Car Hire - too good to be true?

sussex1_2

No, I was told to have various documents/I.D ready at the time of delivery.

I have also taken further action and canceled applicable cards that I used to try and book via debit/credit card in the first instance.

As an update for all I attended the Regus Office today and tried to speak with both Regus themselves and the Building Management Company (GVA Saxon Law) who manage the Berkeley Square House building. As you can imagine they are not happy with the attention the building is getting from having this particular company registered at this address and the likes of people like me and others turning up to try and speak to respective parties unannounced.

Regus were not happy to meet with me but the building manager did and was fully aware of the situation with this company and mentioned that I was one of 5/6 people that had attended the building in the past few days.

I was also advised that there have been a number of visits to the building over the past few days specifically in relation to this company so it appears that action is being taken.

I would not be surprised if the building managers will be wanting to meet with Regus to discuss the issue as one of the companies is registered to this building and the website still reports to be operational/registered to the Regus address.

Clearly Regus must have some form of contract/details, bank references, ID etc and taken payment from someone before setting up this facility (which from its original company registration has been in existence for over two months). Someone must have also attended the building/Regus to get the process underway and visited the premises in the interim, it cannot possibly have all been done over the phone.

I shall keep you posted as to any further updates.

gossi

Anybody can get set up a Regus virtual office online - you don't even need to phone them. There's no proof of identity or company required either.

That's why these kind kind of scams are really effective - for a few hundred quid you get a company (also registered online, no proof of ID required), a fancy address, a website from a template and people answering the phone for you.

The !!!! up these guys _may_ have made is mentioning Diamonds By Designs Ltd. If that's a real name and address on the company registration (not sure) you can tell where the money went.

Cort

Guys,

Simon Tate also managed to sell me and my small company a 6 month lease on a BMW X5 which was due for delivery on 23 December 2010, then 24 December 2010 and you can guess the rest of the story: outsourced receptionists, unanswered telephone calls and unanswered e-mails. As at 1500 hours today 5 January 2011 their offices are closed (wherever they actually are). I wonder if the Met Police have shut them down? My loss is £2909 which was transferred to the HSBC Account used by "Sussex 1" on 20 December 2010. I have filed an online report to the Met Police and have downloaded a Small Claims Court Writ to serve on them. Which is the best address to use when serving the writ? Berkley Square? My Company is located well outside London so I need to get the address right when serving the writ. Had they been just down the road i could have broken their legs, but that's not possible from over 100 miles away. Congratulations on sharing information so efficiently and speedily. I found the information gathered by various superstars to be invaluable. Thanks guys. Keep up the great jamming scamming work. My Met Police Online report Reference Number is CR02-00085984 dated 5 January 2011.

cereldine

I've only just found this thread but you can add me to the list as well. Spoke to them on the phone to get a quote on a polo, phoned them back later to see if i could upgrade to a 4x4 and they told me they only had polos left. Thought this seemed quite genuine at the time as the 4x4s were twice the price. Lost out on £360 but it could have been worse. Will contact police and bank with the details that have been posted here.

sussex1_2

If the bank account is the same as the one I used then it is in the name of Diamonds by Design Ltd (as referenced earlier with the registered address), assume that it should be served to this address.

To all those that paid to this account they should apply pressure to HSBC to act on this account, likewise I have got HSBC to trace the account but is only likely to tell us what we have already gleaned between us.

Good luck with the claim.

Cort

Very many thanks Sussex 1,

Q1. Who exactly is it best to telephone/e-mail at HSBC to put pressure on?

Q2. Do you know the address of the HSBC Bank where the "Diamonds by Design" Account is held? Best to hit Bull's Eye with first Writ.

I'm with Lloyds so I'll have to notify them as well.

Yours,

Cort

(Aiming to go to Court to nail these people!)

sussex1_2

Cort, hi

I managed to speak to my accounts department at work and they have a sort code book that lists all the applicable sort codes/branches.

Looking up the sort code 40 43 26 it confirms the following:

HSBC
75-77 High Street
Sutton
Surrey SM1 1DU

Good Luck, I will try and find the address for the Natwest account also mentioned earlier.

Update:

Natwest Account sort code 54 30 36 confirms the following:

Natwest
39 Station Road
Redhill
Surrey RH1 1QN

Both accounts are located in Surrey.

gossi

Surrey. That's a new address. I wonder if they've opened the accounts in person there, or if that's a generic business banking sort code.

The biggest amount of monetary loss I've found so far is one person who transferred just shy of £10,000 to their account.

One word of caution, guys - like I say, I think these people have conned a LOT of money out of people. It's serious organised crime. That money will not be used to buy kids toys.

landsberger64

sussex1 wrote: »

Cort, hi

I managed to speak to my accounts department at work and they have a sort code book that lists all the applicable sort codes/branches.

Both accounts are located in Surrey.

Great detective work. Actually, the latter branch is very close to the address given for Mr Mirza in Crawley - just up the road, infact.

I concur with what you said earlier about Diamonds by Design - best serving their papers there in Brighton, as I'm not sure sending stuff to the London Regus addresses will ever reach them.

gossi

Oh, by the way - people who had email contact with RentMeAnyCar.com/RentMAC.co.uk - what email address were they using? Could you post the message 'headers' (if you know how)? The message headers likely contain their IP address, which can be used to locate their PC.