Advice

What do you think about this company? Is it fake?
Thanks.

http://equipment-group-ltd.com/index.php?page=5

[AlanJones]

It's a definite fake

H.E. EQUIPMENT GROUP LTD
Whitewall Road
Strood
Kent
ME2 4DZ
United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 203 289 2120
Fax: +44 203 006 8595

The company that they claim to be doesn't appear to exist on the Companies House Register. They are using London phone numbers, but aren't located in London and use a Gmail email address.

Then there is the domain registration

Creation Date: 03-oct-2015
Expiration Date: 03-oct-2016

Registrant Name: Privacy protection service - whoisproxy.ru
Registrant Organization: Privacy protection service - whoisproxy.ru

Registered anonymously a couple of weeks ago, by someone using Russian registrars and hosts.

They're impersonating a company with a similar name at that address that is quite genuine but they are a plant hire company that has its own website, a different phone number and an email address working off its website domain.

I won't mention its name as this scam is nothing to do with them. It's quite common for scammers to do this as it creates confusion and, if you went to collect any machinery you had bought, you'd feel certain that you had been dealing with them. By the time you had worked out what had happened the scammer would have transferred your money away to where you couldn't get it back.

Thanks mates.

A quick test to see if the company needs more investigation is to look through the photos and compare what's in the background. If they all have different backgrounds - different buildings, factories, domestic buildings, stock yards and fields there's something that needs checking up.

The scammer has a dilemma. If he uses only photos from one company it is much easier to spot where the photos have been taken from but, if he uses a selection of photos from all over the internet, it doesn't look right.

In either case it doesn't take long to uncover the scammer. The scammer has also made other mistakes and particularly with regard to being very sparse with information about payment, finance, VAT, transport and lack of their company registration details. Buying a large piece of machinery is not like buying a bag of crisps and often the sellers, if they are a large company, will make as much if not more, from finance deals. They would always show the options on their website.