BEWARE SCAM - Dontons/Cameras Direct.co.uk/Yorkshire-Cameras-Online

Skubakat

I've recently been scammed by Dontons Ltd (dontons.com) which sells cameras and photographic equipment with an address in Leatherhead. The website says it is a trading name of Cameras Direct.co.uk, which is a dormant company registered to an address in Guilford, with £0 cash at the bank. Also, the Dontons website's email addresses actually go to Yorkshire-Cameras-Online.com. Google this third name and you will find many specialist photographic forums warning you away.
Shame I didn't see these warnings before I sent them money! And my own silly fault for sending money by bank transfer, instead of using a credit card. DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY TO THIS COMPANY.
Dontons appears to bank with Barclays in Finsbury Park, London.
The 0845 telephone number is constantly engaged (the two numbers on the "Contact Us" page are different anyway!) and they have stopped responding to emails.
A few years ago I had been in contact with a family-run camera shop somewhere in or around north Surrey, and they had a real shop and I spoke with a real person about picking something up in person. Sadly I thought this was the same company.
I have reported all of this to Trading Standards, Consumer Direct and Action Fraud, but whatever they can do will take time and I wanted to help make sure that people didn't part with their money before Christmas.
One of the first places I looked when I started getting suspicious was these forums, but found nothing under any of the three names used.
Trading Standards will see if they can get the website taken down, but this will be difficult if it is not hosted in the UK. And they said they will check with Barclays, but the bank will need to be absolutely convinced that there is fraud going on before they will suspend the account, in case they get sued for loss of business.
If you have or know anyone else that has had dealings/problems with any of these three companies, please add your voice to this thread, and I will direct the Trading Standards team towards it.
Otherwise, I hope that this warning is early enough to stop you making the same errors that I have.

texranger

you have not said what scam took place as its not illegal to have a domant company or to have 3 domains or an 0845 telephone number.

Skubakat

It is a SCAM if you send a company money and they then don't deliver any goods. Worse if you can't contact them as they don't have a working telephone number and don't respond to emails or post, so you can't invoke normal consumer rights!
Yes, stupid me for sending funds by bank transfer.
I just hope others read this before they lose any money.

overcast

I just found out that my wife bought me a Christmas present (a digital camera) from Dontons, we are totally gutted having just found out that it's a scam. We have spoken to Barclays who say that it is not possible to get the money back & have reported the fraud to actionfraud.org.uk (if anyone else has had this, please report the fraud there too).

Payment info (hopefully Google will crawl this so others will be notified earlier):
Bank Barclays

Bank Address 17 Market Place town center, Huddersfield, United Kingdom, HD1 2AA

Account DONTONS LTD

SWIFT/BIC BARC GB22

IBAN GB22 BARC 2043 0473 0772 41

Sort Code 20-43-04

Account number 73077241

mykopski

I have had the same problems as the other forum reports. Only when I found out that I couldn't pay by credit card and only by bank transfer - and also couldn't phone their line as it was continually engaged, did I realise it was a scam. I didn't do a bank transfer so avoided further problems. Please beware of this company!

msouth

They got me to under the name of Leyland Electronic Store

Mad is not the word but what is done is done. Only wish I had googled the IBAN number before I gave this crook my well earnt money.

This is where he stole my money.....

Bank: Barclays
Bank Address
17 Market Place town center, Huddersfield, United Kingdom HD1 2AA
Account:
LEYLAND ELC LTD
SWIFT/BIC:
BARC GB22
IBAN:
GB22 BARC 2043 0473 0772 41
Sort Code: 20-43-04
Account number: 73077241

Andytake2

Whois details show that the domain is registered in Lithuania.
Full details of this here, sorry for the length of the post - this is a direct copy from network-tools.com:

IP address: 77.79.12.3
Host name: dontons.com
Alias:
dontons.com
77.79.12.3 is from Lithuania(LT) in region Eastern Europe



TraceRoute to 77.79.12.3 [dontons.com]

Hop(ms)(ms)(ms)
IP AddressHost name 1 1 0 0 206.123.64.154 jbdr2.0.dal.colo4.com 2 0 0 0 64.124.196.225 xe-4-2-0.er2.dfw2.us.above.net 3 1 1 0 64.125.12.46 above-telia.dfw2.us.above.net 4 33 33 33 213.155.133.178 ash-bb1-link.telia.net 5 129 128 128 213.155.131.250 hbg-bb2-link.telia.net 6 142 142 142 80.91.245.45 war-b1-link.telia.net 7 158 158 158 213.248.99.190 internetf-ic-142055-war-b1.c.telia.net 8 159 159 159 85.254.1.161 ntt-1.vln.globalcom.lv 9 156 156 156 84.15.2.86 - 10 156 157 156 77.79.12.36 hst-12-36.duomenucentras.lt 11 157 156 156 77.79.12.3 upsala.aleja.lt Trace complete


Retrieving DNS records for dontons.com...
DNS servers
ns3.duomenucentras.lt [77.79.12.252]
ns2.duomenucentras.lt [213.80.100.171]
ns1.duomenucentras.lt [77.79.12.254]


Answer records dontons.com
SOAserver:upsala.aleja.ltemail:root@upsala.aleja.ltserial:2011110806refresh:3600retry:600expire:86400minimum ttl:36003600sdontons.com
NSns1.evardas.lt3600sdontons.com
NSns1.duomenucentras.lt3600sdontons.com
NSns2.duomenucentras.lt3600sdontons.com
NSns3.duomenucentras.lt3600sdontons.com
A77.79.12.386400sdontons.com
MXpreference:10exchange:mail.dontons.com86400s
Authority records
Additional records ns2.duomenucentras.lt
A213.80.100.17110874sns3.duomenucentras.lt
A77.79.12.25210874smail.dontons.com
A77.79.12.386400s

Whois query for dontons.com...

Results returned from whois.internic.net:

Whois Server Version 2.0 Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to (link to internic)for detailed information. Domain Name: DONTONS.COM Registrar: EVERYONES INTERNET, LTD. DBA RESELLONE.NET Whois Server: Whois.theplanet.com Referral URL (deleted) Name Server: NS1.DUOMENUCENTRAS.LT Name Server: NS2.DUOMENUCENTRAS.LT Name Server: NS3.DUOMENUCENTRAS.LT Status: ok Updated Date: 08-nov-2011 Creation Date: 08-nov-2011 Expiration Date: 08-nov-2012 >>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:48:00 UTC

Andytake2

If the domain holder is indeed in eastern europe, and trading in the UK under dubious pseudonyms, the both companies house and the police should be informed as this may well constitute fraud, be a front for illegal activites such as drug smuggling etc.
The fact they appear to be trading online means that their host has a duty to remove their website, and reporting the problems to internic may well get the site blocked completely.

Another thought - Lithuania is now part of the EU, so it would be worthwhile bypassing the UK and contacting someone in the Lithuanian parliament/EU representative telling them exactly what is going on, giving the above web details.
Although they will have no direct power, they are likely to want to show that they are willing to crack down on fraudulent traders and at least have words in the right ears. I wouldn't really want to be on the receiving end of former soviet-bloc justice.....

MacChap

This, and other associated scam websites are fully documented on www dot scamwebsites dot co dot uk

Attenpts to get the hosting companies to close them down meet with varied responses. USA & UK hosting companies have been very responsive and pulled such sites within hours of receiving a report substantiated by sufficient evidence. Others, such as GoDaddy and Baltic Servers, to whom such sites have been traced, just do not want to know and say they will only act on Police intervention.

MacChap

This is the kind of reponse provided by Lithuanian hosts:

"We are not a legal institution and we can’t decide it is scam or not. Please contact police.
We working our own works – provide hosting services, servers and domains. We do not work police works, this is not our competence to pick up evidences.

I am very sorry, but we work only our own works. If you already contacted police, we will get data request and we will provide all needed information."

No matter what evidence you put in front of them, you'll just get a variation of that line in reply. Interestingly, this is their 'supposed' Abuse Policy:

ABUSE– it is when someone is physically or emotionally offended.
SPAM – is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.

1. If there is a complaint received concerning illegal activity on the clients’ behalf.
2. The first complaint is considered coincidental and allowed once a month;
3. The services are suspended after the second complaint, and not resumed until it is resolved.
4. After the third offence, your IP is included in “SPAM LIST” in The SpamHaus Project. Clearance from the list costs 10 EUR and is performed after the invoice has been paid.
5. The services are cancelled after 5 offences.

Shame they don't actually impement it

Perhaps if everyone who has been affected by this particular scam contacts them they might have a change of mind:

Data Center Manager Andrius Petkus

---

Tel./Fax +370-700-05030 / +370-700-05070
Mob.: +37068557990
USA: 1(516)833-3032
Email. : andrius @ Balticservers dot com
www dot BalticServers dot com

[I've had to put manual bits in the links as I'm not allowed to post full urls yet, as a new user!]

Solcia

Hello everyone,

I just found out this topic but unfortunately for me, 4 days too late. I have been robbed for 440 euro on leylandelc.com. The funny thing is, an hour before I ordered my Sigma lens in this "great store with family business experience and great prices" I discovered another scam with store from China (lisamaning in google US shopping ).After that I said to myself " oh, what a great store ! It can't be a scam "! - I've been so stupid ! I order my lens 30/12, but bank transfer I sent almost 4 days later ! I would kill myself, that I didn't check the name, IBAN number ! For me something was not right, when on Tuesday afternoon, my order still was pending.I thought, that I sent money for wrong account :

International Bank Transfer Details

---

Bank
Barclays

Bank Address
5 Leicesterhire,United Kingdom, LE87 2BB

Account
LEYLAND ELC LTD

SWIFT/BIC
BARC GB22

IBAN
GB37 BARC 2030 0460 0099 62

Sort Code: 20-30-04

Account number: 60009962

Please transfer full amount of you order

---

Important!
Please notify our billing department by e-mail: billing@leylandelc.com
on the day you wire your payment. Please reference you Order Number when making a payment via Wire
Transfer. This information is very important in order to properly credit your account.

I sent email, and I begged them to check this account. They didn't respond . I felt that something is not right, but I waited for email till Thursday - no answer. Yesterday I decided call them, and when I browsed their website I found only one number which starts from 0845 - the number is not using ! I felt strange and I checked their address in google maps - it's some ordinary house ! I browsed the web and I found leylandelectronic.net, but on the first sight I didn't see the difference , I called them - nothing ! I tried to sign in on their website - " account doesn't exists " - I felt that my blood pressure is .... , I looked for leylandelc.com and leylandelectronic.net once again and I realise that it's a SCAM , but I thought that only leylandelc.com is a scam. Then I discovered this topic and others sites !

My question is - what we should do ? How we can get the money back ? We can notify Director of Public Prosecutions Office , police, bank, someone or something ? I think that people like us is more ! I'm in more difficult situation because I bought my lens from Poland ( I'm polish by the way ). Any tips or ideas ? Where I can report it ?

PS. On Monday I go to Director of Public Prosecutions Office in my hometown in Poland and I notify them about this scam, maybe they do something, but I don't believe in it.