AG Automobile - scam or not?

If you have been defrauded, or suspect some fraud, that is NOT escrow related, then please air your comments here. The more that's here, the more people can be informed.

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AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby okidan » Sun Jun 21, 2009 2:47 am

Hello!

What a great resource you have here! Thank you for maintaining such a valuable website!

My name is Oki, and I'm about to become a customer of AG Automobile Ltd. from Miami, FL. Their website is http://www.agautoexport.com. Used cars that they offer are very cheap (first reason to suspect), and they offer the possiblity of 25% initial deposit. I live in Asia, and they said, that they ship their cars through APX Global MAX to port city Poti, in Georgia. Could you please help us decide, whether it is scam or not?

Another reason for suspicion is that there is no information about AG Automobile on the internet whatsoever. No customer reviews, nothing at all! Except they have a page on mobile.de: http://home.mobile.de/AGAUTOMOBILEINTERNATIONAL

I have talked to their customer service representative through Skype and he seemed like a nice guy, and sent me their Florida Department of Motor Vehicles registration license. But people say, that it can't a be a proof that they are legit and that they are not trying to con people out of their money. We are actually going to pay them through direct wire transfer on Monday. Please, help us figure this out! So that we could catch the cargo ship if they are legit.

They are not listed on the famous american BBB.org directory. They are not listed on Miami Car Dealers Directory either. That's frightening as well.

But on the other hand, they have hundreds of photos of their cars. The VIN number of the Lexus that I'm trying to buy from them really decoded to a Lexus. Though I couldn't purchase the report on autocheck.com, they wouldn't accept my credit card for some reason.

I can share the documents and the Florida State Motor Vehicle Department license with anyone through email or pm. Just drop a line here, if you want to take a look.

Your help is appreciated very much!

My best wishes,
Okidan
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby lightfair » Sun Jun 21, 2009 9:21 am

Okidan;

thanks for dropping by. Obviously you have done some research already.

This is not one of the typical "escrow fraud" cases we're usually dealing with. So it's a bit more complicated and I urge you to continue the research and verify my findings for yourself. You need to make the decision in the end.

The site looks very legit on the surface; there is extensive contact information. However there are certain things that don't exactly match.

- The company is listed as a "Ltd.". This is a UK form of incorporation; and there is some mentioning of "offshore banking services and international incorporation"; and you can operate a "Ltd." outside the UK. However there is no UK address to be found which as far as I know is a legal requirement. I may be wrong about this.

- The domain was registered very recently, in late May. However it was registered for 5 years in a row - most of our usualy cases register for just a single year.

Now for the more interesting part. As you said they have hundreds of photos of their cars. Or do they?
The first thing I noticed was that the photos were not taken at the same locations. A large number were, but quite a number of them were not. There's even snow on one photo! In Miami?
So I went through the BMW section with a fine comb. There is one 2008 BMW X6 were the photo clearly reads "BMW of Ridgefield". The description reads "***** IN STOCK AT OUR RIDGEFIELD PARTNER *** AVAILABLE FOR SHIPPING IN 7 DAYS ON ORDER *****".

"BMW of Ridgefield" has an own website: http://www.bmwofridgefield.com (and they sure look like a very legit company). So perhaps it is a good idea to contact them and inquire if they really are the partner of "AG Automobile" and if this car is indeed available for that price? They should know about this, shouldn't they? They don't list that particular car on their website (unless I overlooked it somehow).

Some of the cars are marked as "in stock at our .... partner" as above, but not all are.
There is a 2008 BMW X5 4.8i SUV for $32,700, including a large number of photos (Stock# 15716). My research investigates that this car was located at a car dealer in Huntsville, Alabama. However there it had a price tag of $52,998...
When doing a Google search for "2008 BMW X5 4.8i" huntsville "university Dr" (copy all this to your browser, including the quotes) you should get at least two hits, one from autos.al.com and one from autos.yahoo.com (they are ads for the same car). However the ads have expired already (presumably because the car has sold?); but there's that peculiar thing called Google cache:
http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:dgmr_l-sE-QJ:autos.al.com/detail/262950564/used/bmw_x5_2008+%222008+BMW+X5%22+huntsville+%22university+Dr%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=safari

(I hope this works).

Personally I find this highly suspicious. You can call this particular dealer as well; perhaps he can tell you if that car was sold to AG Automobile or if he still has it.

Well, that's what I have found so far. Please keep us updated of your own findings.

Best regards,

lightfair
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby okidan » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:41 am

Thank you very much for your reply, lightfair! I appreciate it veru much!

I will try to contact http://www.bmwofridgefield.com/ and the other huntsville owners today. Thank you! I will post the results here.

The first thing I noticed was that the photos were not taken at the same locations. A large number were, but quite a number of them were not.

Can that be because they have 3 car-yards? Two in Miami and one in California?

It might not be so intelligent, but I went further and located their Miami address in Google Earth, and came up upon a place that looks pretty much like a car park (2005 photo). That can be considered as a pro I guess. But nothing that looked like a car park on their California address, even though the photo was taken in 2007.

lightfair, I will email you the documents that they shared with me, if you don't mind, please.

Really the biggest suspicion is that they are in the business since 2002 and yet nobody ever talked about them on the internet. But if it's a fraud, it's a very smart fraud.

- The domain was registered very recently, in late May. However it was registered for 5 years in a row - most of our usualy cases register for just a single year.

That's true! Didn't pay attention to that. Thinking about it now, could that be just a smart manoeuvre?
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby raulet.nicu » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:35 pm

Hi! I am also interested in buying a car from AG Automobiles, but all my research is useless sofar. Could you please write here, how did it work after you payed and so on? Meanwhile I will still do some reasearch. BTW, http://www.importgenius.com/importers/a ... biles.html , here is a kind of shipment registry, where AG Automobiles is mentioned...
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby okidan » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:20 am

WARNING EVERYBODY: http://www.agautoexport.com IS A FRAUD! I will write a post about how it was proven here tonight. DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING!

raulet.nicu, take a look at the consignee name on that page. It says:

CONSIGNEE
AG AUTOMOBILES LTD..
BAITUL HOSSAIN BLDG 14F 27 DILKUSA DHAKA , BANGLADESH .

That's a different company. In Bangladesh that is. And there is also a company called AG Automobile in Germany, which is a different company as well - http://home.mobile.de/AGAUTOMOBILE as well as A-J automobile, which is yet another company which I've seen misspelled on a shipping report as AG Automobile - http://home.mobile.de/AJ-AUTOMOBILE-BERLIN.
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby okidan » Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:16 am

I've already filed reports to FBI and BBB. Thanks, lightfair. We couldn't have proven it without your priceless efforts! And God bless you!
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby okidan » Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:39 pm

Now they have a new website! http://www.ag-automobile.com! And suddenly they have two names! AG Automobile Ltd. and AG Automotive Internationl Ltd. Is this guy kidding? And the contacts are all german? The domain name has been registered week ago, for one year.

And there always has been a company called AG Automotive Ltd. and it is located at FLAT 1, 37 TISBURY ROAD, HOVE, EAST SUSSEX, BN3 3BL UNITED KINGDOM. And not where the scammer says the do.

FBI didn't answer. BBB doesn't seem to care either, they never answered too. What should we do? Where should I report?
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby okidan » Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:20 pm

Look at this, guys!

Now that they are in Europe, they of course have to work with another shipping company than the ones they were allegedly working with! Take a look: http://www.ag-automobile.com/content/shipping.html - and guess what? The website of the shipping company that it recommends - TASS International - was registered on the same day as ag-automobile.com! Just take a look at the whois records. And it doesn't take much intellect to copy this page for example http://www.elite-costa.net/index.php :)


Btw, did I tell you that one of the sources that proved AG Automobile is a fraud was APX Global MAX? They are a good company, and Mr. Scammer was using their name. I contacted Global MAX of course, and they told me they have NEVER made any business with a company called AG Automobile, and that they wouldn't trust them. When I passed on the details about cargo departure, Global MAX told me that it is not true, and there is no cargo ship leaving America with Global MAX cargo on 29th of June. If you have read our conversation with Mr. Scammer here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gwgmjvudnzl - you already know it. And how he was trying to tell me that "APX Global MAX" and "APX Global MAX Cargo" are completely different companies. Which of course is complete bullshit.

Btw, I would recommend Global MAX to anyone who wants to ship stuff over the ocean. I can give you their website address, if you ask me by pm or email.
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Re: AG Automobile - scam or not?

Postby gmpripis » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:31 pm

Take a look on other sites with usa second cars, by browsing on google. The prices are much higher. If you insert the ZIP codes, they are giving on the site, for their headquarter in MIAMI-33130- and you will see prices much higher. I was interested on a BMW x3 2007-14,900$, 19,000 miles. The real prices in the area were 19,900$ (71,000miles)-28,900$(21,000 miles). It's clear they are scams.
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