Car Hire - too good to be true?

PremiereVelocity

Good for you, at leats you were one of the lucky ones!
Rentmac are still top of Google adwords despite the phone number being dead, we contacted Google and told them by advertiswing this company they were facilitating fraudulant activities but they weren't interested at all, said we should go through the online complaints procedure!!!

Freesoho

Does anyone have any leads at all on who the guys behind the Rentmac scam are? Obviously they would have done their best to cover tracks and use false IDs but there may be a useful name floating around somewhere attached to one the many bank accounts they set up, the registration at Companies House, the virtual office service they used... Right now they'll be kicking back in the Caribbean whilst we are being told they'll be back in "the office" on 4th Jan but they'll surface agin at some point and I haven't given up hope on a prosecution.
To my mind, the banks are the best bet. I have notified the police and initiated a fraud investigation at Natwest and I'd strongly encourage anyone affected to do so with Natwest or their bank.
Sjko, if you have any names or recorded info that you can share, it would be a huge help. If you can, send me a private message by clicking on my tag on the left hand side.
These guys have screwed my Christmas and stolen money that would have gone towards something deeply important to us. They need a kicking. I'm sure many others feel the similarly aggrieved.

Sjko

I am back in the office on the 5th, I have a total of 6 names, but i would hazard a guess that one guy gave me at least 3 names. I have a number for diamonds by design and i got through to a guy there who gave me my refund, he seemed a bit surprised that I had this number(given to me by Amex authorisations). I was worried that they would try to take payment again I notified Amex and cancelled that card for good measures.

It was a good scam, they enhanced their credibility by advertising in reputable papers and I would say its going to be difficult to get them to refund now, difficult, not impossible.

When, I get back into the office, I will get the names.

As an aside when I asked one of the guys that with such poor customer services, no call backs, replies to email, not knowing diamonds by design were, would he be surprised if i said t looked like a scam, he took great umbrage, quote "I have worked here for 4 years, I have children, i put food on the table, pay my taxes, work all the hours godsend, so to be called a scam is insulting, especially from someone who does not know me"! After that little outburst, def a scam, especially as I asked is Simon in, he said no, he is off till next week. I called the number amex had on file and I got hold of Simon straight away.

Freesoho

Thanks Sjko, that's very kind of you, much appreciated. It was a good scam but I still very incredibly daft for making the schoolboy error of paying a stranger upfront in full. Never again.

Freesoho

northernlife wrote: »

Getting back to the subject of the thread. Natwest have returned our deposit as supposedly when it was sent over their account was already flagged as fraud but it's taken several days for the funds to come back. So okay, no car - which means we can't get to where we want to go for Christmas (a hotel, which is non-refundable @ £1.5k) but at least we've not lost an additional £1k too. Good luck others for getting your money back - maybe Natwest might bounce back your deposits to them too...

Hi Northernlife,
glad you managed to get you money back, that would have been a lot to lose.
Can you tell me how you persuaded Natwest to refund your money? Did Natwest tell you that the account was flagged as possibly fraudulent? What date was this?

northernlife

Freesoho wrote: »

Hi Northernlife,
glad you managed to get you money back, that would have been a lot to lose.
Can you tell me how you persuaded Natwest to refund your money? Did Natwest tell you that the account was flagged as possibly fraudulent? What date was this?

Hiya,

23rd is when the money came back into our Natwest account. When we initially paid them by BACS we went into the bank to do it as we didn't have the card reader to hand to do it online. The teller in the bank remembered us and when we told them the story they went and checked our account and said that the money left on the day we sent it but was 'held' by Natwest (I guess in the usual black hole they put money in whilst funds are transferred) instead of it going into Rentmac's account as it was already flagged by the fraud team as fraud (Sorry, to confuse matters this is Diamond By Design's account - rentmac appear not to have any accounts in their name?) - anyway, after Natwest had done whatever they did with our funds it appeared back in our account before we even talked to them (ie, earlier that day) - this was only because we were paying into another Natwest account though. HSBC, etc might do things differently. The teller said they hadn't seen an account before with a note on related to fraud so they were quite taken back when they studied our transaction.

If anyone paid by credit card you've lost nothing - just initiate a chargeback and you will be absolutely fine, other than having some funds that won't be available to you in the short term - but at least you won't be paying interest on them or owe them in the longterm. With regards to paying by BACS, it's totally upto your bank to fight for you - if it's HSBC to HSBC or Natwest to Natwest you might be lucky like we were.

I feel sorry for those that this whole scam hasn't just ripped off, but caused massive issues for people over Christmas. Like I say, for us it was just annoying and meant we couldn't use the hotel we had paid for but at least we've not suffered any hardship.

As a sidenote, I did email the Guardian via a contact form on their website and have heard nothing back. We did report it to the MET Police who we gave details to and they said they were in contact with the Natwest Fraud Team (I don't have a number for them - but I am sure you can find it on natwest's website)

A shame pistonheads deleted all the threads, I too would have been saved from going through this!

Good luck everyone.

Freesoho

Thanks for letting us know the details and I'm glad to hear you were saved from losing money on this one.
I did do a google search at the time of my booking, definitely a shame pistonheads deleted the thread. Would have saved a lot of people a lot of grief.

My transaction was Natwest to Natwest so hopefully they can see that they already had a fraud warning on this account when my transaction was made.
I didn't know the account was Diamonds by Design although I thought it might be as its mentioned in this thread a few times.
Also, the police didn't mention anything about the Natwest Fraud team when I reported this so thats good to know. Useful info and I'll go back to the bank with this.
Many thanks.

sussex1_2

I have been reading the below with interest, it appears that I may have suffered the same fate. I also completed a hire agreement with rentmac prior to 18/12 for a 4X4 to be delivered on the 18/12.

Having spent some considerable time trying to get the contract rights (dates etc) with Simon Tate finally it was completed 16/12 and I received notification via e-mail.

I provided payment details initially via a debit/credit card and received a call back message on the 17/12 asking me to make contact regarding payment (the car was due for delivery 18/12).

I called back on the morning of the delivery to be advised that there were payment issues with the on-line 'streamline' payment system that was preventing my card holders from being approached for payment (I phoned to check this and was advised by by bank that no such applications for payment had been received).

In the meantime I had been convinced to make a BACS payment into the account details noted in this forum in the name of DBD Ltd (the account is held by HSBC) and payment was sent immediately.

I then was able to confirm this through to rentmac and was advised that the car would be duly delivered that day, many calls later (I have all the names of the people that I spoke with, these being Simon Tate, Derek, Jenny, Lee Stevens who I now understand my be one of the company directors who left the message concerning payment issues and then ask me to undertake the payment via BACS and then further advised me that the car would not be delivered that day) I was advised that the car had been damaged on-route and would not be delivered nor would a car be forthcoming the next day.

Further calls resulted in me being promised an upgrade and extended hire at no further charge for the Monday 20/12, which you can guess, never arrived.

Further calls on Monday resulted in me speaking with Andrew Ryan (Customer Manager) who verbally confirmed (and subsequently re-confirmed via e-mail) that I would be refunded my full desposit/hire charges via cheque 21/12.

He did also state that they did not have the cars available to honour the subsequent delivery date (20/12) nor would they have any car available until 24/12 at the very earliest (at the time the reasons stated related to vehicles not being delivered, those that were awaiting delivery not being able to be delivered due to issues with the 'streamline' payment system preventing insurers from receiving the applicable desposits required to enacted the insurance to enable them to go out on hire. He further stated that people within the company had been tasked on 20/12 to contact all parties awaiting cars to advise them that they would not be delivered that week due to the problems outlined above, this was not instigated by staff in his absence).

I tried to book this as fall back (again through Simon Tate) who said that an e-mail confirmation would be issued, no such e-mail was issued and I subsequently e-mailed back to advise that I would seek to enact Andrew's offer of getting a hire car from elsewhere (the cost of which would be met by rentmac).

I am currently awaiting the full refund, offered by Andrew Ryan, to be honoured and have also spoken in the interim with the receptionist service that has been put in place until the office re-opens on 04/01 (who confirmed that they had been busy receiving similar calls as mine).

As mentioned previously I have also been in contact with my bank (HSBC) the OFT/trading standards, SHOPS and have also contacted the Guardian newspaper where I saw and responded to the original Rentmac advertisment. I will also be reporting it through to the police as well.

It may well prove to be a scam but it seems to have taken a great deal of time and effort, I must have spoken to 5 or more people, had a limited number of calls returned etc, discussions with Andrew Ryan (and the fact that he even bothered to respond with an e-mail confirming his verbal offer to refund applicable monies/costs incurred etc).

It does seem to suggest that the company went into some sort of meltdown and did not have sufficient resource to deal with subsequent fall out, we live in hope that this is the case.

I, like others, will keep those interested updated as to my progress. Not sure how many people this has affected or if anyone has actually completed a transaction with this company, someone must have had a car delivered or is expecting cars to be delivered during Jan 2011?

Good luck to everyone affected.

Freesoho

Sorry to hear of yet another victim of this scam. I admire your optimism but I'm pretty sure we'll be hearing nothing more from 'Steve', 'Simon', 'Derek', 'Jenny' or anyone else. It's pretty clear the cars were fictional, along with the names any any promises these individuals made.

Its great that you have informed your bank, the police, trading standards etc. I think we need to make life as difficult as possible for those responsible.

It seems that Diamonds by Design ltd is the only reliable lead at the moment and I think it's important that anyone who is an HSBC customer, apply pressure to HSBC to investigate that account and to talk to the police who will confirm that it is involved in a possible fraud. If we can lock that account down we may get some funds back and even better, get someone prosecuted.

gossi

Guys

Just to start collating information -

Different 'employee' names we have are: Anthony Stevens (director?), Lee Stevens (director?), Simon Tate (CSR), Derek (CSR), Jenny (CSR), Andrew Ryan (CSM).

The main company registration in charge of this is RentMeAnyCar.com Ltd

Registered No 07421608
Incorporated 28 Oct 2010
Registered Office 2ND, FLOOR BEREKELEY SQUARE HOUSE, LONDON, W1J 6BD

It has ONE director - Mr Anthony Stevens. His address is listed as the virtual office address, and there's no company secretary set so there's no home address for him. He's listed his Date Of Birth as 08/06/1967. Edit - I believe this name may be fake. The company was registered online, so it wasn't checked.

They also have no VAT registration.

So far all the financing appears to be through Diamonds By Design Ltd.

Registered No 07407417
Incorporated 14 Oct 2010
Registered Office 154 Eastern Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN2 0AE
Owner Mubassar Ahmed Mirza
Date of Birth 07/11/1978
Occupation Jeweller

I have a photo of this building now -- it's a house in Brighton. I can't post as I don't have enough posts yet to link to images here.

We know they [RentMeAnyCar.com] are hosted from a 'virtual office', i.e. it doesn't exist. They're paying for virtual office assistant so some (all?) of the people answering the phone are actually not Rentmac employees right now.

Bank details

HSBC Account
Account name: DBD Ltd (Diamonds By Design Ltd)
Sort code: 40 43 26
Account details: 21866117

Natwest
Account name: Unknown
Sort code: 54-30-36
Account details: 39127753


We could do with getting together the police crime reference numbers, bank account numbers (they may have many) and sort codes, and getting the phone number mentioned upthread by somebody as the designated phone number for their bank account.