Car Hire - too good to be true?

sarahkent1000

just a quick update to let you all know, we never got our car, no phone calls, or reply to emails... its like i dreamt it all, like it woz never booked! there is a new number on rent me any cars website now, but iv not called it, dont see the point.. but has anyone else?
one thing i know for sure is its ...DODGY! and i will never do anything like tht again!

gossi

Guys - I checked on PBSuperCars.com - they are NOT related. They have proper company registration, they're paying VAT, they're filing accounts - and they actually own and deliver cars.

gossi

By the way, given we're over the NY holidays and offer period, I'd imagine the rentmeanycar.com website will die fairly soon, along with all the phone numbers. It's either that or they'll leave it online and claim they've gone bankrupt.

sussex1_2

I spoke further with HSBC and also reported the account, they are tracing it but are awaiting contact from the police before proceeding further.

I did also report the incident to the police using the number and crime reference given to me by The Guardian.

Picking up the previous threads whilst it appears to be a scam given the high profile marketing and similar sites the number of reported incidents appears low.

They would have had to have taken a high number of bookings to cover the likely costs of the set-up, we are talking about national newspapers, FT, The Guardian etc (advertisment space - full pages) would have far exceeded the figures quoted to date, they would also likely owe money to google as well so hopefully these companies will be pursuing them in earnest.

The police are pooling together all the incidents and it is being assigned to a DI in the forthcoming weeks to investigate.

I will be trying to make contact with them today just to see what the status is.

dacouch

jagwar wrote: »

Continuing the thread,,,

I have also spoken with the Guardian who have confirmed that they have had the add running through December, as have the Financial Times and Global Radio!!!

They are not best pleased and undertook the usual credit checks and references and have also been scammed for payments!!!

As I said before, it is unlikely they will have been paying for the recent advertising which is all part of their overall scam

Freesoho

I've just reported this to Actionfraud.org.uk. They seem well suited to investigate this kind of fraud (much more relevant than Trading Standards for example). Have a look and please report to them if you have time, they were very helpful and encouraging. I was only just made aware of this service by Natwest otherwise I would have recommended it earlier.
Haven't been able to get throught to Mark Finney at The Guardian yet.

gossi

Yeah, try and get this one going at the police, peeps. The website is still online at the moment, with the message saying they're closed until today.

Edit - if it takes the police weeks to assign a detective, this will be a very profitable scam. We're honestly talking 6 or 7 figures of £ in profit from a few weeks work.

StuieUK34

The worst part about all of this, is that anyone from a governing body (OFT/Trading Standards, etc) could have made a booking with this company, for business purposes, not entrapment, and would have first hand experience of how the scam is being run.
I went through a scenario like this with Consumer Direct on the phone way before this thread started (relating to somthing else, but same principal)... Consumer Direct bloke says it would be illegal, blah blah blah to take money and not have the goods to give, or take money and then charge more to get the final goods....
But at the same time, the bloke said people get scammed everyday in this way, some high profile, some not, but the time it takes an 'Acting body' to investigate and get close to pulling the plug, the scam (like a Ponzi scheme) has dissolved, and a new name and scam process is already being planned....
Bizarre hey ???
(oh, and i was speaking to consumer direct about hotel booking agents who charge a total amount, only to find u gotta pay more money without being told or your room is cancelled!)

Freesoho

Update.
Just spoke with Mark Finney at The Guardian. They are aware of this forum at that we have all been gathering here. Mark said he will likely post an update on this thread. He was sincere and very apologetic and it was clear the Guardian are taking this seriously. He has given me the Crime ref number 2732801/10 and number to call 02083453931 (already posted earlier I think) They are having a meeting this morning so we may have something from them later today or tomorrow.

gossi

Removed this post for various reasons.