The fraudsters have set up a number of dummy websites which mimic that of a genuine company, offering construction equipment and agricultural machinery for sale at low prices.
The websites contain the name and address of the genuine company, but provide false telephone numbers and email addresses.
Customers are supplied with professional-looking invoices, copies of import/export certificates and shipping documentation, all of which are fake.
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The equipment is never shipped, and customers are left finding their money has been transferred through various different bank accounts and is virtually untraceable.
Trading Standards Team Leader, Linda Hill said: "The fake websites include false statements about the identity of the company involved. The people behind this have absolutely no connection with the genuine company, but have stolen their identity and have set up fake websites in order to defraud customers out of very large sums of money.
"We are working closely with the Police on this. The fake websites are hosted by legitimate internet service providers in Canada and the USA, but they have been created and registered using false details. They operate by means of mis-spellings and minor variations in the name of the genuine company. We are doing our best to shut down these fake websites, but almost as soon as we get one taken down, another one springs up with yet another variation in the spelling of the domain name."
The advice from Trading Standards is to never allow yourself to be rushed or pressurised into completing a transaction, and to be extra wary if quoted exceptionally low prices for construction equipment.
(IT)
