This story is not mine, it was posted on my local bikers forum, in my native tongue. I just thought such information is important to share, because it could end up warning someone else, to make the mistake.
There was an ad on autoscaut24, for a sale of KTM 690, 2016, low mileage, pictures show good condition. Bike is\was located in Germany. After a little letter exchange and few calls, the seller (middle aged woman) seemed to be trustworthy, no red flags came up. According to their story, they moved from Germany to Denmark, the bike belongs to her son, who decided not to bring it with, and bike was handed to a transit company, who specializes on vehicles. She offered either to fly to Germany, to pick the bike up, or she would pay the transit company to deliver the bike to Estonia, if he pays for the bike in advance.
From there on, the communication continued with the transit company called CMS-Transport ApS, or so he thought. Still no red flags. Company has existed since 2006, no debts, no bad rep, has a presentable web page. They exchanged document copies, he also received pictures of vehicles documents, everything seemed in order. There was a contract made, including clauses about refund and return of the bike, in case of any problems, and he made a payment of 6000 EUR.
The payment was made to an UK account, for the same company name. First thing that looked a bit odd, but with international transit companies not really that unusual. After that, bike was supposed to arrive in a week. He even received a tracking link. A week later, no bike. Tracking page seems confusing, if the bike left Germany or not. No one answers phones anymore.
After some research it turns out, the company exists, but they do not work with vehicles. They did not know that anyone has put up a website on their name, to their knowledge they have no presence on the web. Police of Estonia and Denmark have been informed, but who knows if they will ever be able to do anything. Bank has started investigation and tracking of the funds, but will they be able to stop the scammers to withdraw the funds is not known yet. Most likely the money has been bounced forward, through several countries already.
There was an ad on autoscaut24, for a sale of KTM 690, 2016, low mileage, pictures show good condition. Bike is\was located in Germany. After a little letter exchange and few calls, the seller (middle aged woman) seemed to be trustworthy, no red flags came up. According to their story, they moved from Germany to Denmark, the bike belongs to her son, who decided not to bring it with, and bike was handed to a transit company, who specializes on vehicles. She offered either to fly to Germany, to pick the bike up, or she would pay the transit company to deliver the bike to Estonia, if he pays for the bike in advance.
From there on, the communication continued with the transit company called CMS-Transport ApS, or so he thought. Still no red flags. Company has existed since 2006, no debts, no bad rep, has a presentable web page. They exchanged document copies, he also received pictures of vehicles documents, everything seemed in order. There was a contract made, including clauses about refund and return of the bike, in case of any problems, and he made a payment of 6000 EUR.
The payment was made to an UK account, for the same company name. First thing that looked a bit odd, but with international transit companies not really that unusual. After that, bike was supposed to arrive in a week. He even received a tracking link. A week later, no bike. Tracking page seems confusing, if the bike left Germany or not. No one answers phones anymore.
After some research it turns out, the company exists, but they do not work with vehicles. They did not know that anyone has put up a website on their name, to their knowledge they have no presence on the web. Police of Estonia and Denmark have been informed, but who knows if they will ever be able to do anything. Bank has started investigation and tracking of the funds, but will they be able to stop the scammers to withdraw the funds is not known yet. Most likely the money has been bounced forward, through several countries already.
