Welnet-Group.com

[RichT]

Hi all,

I was conned out of a four figure GBP sum by the above scammer.

When reading my report, remember hindsight is a great thing, and my eye was firmly on the prize all the way throughout the scam!

I was looking for a car on Ebay, and came across a VW Tiguan, which was about half the price it should be.

I was genuinely excited, I've been looking for a similar car for a long time, and I could afford it without having to get a loan. I enquired with the seller.

The seller was called 09mandapanda87, I've attached a copy of the message I sent him through Ebay.

Investigating his profile on Sunday, I noticed that he was a car sales person, and had a number of cars for sale (and indeed still has). It looks like a reputable Ebay seller. I checked his whereabouts, and could see that he is based in a town called Cleckheaton just south of Bradford. 200 odd miles from where I am.

After a few hours sleep, I went back online to see that I had received an email from a Heinz Trumner - heinztrummer71@gmail.com. I gave it no thought at the time, and indeed didn't notice, but the message was sent directly to my email, not through ebay. He gave me a bit of spiel about the car belonging to his brother who had recently passed away (hence the low selling price I thought). The car looked like everything I needed/wanted.

I then reiterated that I was interested and I would like to arrange a viewing.

He pointed out that the car was with a company called Welnet Trading Group in Inchinnan near Glasgow, and he had signed a contract with them to handle the sale on his behalf as he was based in Germany (in hindsight I should have been more wary as the Ebay seller was based near Bradford not Glasgow)

I googled Welnet Trading Group, and saw that there were a few forums where people had apparently asked questions about their services and received recommendations from other forum members. The one that made me truly believe that Welnet was a legitimate Escrow service, was one which was apparently criticising their service for not repaying a buyer in an acceptable timeframe after he had returned goods bought using the service.

I couldn't find Welnet's own website however, and had to ask Heinz for the address (hindsight screams 'STOP!' very loudly at this point!)

Once Heinz had provided the website address I looked at the site, and was not alarmed by what I saw. I used the Live support link on the contact us page, and duly waited for a moment while being connected to a member of the 'support team'. The support member told me that she was just looking the the database to check whether the vehicle was in stock (she made me wait!). It was very convincing!

So I then registered on the website, and completed the payment process, confirming to Heinz that the payment had been made and emailing the confirmation page to the support@welnet-group.com email address.

Monday afternoon, I received a call from my bank and my heart sank. They told me they suspected that I was the victim of a scam, whether I had received the car, and whether there was anything to suspect that I had been scammed. I said there was one thing, and that was the location of the ebay seller vs the location of Welnet. I asked the bank to recall the payment if possible, I am still waiting to hear back.

Just before I received a call from the bank, I had emailed the support@welnet-group.com website to find out if payment had been received and check that the car was on the way. They told me that the payment had been received and delivery was scheduled for 4pm Wednesday.

I have yet to update the police with the fact that the delivery never arrived, nor have i heard anything from Welnet.

All the best!

[lightfair]

Thank you for registering and posting your story.

This has been a long ongoing scam; "WelNet Trading Group" is not even the latest site by this particular scammer.
The newest "incarnation" is called "DevoNet Trading Group" with the website http://devonet-group.com/ (yes, it's the same scammer). The police might want to know this, too.

I'll also send you a private message later.