Mobile World Ltd

[andylsbc6]

Hi i am from Singapore...Recently found a great deal apple stuffs posted on http://www.88db.com.sg
They sell really cheap apple stuffs and they are from Mobile World Ltd, the website is http://www.mobileworldlimited.com/.

Just want to ask have anyone buy stuff from this site before...? recently heard that that are lots of scammers from UK...And this site is from UK and was using western union for the paying process...should i trust this site? cause i have no experience on the scam part...any advice will be much appreciated..thanks..=))

[Dotti]

SCAM!!!!

Key pieces of registration details:

Updated Date: 09-mar-2010
Creation Date: 09-mar-2010
Expiration Date: 09-mar-2011

So the site has been around for 2 months, yet the "about us" says they have been in business since 1998...

More from the registration:

Registrant [2440503]:
samuel wales [email protected]
90 Lund Ave
Hayward
CA
94544
US

So looking up Mr. Wales, I find this on a Nigerian internet marketing board
(Source: internetmarketingnigeria.com/general/5-alternative-payment-solution-to-paypal/)

wales December 24, 2009 at 3:43 pm

AlertPay accepts nigerians and its completely free but they have proxy detection on their servers so any attempt to access your account behind proxies or socks could lead to suspension of your account. You have to upload your ID and utility bill to get verified. But to be able to accept payment via credit card you have to provide your website for review and they dont seems to accept credit card from some certain regions as well.

I can setup Paypal account, assist you in ecommerce, design great website to sell your products, get usa number and other country numbers, us +uk sims, get a virtual us, uk, europe address, the trick of verifying paypal using your nigeria visa card and how to access your paypal without been blocked or limited and much moree…

Mail: [email protected],

So essentially he is offering to help Nigerians to fake addresses, phone numbers and credit card info...hmmm (He is probably Nigerian himself.)

Just for the heck of it, even though I already knew it was a scam, I did one more quick search--this time on a rather unique line in the testimonials: "First time I got something from here it was when i was looking for a hard-to-find bluetooth earpiece for my special ears" That line is unique, and I wouldn't expect to find it anywhere else--instead, I find 9 other similar sites (one of which has already been confirmed fraudulent) have the exact same line...

Here is that search
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22First ... l&filter=0

Good job on questioning this--in addition to saving yourself from being scammed, you have probably helped several other people who might have fallen for the same scam. Hopefully our site killers will be able to take out some or all of these sites too.

[GomerPyle]

and was using western union for the paying process

Western Union cannot make a payment to a company. That's a legal fact and you would be asked to make the payment to an individual, which exposes what you would really be doing - paying money to a complete stranger who has no intention of sending you anything.

If you are asked for payment by Western Union and the people are pretending to be a company, that's enough on it's own to tell you it's a scam. How many people do you know who don't have a bank account ? Now think of how many long established companies operate without a bank account. There is no good reason why a reputable company would want to hide their bank account from a paying customer.

From what Dotti has uncovered, he's a professional scammer, and not a very good one, but he can probably make a very good living from people who don't make simple checks. Thankfully you did, and won't lose your money to a thief.

[andylsbc6]

thanks everyone for the advice...will be very careful ...

[white45]

Oh dear, I've just placed an order with them worth almost $1000 SGD. I regret not having done some research beforehand, the worst thing is the money belongs to my mother...
Is there no way to save the situation?

[GomerPyle]

How did you pay ?

If the answer is by Western Union then I'm sorry to say that the answer is that there is virtually no chance of getting your money back.

If you paid another way - maybe, but it's clear that these people are professional scammers and thieves, so they aren't abiding by normal trading standards that would be expected to provide recourse. In other words, they never had any intention of doing anything other than steal your money.

I'm checking up on some things I've unearthed but I'm doubtful it will be of any help to you. I'll post what I've discovered when I can.

[Dotti]

If you sent the money WU or moneygram, have you verified it was picked up? If not, that's the first thing you need to do, because you can cancel the transaction if it hasn't been picked up yet.

[GomerPyle]

The 'Mobile World' scam is massive in scale but that's only a fraction of the company names they've used and abused. As soon as they've got too many warnings on the internet associated with the name they're using they'll swap to using another name. This is a very large group of scammers using many different mobile numbers and forum spamming on a scale I've never seen before. It's a criminal enterprise on an industrial scale.

This is another company name they've abused

http://www.ukdata.com/creditreports/vie ... ly-match=1

Don't buy from any company that you can see has been involved in forum spamming and if they mention Western Union, forget about them and don't allow them to mention other payment options.

[GomerPyle]

It would be useful white45 if you could post up a header to any e-mail you might have received from one of these scammers.

There's something that makes me believe that they could be based in Singapore, but I can't be certain.

I still doubt that there's much chance that you can get your money back but you may have a better chance of having the criminal arrested if he can be shown to be located in your own country.

The worry is that this appears to be a large gang and they may have scammers and 'mules' located all round the world, and they're switching indentities at a very fast pace and that makes it hard to track them down.

If everyone remembered that companies don't use Western Union or personal accounts to receive money - these scammers wouldn't ever make any money.

[UK Data]

Hello,

I am a representative from UK Data.

I would like to offer a warning to those wishing to do on-line business transactions with companies they do not know.

We advise all potential customers to do a quick check on our site www.ukdata.com to obtain basic company details. The company MOBILE WORLD LIMITED Registered No.07262737 is a very newly incorporated company and therefore, we have very little information about them. It is not recommended to do business with a company that has no credit history as you are unable to obtain background information which is held in our credit reports.

In addition, we would advise you NEVER to pay for goods by Western Union to an unknown company, as you are simply not protected.

We at UK Data are actively trying to prevent on-line scams by our blogs and fraud help pages. For more advice and help about how to avoid being scammed please visit ukdata.com/help/fraudalert.php and http://ukdata.blogspot.com/2009/04/more ... ntion.html

[GomerPyle]

I understand what you're saying UK Data however, the point is that, as far as we can tell, the scammers operating the website are impersonating the Company - Mobile World Ltd - and a credit report doesn't therefore have any relevance in that situation. A credit report would be misleading as it wouldn't refer to the 'company' operating the website.

We look at things differently.

[Ralph]

Hi UK Data, thank you for the advice, much of it is spot on however as Gomer has pointed out, in many cases the scammers will use the name of a real company.

Most people would have heard of the Microsoft lottery scam which by the way still catches out many people, it is just a scammer impersonating another company and using a variety of tools to look legitimate.

Looking up a company to see if they are real is never going to do any harm but I would strongly suggest that anybody who finds the company name is legitimate should be making sure the person who contacted them actually is from that company.

One of the best ways to do that is to check their credentials very carefully, is their email address part of the same email domain as the website, are there contact details that you can verify in the phone book for yourself, does that company have an employee by the name of the person who conatcted you.

Is there eany reason why that company would be contacting you, have you given that company your email address for instance, if no, do not reply, any company that needs to spam you is not worth doing business with.

[UK Data]

I understand what you're saying UK Data however, the point is that, as far as we can tell, the scammers operating the website are impersonating the Company - Mobile World Ltd - and a credit report doesn't therefore have any relevance in that situation. A credit report would be misleading as it wouldn't refer to the 'company' operating the website.

We look at things differently.

Hi GomerPyle and Ralph,

Our Full Report includes the owners of the company ie; the Directors and shareholders so you are able to check if you are dealing with the correct people. We are trying to encourage people to always check out a company on our site from the basic (free) information we provide and then if still unsure look are our fraud help pages https://www.ukdata.com/help/fraudalert.php which details how to spot a scam. We get hundreds of complaints about fraudulent website companies and are actively trying to prevent these unscrupulous scammers as it can damage our name and the legitimate companies we list.

[Ralph]

I do appreciate what you do is helping to reduce scammers, I dont want to take that away from you but i must stress that even after checking on your website, it is still very possible for a scammer to use a legitimate company's name as well as the real name of a senior employee.

Of course, if a person was to make these checks as you suggest it would greatly reduce the chance of them being scammed but it is dangerous to suggest that after checking that the name of the company and senior employee, there is still no guarantee that the person is not a scammer who has assumed the identity of that person, we see the same kind of thing happen on a very regular basis with the Military scams where real persons details are used in the scam

[UK Data]

Hi Ralph,

I totally agree, I too get so many e-mails on a daily basis about fraudsters using legitimate company details and it can be very difficult to do background checks. However, UK Data try to point out the obvious points to avoid such as money transfers and free e-mail accounts and mobile phone numbers and we have managed to stop a lot of people from being scammed. I believe, sites like ours and this one are an invaluable source of information to the online customer.