Car Hire - too good to be true?

gossi

Mubassar Mirza was also listed as the director of Mirza Wholesale Ltd. It's at 59 Phoenix Rise, which is about 4 miles from the house of Diamonds By Design.

landsberger64

Freesoho wrote: »

Does anyone have any leads at all on who the guys behind the Rentmac scam are?

All the registry details appear to refer to Regus shared temporary offices and 0844 numbers now disconnected, so we can probably discard these. I think the people acting as their front office are probably as much in the dark as anyone else. The owner of one of the 2 domains is listed as an Anthony Stevens.

The next clue is the Diamonds By Design Limited bank account. DBD are registered to a residential address in Brighton. 154 Eastern Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN2 0AE

Likewise Mr Mirza's details of St Heliers Close, Crawley, RH11 9PU
A company called Datatop Technology Ltd seems to be registered to that postcode. I wonder if they are connected ? He's also registered with a company to RH11 9NJ at Balmoral Court, Moyne Road, Broadfield, Crawley, West Sussex. RH11 9NJ, which is a sheltered housing scheme !

I'd go easy if anyone was thinking of giving them a visit, as people have had domains and companies registered in their names without realising it.

The more evidence that I hear, the more I think it is a scam. Posting a notice saying you'll be back on the 4th Jan and disconnecting the phones does not sound like the actions of a reputable company.

Grumpelstiltskin

gossi wrote: »

Mubassar Mirza was also listed as the director of Mirza Wholesale Ltd. It's at 59 Phoenix Rise, which is about 4 miles from the house of Diamonds By Design.

A few more names connected with Mirza Wholesale Ltd on here.

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/mirza-wholesale

gossi

Okay, so here's what I've established. It's a scam, and a serious organised crime one. In my opinion.

The company was founded in October, along with the finance side of the business, which they've kept separate. It was all registered online via Companies Made Simple, which takes about 10 minutes to found a company online. This step costs about £200. They don't appear to have bothered with VAT. They've opened multiple bank accounts using the foundation documents they got from Companies Made Simple's website. They've also paid for virtual offices, at a cost of about £120ish a month, which gives them a pool of people answering phone calls.

They've then chosen a car rental website template from Web Creation UK at a cost of £500. Web Creation UK host the professional looking website for this fee, too.

Then they've placed adverts in national newspapers and local radio. It's difficult to get a good estimate on how much this will have cost them as I don't know all the newspapers and the extent of the radio advertising, but a pure guestimate would be something like £50k expenditure on advertising.

And then you guys have seen the adverts, contacted them, given them BACS payments into the two (may be more) bank accounts they opened. Some of you have also given them your credit card details for 'bookings' or bank details to 'reverse payments' (I know you haven't been charged yet, but think that one through for a moment).

From the advertising, we can see from this forum people gave them money. However, the amount of people who know to google something like this, end up here, and register and post is going to be a tiny percentage of the actual clientelle a national advertising campaign will have brought in. We can only estimate how much 'Rent Me Any Car' made in those few weeks, but I imagine it could be 6 or 7 figures. Trading Standards are completely out of their depth here.

What has happened to the money is open to speculation.

My only outstanding question is how many people got refunds via this company (not their banks), and why they would refund the money. Did people threaten going to the police, maybe?

landsberger64

This poster/site seems to big up rentmyanycar.com, and has a site quite similar to it.

pbsupercars dot com

Check out pistonheads site

He/she says "try rentmeanycar.com and lets see if there claims are true!!!

see thread on rentmeanycar.com"

I wonder if they are related ?

on a number of forums

dacouch

gossi wrote: »

Okay, so here's what I've established. It's a scam, and a serious organised crime one. In my opinion.

Then they've placed adverts in national newspapers and local radio. It's difficult to get a good estimate on how much this will have cost them as I don't know all the newspapers and the extent of the radio advertising, but a pure guestimate would be something like £50k expenditure on advertising.

They probably have not been paying the recent bills, especially the radio and newspaper advertising

gossi

You gotta presume newspapers would want payment before they run adverts. (I mean, I hope!).

dacouch

gossi wrote: »

You gotta presume newspapers would want payment before they run adverts. (I mean, I hope!).

They do credit checks which allow them to work out whether it's cash up front or the normal business practice of 28 days credit.

These types of companies set themselves up for some time before doing a big hit so they can build their credit rating up to allow them to hit the papers etc for loads or advertising which they in effect get for free

Freesoho

Hi all, hope everyone had a fun NY and the Rentmac sting is hurting a little less.
Not sure where everyone is at with this but thinking a round up is timely before moving on.
Firstly, thanks everyone for sharing info, getting hold of useful details and making good use of this forum. Particularly Gossi, you should consider an MI5 career.
I'm planning calls tomorrow to make sure the Police, Natwest, HSBC and The Guardian have all the information coalesced on this forum and that they are pursuing the named account holders.

I'll be pushing the fraud team at Natwest and hoping that a fraud warning on the D by D account means I have some chance of recovering funds from Natwest (not holding my breath)

Hopefully there is enough interest at The Guardian Money to take up the cause and keep pushing the Police for a prosecution.
Ill talk to Mark at The Guardian tomorrow and post any news of interest.

Grumpelstiltskin

landsberger64 wrote: »

This poster/site seems to big up rentmyanycar.com, and has a site quite similar to it.

pbsupercars dot com

Check out pistonheads site

He/she says "try rentmeanycar.com and lets see if there claims are true!!!

see thread on rentmeanycar.com"

I wonder if they are related ?

on a number of forums

pbsupercars.com.

http://whois.domaintools.com/pbsupercars.com

Gives you a name to go on.