordered stuff here and there using my credit card and sometimes COD, so it struck me as odd that I could only make a payment using some Western Union thing I’d never heard about.
Thank God I googled the site and found this blog. You guys actually saved me 1300€.
October 28th, 2006 at 17:21
It amazes me at how many gulible people are out there. Any place that is selling new electronics for 50% of what other retailers are charging have to be pulling some sort of scam. There is a lot of greed going on here, by both buyers and sell. Caveat emptor!
October 29th, 2006 at 15:47
Thanks for shearing your experiences with me, I was about to order a computer for about 600$ when I came over this site and found out that Aigars.co.uk was just a scam.
When I look at it now I can’t believe how stupid I was thinking that the prices could be so low. I even sent a couple of mails to them asking how the computer would work in Norway, and the answer I got back was that every thing would work fine. So they really got someone sitting there answering e-mails and the “live†cams made it even more convincing that this was a real site.
Greetings from Norway.
November 2nd, 2006 at 14:45
Take a look at this website. They are actually doing something to help. They write “complaint letters” to webhosts all over the world with evidence for fraud in order to get the sites pulled offline.
Main site: http://www.aa419.org
Forum: http://forum.aa419.org/index.php
They also have a database with over 10 000 fake banks, escrow companies and all there is between: http://db.aa419.org/fakebankslist.php
November 4th, 2006 at 14:41
Well, I’m 400 euro off from aigars.co.uk. When I found this site I called Western Union, but they told me that the money was picked up 2 hours ago. I’m desperate. Will inform the police here in Bulgaria, but… Will go to office of Western Union on monday. Will try to recover my money, but I haven’t hope for success. Why didn’t I find you guys a day ago? Isn’t there an international cyber police or something like that? If any of you can help, I’ll provide all the information that I have.
November 11th, 2006 at 22:03
Hi,
I’am starting up my own webbusiness and these scammers are mostly namely from Europe and giving a bad reputation to all legitimate webentrepeneurs. This is the payment information I received from aigars.co.uk. Now the site is down:
-----------------CLIP START------------------------------- When you make a payment to our bank you must quote the invoice number(s) you are paying as the unique reference. Our bank details are as follows: Name: Barclays Bank plc Address: 147 Holborn st. LONDON EC1N 2NU Account Name: J.Darkin Swift Code: BARCGB22 IBAN Code: GB48 BARC 2041 5030 9160 72 Payments can take 6 working days to reach our account, so please allow sufficient time for your wire transfer to be processed. You must pay all service charges and commissions that are incurred throughout the transaction. You must send a notification of your payment by email to sales@aigars.co.uk, advising us of the following: Date of Payment Amount Invoice Number(s) Account Number(s). If we do not receive this notification we cannot guarantee that your payment will be allocated correctly and your registration may be at risk. Please allow 6 working days for the payment to reach your account. If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to get back to me. --- Best regards, Helen Griffit Aigars Sales Department sales@aigars.co.uk -------clip end ---------So now we have solved one name and bank but I need some English fellow to help me with the local authorities. Please post contact information of english police cybercrime department and I will contact them first.
November 11th, 2006 at 22:27
Now I have found one instance where you can file an report:
http://www.ic3.gov/
November 24th, 2006 at 17:41
Please add wmusic.co.uk (was cxmusic.co.uk) – they use the same phraseology.
Just Google for “We offer a unique service of selling goods by retail for the producers wholesale prices.”
December 7th, 2006 at 13:49
To bad: Found this page too late. Lost 1080 Euros by paying for StarkDigital.co.uk for Camera Eos 20d and Laptop. Will never ever pay by Western. Does anybody know how to track the money or find this criminals? This was the mail i got:
December 7th, 2006 at 15:29
Michael,
if you have not done so already, you should contact your local police. Perhaps they can give you more advice.
As for tracking your money: Western Union has been required to maintain records of pay-outs, and this information can be obtained through the use of a subpoena or court order. The police should be able to get the required court order.
Also: Starkdigital.co.uk’s registrar is http://lowcostnames.co.uk, and StarkDigital.co.uk have been hosted by several stateside ISPs, most recently http://dwhs.net/ and http://yahoo.com/. They must have paid their registrar and ISPs for their services, so some paper trail must exist. Again: Your local police should be able to work with the UK and US police and extract financial records from LowCostNames, DWHS and Yahoo to determine who paid for those web sites.
Unfortunately, it is possible that all these trails only lead to various stolen identities.
December 11th, 2006 at 13:58
Thank you very much, I went to local Police thursday and was told, they’ll sent my record to a special Internet crime office. Tried to mail it to scotland yard and DWHS, too. Yet I haven´t heard anything since than. After 3 days now starkdigital.co.uk is online again, offering christmas specials!! – unbelievable.
December 11th, 2006 at 14:37
Yes, they’re online again. DWHS probably did terminate them as a result of complaints from yourself and others, but they’ve set up shop again with http://jhost.name/.
December 15th, 2006 at 13:23
Thank you very much. You just saved me 655 euros. I wanted to buy two lenses for my new canon and in my search I saw their page. The prices were a miracle. I did make the payment via western union and today I wanted to track my order and money, because they sent me an e-mail signed by a mike tomers that said they couldn’t find the money. I contacted my w.union agent and he told me that the money was there. I also tried to track the money through w.union in the page provided by their mail and i coudn’t find them either. Then i fortunately saw your page and blocked the money. I now have them in my pocket. Thank you again.
December 19th, 2006 at 23:27
Thanks to all you, guys. I have just saved 532,00 Euros (for a Nikon D80) after having read your comments.
I learned the lesson and will be much more careful in the future. Do not trust StarkDigital.co.uk !!!
Thank you again.
December 20th, 2006 at 17:19
I’ve informed Scotland Yard.
They contacted the hosting agent in Hong Kong.
Now the site is closed!
December 20th, 2006 at 18:38
Great work, John!
December 21st, 2006 at 15:52
Is this site digitalwonderworld.de a secure one?
December 22nd, 2006 at 01:32
Digital Wonder World (digitalwonderworld.de) appeared in 2004, when New York Camera (ny-camera.net) went bankrupt. According to WHOIS, both are owned/operated by the same individual: Gerold Weinmann. The defunct ny-camera.net website links to digitalwonderworld.de.
The WHOIS registration data for the site is genuine, the company accepts payment by regular credit card, secure checkout uses SSL, with a valid certificate issued to the store. I would say that unlike DexDigital.co.uk and the other online “stores” mentioned in the opening article of this thread, Digital Wonder World is not a fake webshop set up to steal money.
As for the ethics and trading practices of the store, there is not much to be found. On resellerratings.com, there is only a single (very dissatisfied) entry for both stores. (see: New York Camera and Digital Wonder World). Both ratings are from September 2004 and are written by the same individual, and the dissatisfaction seems to be related to the bankruptcy of NY Camera. A very long thread in the Canon forum at DPreview, started in October 2004, also discusses this bankruptcy.
December 22nd, 2006 at 16:59
Thank you, Gisle, for your information.
December 29th, 2006 at 03:49
Now Drumteh.co.uk
December 29th, 2006 at 11:27
Yes, same layout, but new “London” address. They’re hosted in Russia this time. Also, fake sound equipment store cxMusic.co.uk is resurrected as DJOnLineStore.co.uk.
Both sites have been running a lot of ads on Yahoo! Shopping since some time before Christmas. I’ve contacted the Yahoo! abuse department and requested that they do not run these ads, but they don’t think the honesty of their advertisers is Yahoo’s problem and continue to run them.
December 31st, 2006 at 15:47
I’ve seen ads for drumteh.co.uk in Google adwords, I’ve contacted them to remove the ads but I don’t know if they will. I also contacted VeriSign because they had a fake VeriSign logo. Maybe they did take some action, cause the website is down today.
January 4th, 2007 at 15:11
I see today that Drumteh is back online, I had sent in a query to sales email before christmas and then came across this forum – so glad I did. But I got a reply back today from some guy called Brian Rob. So beware seems like they are back online again
January 6th, 2007 at 01:45
Hi. I am from Slovakia. I wanted to buy Canon Eos 400D from !!!www.drumteh.co.uk!!!(fake site) I had click :) You saved me 400 euros. Thanks to all for this blog
January 9th, 2007 at 08:40
Hi, thanks all for the valuble information. You guys just saved us more than 2000 Euros.
Tharanga Wijethilake
January 10th, 2007 at 11:57
Hi, I made order on www.drumteh.co.uk on Monday. I sent money thru Western Union agent the day after but changed my mind and canceled the payment. Thanks God. I lost only $60 as a Western Union fee. But in the comparison with $1400 it is ridiculuos loss. Please be aware and NEVER pay to someone unknown thru Western Union. Even if the look like trustworthy company.
January 15th, 2007 at 16:29
Hello all, on 7th January 2007 I made an order for a laptop on DrumTeh.co.uk. I sent 302 pounds via Western Union plus 32 pounds fee. I phone this company, left a message, but no-one has contacted me back. For not doing more research I have been scammed out of these monies. It really pisses me off. Anyway, in the future one must be very beware of sites accepting monies via some sort of direct transfer to some one.
February 15th, 2007 at 09:23
I bought on 8th January 2007 a Canon EOS 30D in this fake site www.drumteh.co.uk, now the webpage have gone, I have lost 622 euros plus fee. I will report the Spanish police and British officials (this site is in the UK): The bastard I sent the money by Western Union was Kaspar Broks, 29 Warple Way, London, but I have no hope left about my money. I will be in contact with this forum.
March 6th, 2007 at 10:49
Hi. I’m from Poland. On Febr. 13 I bought on www.inteh.co.uk a laptop. I paid with Western Union to Mr. KASPAR BROKS, 29 WARPLE WAY, LONDON W3 ORX. Now the adress is : 7 Newington Causeway, London, SE1 6ED. They are criminals!!!!
They don’t answer phones and mails. I lost almost 500 euro!! Plese help me!!!!!!
May 2nd, 2007 at 15:28
anyone screwed by digitaldale?
May 9th, 2007 at 12:48
> Anyone screwed
Yes, someone called Linus – see 2007-03-31 in this post:
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/blog/?p=18#comments
May 22nd, 2007 at 18:51
I have been deceived by www.inteh.co.uk. On 29.03.07 I ordered a Canon EOS 400D and payed 416€ with Western Union. I never got anything from them. The name of the person to whom I sent the money was Anton Reiman. inteh.co.uk has a registered office at 7 Newington Causeway, London, SE1 6ED.
I found some links, check them out:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/ – this is the original website, the bastard copied
http://db.aa419.org/fakebanksview.php?key=12907 – this is a warning
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/2306/p1000752largege8.jpg – this is a picture from from the adress
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/3111/p1000754largeho2.jpg – 2. picture from adress
May 23rd, 2007 at 15:21
Hi,
many thanks for this fantastic website – you just saved me from throwing away $1500 USD on DJ equipment at www.euden.co.uk.
I hope these thieving pieces of shit burn in hell for what they have done to people!
Thanks again, you’re a lifesaver!!!!!!
May 24th, 2007 at 12:55
Thanks man…You just saved me and my friend about 3.000 Euros for a digital Cannon SLR & 2 Pioneer CD decks.
Nice one!
May 24th, 2007 at 21:47
Hi, be careful, these Romanians are now at www.axcor.co.uk
There should be more mutations soon, probably. I lost 500€ for laptop and my eyes were opened too late. But, well, I did this realizing the risk within I paid at Western Union. Now I had bigger problem, cos` my wife found out about it :) We have to be careful … next time.
May 24th, 2007 at 23:16
Thanks, Adam, for reporting their new site.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:56
god!!!! thanx a lot… good thing we saw this li’l early… my friend and i were too excited to place an order for a
Canon DSLR and a laptop at axcor.co.uk .. you guys save our U$1,000. thank you guys!!!
June 4th, 2007 at 22:46
Damn! I’m also a victim of axcor.co.uk. But I’ve found this site a week too late, I’ve sent the money by Western Union and now I have nothing. Does anyone know what I can do know? (The problem is that I’m even not from UK)
June 4th, 2007 at 23:07
Paranoid, you should report the fraud to your local police, who may be able to help you get records from Western Union. Don’t bother contacting the London police – the website axcor.co.uk is hosted by a server in Kuala Lumpur, and the operation is probably run from Romania. You may also want to read this – scroll down to the section titled “If you are bitten”.
June 4th, 2007 at 23:25
Hi people,
I’m portuguese. A few month a look for a new camera digital with the best price in the site WWW.axcor.co.uk.
Nevertheless I’m so happy to found all these oppinions and facts. What we together can do to stop this online shop?
Thanks for all your cooperations.
June 9th, 2007 at 11:12
ooo thanks, God i`ve found this site, i was to close to buy from euden.co.uk some dj stuff, but you now saved me from aprox 300$, thanks a lot
(romanian guy)
June 9th, 2007 at 11:14
Gisle —> NO ROMANIAN PEOPLE RUNS THIS SHIT!!!!! ONLY YOU AMERICANS THINK WE ARE SCAMMERS!!!!
June 9th, 2007 at 16:38
why do you think that the operation runs from Romania?
June 10th, 2007 at 12:36
wazzz and karmara,
we try to monitor the activities of these bandits. While they are quite clever in hiding their identities, IP-addresses can be traced and computer use can be monitored. Too many of these traces lead to Romania, to Râmnicu Vâlcea in fact, for it to be a coincidence.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:05
Hi,
It seems that these thiefs are online!
http://www.euden.co.uk/info.php
June 11th, 2007 at 11:35
Domain name: euden.co.uk
Registrant: euden
Registrant type: Non-UK Individual
Registrant’s address: 260 Madison Avenue, 1, New York, NY, 10016, US
Registrar: eNom, Inc. [Tag = ENOM]
URL: http://www.enom.com
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 01-Mar-2007
Renewal date: 01-Mar-2009
Last updated: 10-May-2007
Registration status: Registered until renewal date.
Name servers: ns1.esecuren.com, ns2.esecuren.com
WHOIS lookup made at 10:27:30 11-Jun-2007
IP Address: 203.223.158.51
IP Location: MY (MALAYSIA)
June 13th, 2007 at 00:14
Thanks, God, I have found this site. Thanks you guys, I save money, time and nerves. Check this out, i believe it’s the same fraud. – http://www.axcor.co.uk/index.php
June 13th, 2007 at 08:12
Axcor.co.uk is indeed the same fraud. It was reported by Adam om May 24th 2007.
June 14th, 2007 at 14:35
And another sucker has been caught by AXCOR. I lost EUROS 1,100. I notice from all the postings that the form they send with banking details is the same used in 36 above. The nameservers are also the same. One is never too old to learn, but my savings are now gone.
June 26th, 2007 at 21:11
Thanksa a lot!!! I was so close to go tomorrow to Western Union to make a payment for one Canon 400d! thank you again!
June 26th, 2007 at 21:13
I forgot to mention that the site was: http://www.axcor.co.uk
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:34
please be so kind and tell me if axcor.co.uk is a safe and genuine site because i want tobuy a camera Nikon D40 and its a lot cheaper than the orther site and prices so i am woried.
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:51
HI
I have same problem – want to buy a Canon EOS 400D. But I always send an Email with a few questions and then I wait for an answer. If the email never come, I will not buy from them. Just a tip.
July 3rd, 2007 at 14:03
Mikkel, thank you for the tip – but what do you do if they answer your email? Some of these scammers are prompt answering email. They will typically tell you that the camera is in stock, and so on. But – that does not mean that that they will send you that EOS 400D after you’ve sent them your money.
July 3rd, 2007 at 19:28
At the same Axcor website I saw a lens for my Canon EOS350D and it was MUCH cheaper than in other shops (€195 iso €350) so I thought, what the hack! I ordered the lens and registered myself at Western Union. After the registration I got an email from WU with the request to call them at daytime to make the payment definite. Today I called and the person at WU asked me if I wanted to pay to a friend or a webshop. After I told him that it was a webshop and gave him the URL, he warned me that I will get screwed I’m going to pay at Axcor. So I didn’t and it saved me €195 (lens) + €58 (DHL) + €20,50 (WU) = €273,50!!!
I hope this warning will save you money!
July 7th, 2007 at 14:15
OMG!!!! THANK U SOOOO MUCH!!! I wanted to buy from axcor.co.uk! for above €720! U saved my life!!! Thank u sooo much!
July 14th, 2007 at 07:49
I saw your site too late, I am awake axcor only fallen and lost in 720 €.
I also think that I will not get back my money.
I hope other users are cleverer and these site read before they buy.
Today one of the websites of axcor no more could call.
July 16th, 2007 at 17:27
Merci beaucoup pour cette information, j’étais entrain de faire l’achat de matériel informatique pour une somme de 1800 euro et j’ai finalement eu beaucoup de chance car n’étant pas d’Angleterre, ma carte de credit n’était pas valable, après quoi j’ai voulu payer par banque mais me suis quand même mis à chercher des informations sur le site Axcor pour essayer de trouver des expériences vécu par d’anciens clients et je suis tomber sur votre site.
Merci mille fois !
Maurizio
August 1st, 2007 at 16:57
I got screwed aswell, but i did my money transfer through swift transfer, possibility of getting my money is 50-50 because i did a recall on the transfer the next day. so far i havent read of anybody getting there money back, will let you know how i get on. the site was AXCOR(THIEFS).
August 15th, 2007 at 12:21
So, axcor is offline now. Maybe they got enough money now and stop der f***ing business! I went to the police but I dont really think that I will see my money again one day. Hope the stop this shit!
August 18th, 2007 at 13:01
Hi all! Even if I am romanian, I allmost bought a D80 from axcor.co.uk … but…these days I saw that the site isn’t working anymore…so I did some google search just to find this. Hope that this people will be catched..and even will try to trace them..so if anyone has some IP, I will try to see with the internet provider if no one else did so. Thank you so much for this page!
December 23rd, 2008 at 13:46
Hi guys!
Is very nasty when someone steal hard worked money.
Anyway, be carefull when you make orders online, check digital certificates and if the webshop has PayPal or similar payment method.
You can safely pay via MoneyBookers as well, 2Checkout, NoChex, Alertpay.
Never send cash via Western Union or MoneyGram! Those companies are intended for personal usage, not paying for business.
In Moldova, my homecountry, is against the law for a firm or legal entity to accept money via WU or MG.
Both merchant and individual might prosecuted by the police.
February 13th, 2009 at 23:46
Well the latest incarnation seems to focus on DJ gear and mobile phones. Base out of South Africa and/or Mauritius. As many people above I found this blog too late. Please be very careful – you will find that the prices are not so unbelievable, they even do things like tell you certain models are out of stock to seem more genuine..
I have documented my story on http://www.macontoast.com/2009/02/clever-con-going-on.html
February 27th, 2009 at 01:31
After a little while away, the scammers are back as holater.co.uk, syndeck.com and mundodvd.com. The staff photos and the “testimonials” are still there. I even got a reference back to Tiger on one of the random testimonials.
February 27th, 2009 at 01:34
OOPS! Apologies, Mundodvd was just quoting their text.
>blush<