Here is a true story of the situation that another scam victim went through. They asked me if I could share thier story with all of you.
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I wire transferred funds to The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Ueno Branch, 1-14-4 Higashi Ueno, Taito Ku, Tokyo, 110-0015, Japan, account no. 5463066, on 31 /07/08, in the name of a Richard Bent and Suzuki Junko, of Auto Mart Japan, http://www.automartjapan.com in Shitaya 3-5-3, TM Hermes House, Taito Ku, Tokyo 1100004 Japan. Tel: 0-3-3873-3327 Cell: 0-90-9950-6247, for the purchase of a used panel van.
My worst fears have been realized that the company, Auto Mart Japan, is not legitimate, and its managing director, Richard Bent, is a fraudster and con artist. My van was promised on 31st August 2008, and it has not materialized and now the scam artist, Bent no longer replies to my emails and has gone underground.
I traced the website to its developers, Tim Worley, in Australia, E-mail: tim@halonet.com.au & tim@weblife.com.au & tim_in_byron@yahoo.com http://www.weblife.com.au and his accomplice, Moharana Basanta, from Bhubaneswar India moharana.basanta@gmail.com & http://basantamoharana.wordpress.com/ I as well as other victims of the scam were led to believe that Worley and Basanta were behind the scam because of their peculiar actions and suspicious behaviour however, since they have lied, been evasive with answers, threatened, abused and cussed organizations, made obscene phone calls to other victims and myself have been subjected to e.g.
Worley claims that he does not know where Bent is or what he looks like. Basanta claims that he does not know anything about Auto Mart Japan, as he is only the web developer. They have changed names and switched information on their websites.
Basanta has since removed all ties to Tim Worley and Automartjapan from his site. When asked about providing the names and contact numbers of the police officers he made out his report to in Japan and Australia, Worley claimed to have thrown away their cards. He claims to have 160 emails from Bent but can’t provide a sample with an address, he cannot provide any documents with Bent’s name for their financial transactions, I gave him the numbers of Interpol in my country to call, but he hasn’t contacted them, he claims he will give all information he has to the police only when he is contacted.
On checking the who is website http://whois.domaintools.com/automartjapan.com you will notice that all the registrant, admin address email address and contact details of Tim Worley have been changed recently to a different name, Frank Costanza, of Australia. Postings of Auto Mart Japan’s dealings can be seen at this site: http://blog.japundit.com/archives/2008/12/08/9148/ Someone who was conned by Bent in Kenya posted here: http://www. funadvice.com/q/fraud_ in_japanese_second_hand_cars
Recent information has come to light as to the identity of the real mastermind behind the scam. A private investigator, Ken Gamble, of Internet Fraud Watchdog Ltd, Australia, (www.gambleinvestigations.com) office number:+61.2.9959.2290 Web: http://www.ifwonline.com and who also sits on the board of a Cybercrime Association in France (AILCC) and this is part of his role to present at conferences the legal difficulties of these international scams to lawmakers and judges investigating the Automart Japan scam, has discovered that the individual behind the scam has been identified as a 52 year old Slovenian national who has been residing in the Philippines for many years and is a serial con artist. This is the third major used car scam he has carried out, the last ones being the Moon Autos and Zunic Autos scam, also based out of Japan. The website used for Zunic Motors was: http://www.zunicmotors.com and the same offender called himself, Mr. Robert Louis (see Blog at the following link: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:_8bYMBEnz5wJ:www.epoi.com/cgi-bin/guestbook/guestbook.cgi%3Fstart_number%3D30+%22zunic+motors%22+%2B+%22fraud%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
Both previous scams were conducted in exactly the same fashion as the Automart Japan scam. The same offender contacts a web development company purporting to be a legitimate business and pays the web company to build and maintain a website, whilst the offender starts scamming customers. Once the scam is realized, the offender cuts all contact with customers and tries to avert the attention onto the website developer, which has happened in all three cases.
A report of his activities was forwarded to Interpol back in early 2008 but no action has been taken to date, due to the lack of formal police complaints by victims. Most just give up and do not pursue the lost funds. The Japanese Police will not investigate crimes that don’t involve Japanese citizens and the Philippines Police cannot act unless he commits an offense in the Philippines. This offender has exploited a loophole in the Japanese & Philippines legal system.
The individual responsible has several accomplices in the Philippines, one is his Japanese girlfriend who opens up the bank accounts in Tokyo and another is a fellow Slovenian male who operates offshore bank accounts used to pay the web developers. The private investigator has an extensive brief of evidence on them. The male who sounds Indian is actually from Slovenia and he has recordings of his voice, which exactly match the voice of the Philippines suspect.
I would certainly be interested in any US network that would be interested in this story and appreciate any help I can get from your organization.
Kurdaitcha
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