Mr. Bluster in the ghetto, uncovers a GRiSO scam

Mr. Bluster wrote:

Good work, Steak! You are well done!

Now I'm going to laugh the next time I order steak well done.  

I can't believe an Albertan would ever order a steak well-done... Who does that?

I had a delicious prime-rib up at JaKs on Monday night, medium-rare, dry-aged and delicious.

I don't and wouldn't, I jut found it funny. Usually it's med for me, but I really like a steak so thick they can only do medium rare. Venison on the other hand should never be more than medium rare, and usually more on the rare side, but I digress...
It has already been a long week and it's only Wednesday for crying out loud...

Mmmm. I love dead bambi cooked medium rare, as well as my dead cow. I had some rare venison in a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in London. OMFG it was good.

(suck mode) But the Steak on this forum is rare - a sholar and a gentleman. (/suck mode)

..and to stay on topic, this is one hell of an elaborate scam. Lucky this all came to light before you forked over your heard earned.

  

I am impressed this thread derailed so heavily without my instigation.
What a freaky scam.
Good thing it was spotted so quickly.
I sure hope this doesn't deviate you from getting a GRiSO Mr Bluster.
They are one of the coolest, most enjoyable bikes ever made.

DM

So Mr. Bluster, is he still badgering you for payment or has he realized the jig is up?

Just curious.

Yes, the denouement. I was just reviewing on-line the bogus documents from the imaginary shipping company (some of which are reproduced in this thread, when I get a phone call from a man with an east Indian accent, saying they were ready to ship the bike. I asked that he call back in an hour. The number checked out with a country code of 44. The address of our Swedish cruise ship captain came up on Apple Maps as what appeared to be a swank apartment building in downtown Stockholm. The British address of the shipping company came up on what appeared to be an industrial park. Nonetheless, I was fairly well convinced of a scam. A Google search could not turn up "Exclusive Britannia Ltd." Nor did on on-line directory of British shipping agents. This is all March 12. I received six more phone calls from the scammers that day; I ignored them all. Nothing since. I've posted this hyperlink to my Harley-D bulletin board. My theory is these guys are scamming big-ticket items, whether Grisos, Harley Dynas, VW Passats, Beemers, Chris Craft boats -- whatever. A real cautionary tale. BTW: I did visit Mr. Sipp at his Wisconsin dealership and saw his personal Tenni Green GRiSO. I nearly swooned. But no way was he selling it for $7,000!

44 Country code is Germany, so that's that.
But I have to wonder... at this point, is there any kind of means to put these bastards in jail?
All the proof is there to show they're crooks but no authorities can step up?

44 is the UK. Believe me, when my parents were alive I spent enough money dialling it

Pete
,

My bad then Pete...
I had a customer from Germany with a 44 code while it should have been 49.
He could have used a UK based business number.

I've posted my story on the Harley website and the consensus there is I am a blithering idiot. I think they're right. I derive some solace from this story reported by Milwaukee TV last year in the run-up to the Harley Davidson 110th anniversary (great party!) who wanted his own ride. Contacted "Gustavo" in Italy who worked for a cruise ship line. Sound familiar? [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You'd only be a blithering idiot if you lost your $2,000. You obviously had reservations and asked our opinions. I'd call that rational thinking.

  

Blithering idiot??
What the f#@! ever.

Look, I try to tell my two young adult sons

"Do what it takes to take care of business by
Doing the Right Thing
The Right Way
for The Right Reason
at The Right Time"

And it looks to me like that is exactly what you did.

I have emailed a fraud alert to the company that is hosting the bogus website, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here is a copy of the message I sent:

Steak wrote:

Hello,

I wanted to alert you of a scamming website on your servers which is being used to commit illegal acts via fraudulent vehicle sales.

Here is the link to the fraudulent site created on 6 March 2014 and hosted on your server:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Details found via DomainTools WHOIS:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here is a link to a forum discussion where the fraud was uncovered:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Another website, created by the same scammer, was removed from your servers just two months ago:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here is the scam/fraud alert for that one:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here is a news report documenting how this scam works:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Basically he offers up vehicles at deep discount using info from "valid" sales ads on the internet, then recycling that information to entice buyers.  Once the sale is "agreed upon" a C.O.D. international purchase is initiated.  The scammer then asks for a wire transfer deposit in order to initiate international transport via the fraudulent shipping company he has established on your servers.  In this case, he was requesting $2,000 USD.  Fortunately, we caught the scam and prevented the individual from wiring the $2,000 into oblivion.

I would ask you to investigate this urgently, confirm if you feel necessary, and disable the site as soon as possible.  Given that this is at least the second attempt by this scammer to commit fraud using your servers, I would encourage you to pursue any and all legal means to assist your local authorities in prosecution of criminal acts.  Thank you for your prompt action.


Attached are the "shipping documents/sales contract" generated within the fraud.

Let's see how long it takes before that website is shut down...

Well done. I have also posted at Wildgoose Chase Moto Guzzi [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] at ScamShield. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Looks like Exclusive Britania Limited shipping has now folded...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

From the webhosting company:

Webhost wrote:

Dear Steve,

Thank for your contact with 1and1 Internet Security team regarding your fraud complaint.

Please note that we have suspended the website in question as per our initial fraud investigation into this matter and will take a further appropriate action as per the final outcome of our fraud investigation.

We thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

--
Sincerely,
Security Team
1&1 Internet, Ltd.
– Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678  - VAT No GB 752539027
Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom

Now I'll never get my 700-mile, $7,000 GRiSO!

I'm on the trail of another Too Good To Be True GRiSO! My next step is to ask "Eric" for the VIN#. Then I will ask him to take a photo of that VIN# and another with him and the bike pointing to today's date on a calendar.

March 17, 2014  2:05 pm
FROM: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
RE: 2013 Moto Guzzi GRiSO 8V SE $8,000

Hi,
As you can see the price is very good, I can ship the bike to you and you will pay C.O.D (CASH ON DELIVERY), the reason why I'm selling the bike at this price is because I bought the bike from USA and I moved to Italy. The bike is in Italy in my garage, I can ride a unregistered bike only 3 months then I have to register the bike to get Italian license plates. I have the all documents but the bike has US documents and I can't register the bike in Italy. Now, I can't come to USA to sell the bike because I'll spend much money and lose time, my only chance to sell this bike is to find a buyer in the US or in another country. I can send the bike to your home address, (I WILL PAY FOR THE SHIPPING TAXES TO YOUR LOCATION) shipping will take approximately 10 days (Air Cargo), after you receive the bike you have another 2 days to inspect. When the inspection period ends, the shipping company will contact you and if there are any issues with the bike, you can refuse it. If all is good, they will help you with the transfer of ownership. If you want to get more details please send me a good PHONE NUMBER and I will call you as soon I can.

Thanks

Eric.

yup, that's the email I got. You seem to be very good at finding scams!  
I actually ended up finding my bike by talking to the big dealers and letting them know what I was looking for. Dave at MI ended up calling me within a month and I was on a plane to WA.
Couldn't have been easier.

UPDATE:

From: Mr.Bluster
Subject: Re: 2013 Moto Guzzi GRiSO 8V SE $8,000
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:10:02 -0500
To: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

SOUNDS GREAT! What is the VIN #?

On Mar 17, 2014, at 2:13 PM, Eric R wrote:

VIN# ZGULSU025DM111770

If you are still interested send me your phone number to discourse more about it.

Thanks
Eric.

From: Mr.Bluster
Subject: Re: 2013 Moto Guzzi GRiSO 8V SE $8,000
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:20 -0500
To: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

VERY INTERESTED! But I need you to do this: Send me two photos. The first is a close-up of the VIN#. The second photo to show you next to the bike that is in your garage holding a calendar with the current month open and visible. Can you do that for me, Eric? Then we’ll discourse all about it.

This one's been for sale since December. Make an offer instead of goofing around with scammers.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Good find, I bet you could scoop it for $10,500 - it's not even broken in yet...

I made an inquiry.

I just told my brother, who lives in So Cal, to go buy that sucker... Sought after bike at a fair price.

Steak wrote:

I just told my brother, who lives in So Cal, to go buy that sucker...  Sought after bike at a fair price.

Then he can meet us for more rides like the one we just did to Idyllwild.