Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

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AUbicycles
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Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

Postby AUbicycles » Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:34 pm

There is a wave of scams which are being promoted - good brands but unbelievably low prices such as a $1,600 Polygon Stratos bike for $110.

Updated: Fake Trek websites are now created.

The purpose of this thread is to collect (with the help of the community) some of the retailers names involved for the purpose of helping others who want to check-up. The websites and systems look good and will mislead some naive buyers who pay the money and it is then lost forever. Even if the credit card company pays the money back... it is then the credit card company who loses when then don't or can't recover.

Tip - on Facebook or other social media, if you see the ads, eg. $100 or $150 road bikes... report them as a scam.


For scammers that appear to be Australian based, report them here:
https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam/
Generally, the scammers operating these fake sites are not Australian based, rather appear to be predominantly Chinese operations.


For the list of names of scam sites, the intention is not to link and create traffic... rather mention the names as warnings - to better not to put in full URLs.

Facebook
- Reverso
- Fineyeeofficial
- Devine
- Supreme

Instagram
- Toucan Appliances
- Benessere LILLA
- vovsound

Websites [scam still active]

- abyciycle
- biao.is
- bikingdeals (active)
- bestwatchesi
- cycleonsell
- cyclesday
- cyclestroy
- cyclesoups
- cyclesoutlet
- discycle
- fortheshop
- getacycle
- getcyclenow
- greateoutlet
- hotmyshop
- hunterlive.club (fashion)
- jblsonline.club (electronic)
- myboxsole
- mygoutlets
- opp
- shopsprice
- sidieur
- sidistore (contains virus)
- treaiwbl.club
- trekzo.top
- tobuycycle
- togocycle
- tosdeals
- topshophere
- ucoats


- electronicdigitals [offline]
- servicecente [offline]
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MichaelB
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby MichaelB » Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:58 pm

Saw 'Devine' on Facebook

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby bychosis » Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:16 pm

I reported two o Facebook marketplace last night. One was using the bicycles online logo as a header selling e-bikes for under $200. Using the logo was enough to make me think it was worth investigating further, which I did and decided it was a scam. If I didn’t know better the logo may have been up enough to relieve me of some funds.
bychosis (bahy-koh-sis): A mental disorder of delusions indicating impaired contact with a reality of no bicycles.

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby AUbicycles » Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:34 pm

Yes - make a not of the names used on facebook.

The scam sites are ripping off the logos - the one I saw a few times was the bicyclesonline logo, one had a coloured / tinted version with a red shade instead of the correct blue.

The good news, some of the sites are already offline.
Correction: a number were just updating with new logos.
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby AUbicycles » Fri Jun 22, 2018 10:11 pm

I noticed that some sites that were temporarily down then returned with updated logos - a lot ripping off the bicyclesonline logo with variations.

Here is an example and some (but not all) logo variations. Also for ease of use, the list is now sorted alphabetically and if there are any new ones in following posts, I will update as well as sort any which are reported active.

There are a lot of scam watch website by the same group... depending on the quantity, I may just limit the list to bike scams. At this stage they are all polygon bikes with content ripped from the genuine retailer BicyclesOnline.

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby BrisBoy » Sat Jun 23, 2018 11:48 am

Yep, i had my first online idiot moment with one of these (shopsprice.com). Put my details in and about an hour later i thought "your an idiot" and cancelled my credit card. It was the fake "bicyclesonline" header logo which got me mostly. Didn't realise it wasn't their website.

So stupid. Live and learn, i guess.

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby Arbuckle23 » Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:45 pm

Just had the ad Michael posted show up on my Facebook feed. Reported it as a scam.
I suppose every little report may help :x

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby Baalzamon » Tue Jun 26, 2018 4:31 pm

I saw a recumbent trike on ebay that was sus. Had a url inside it saying $2000 au to get the trike. Click on the url and takes you to a different ebay site lol
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby Thoglette » Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:31 pm

Baalzamon wrote:I saw a recumbent trike on ebay that was sus. Had a url inside it saying $2000 au to get the trike. Click on the url and takes you to a different ebay site lol
There's a lot of this going on. Typically an account gets compromised and the scammers put a pile of "bargains" up with click-throughs to other locations. Often the listings are in a part of ebay far, far away from the original account.

Report it to ebay - it's a few clicks to get to the appropriate "contact us" form but they move swiftly once they get told.
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby Baalzamon » Tue Jun 26, 2018 9:25 pm

Thoglette wrote:
Baalzamon wrote:I saw a recumbent trike on ebay that was sus. Had a url inside it saying $2000 au to get the trike. Click on the url and takes you to a different ebay site lol
There's a lot of this going on. Typically an account gets compromised and the scammers put a pile of "bargains" up with click-throughs to other locations. Often the listings are in a part of ebay far, far away from the original account.

Report it to ebay - it's a few clicks to get to the appropriate "contact us" form but they move swiftly once they get told.
It vanished fairly quickly on both occasions and I reported the URL to google as well.
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby AUbicycles » Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:31 am

New Fake Trek scam stores via instagram:

treaiwbl.club
trekto.za
nikeairmax.club
hunterlive.club

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Ross
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby Ross » Thu Jun 28, 2018 6:24 am

Look out for fake online Sidi shoe shops as well.
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/interna ... -shoes-and

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby Bunged Knee » Thu Jun 28, 2018 7:36 am

^^ I'm not clicking on this link....

Haven't you read Chris comment in not to put the links in??
AUbicycles wrote: For the list of names of scam sites, the intention is not to link and create traffic... rather mention the names as warnings - to better not to put in full URLs.
ID please? What ID? My seat tube ID is 27.2mm or 31.6mm depending on what bikes I ride today.thanks...

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby find_bruce » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:55 am

Bunged Knee wrote:^^ I'm not clicking on this link....

Haven't you read Chris comment in not to put the links in??
AUbicycles wrote: For the list of names of scam sites, the intention is not to link and create traffic... rather mention the names as warnings - to better not to put in full URLs.
It's ok- the link is to a news article about the dodgy sites, which also appears to have been careful not to link to the dodgy sites.
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby bychosis » Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:34 am

I wonder how many more suckers they would get if the discounts were much more reasonable. Surely a half intelligent person gets a warning sign when it is $2k reduced to $200. If it was a reduction of $2k to $1000 are you likely to be less wary and think it's a bargain as opposed to a scam?
bychosis (bahy-koh-sis): A mental disorder of delusions indicating impaired contact with a reality of no bicycles.

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby MichaelB » Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:03 pm

Another good sign is when they advertise the discount as 60%, but it's actually 90% :roll:

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby Thoglette » Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:18 pm

bychosis wrote: Surely a half intelligent person gets a warning sign when it is $2k reduced to $200.
They don't want half intelligent people. Scammers want really gullible, greedy people.
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby AUbicycles » Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:58 pm

Interesting read. Have added the known sidi scam sites.
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bike

Postby MichaelB » Fri Jun 29, 2018 10:39 am

Saw another one on Facebook - now listing ebikes.

This one has the Opshop round logo and name 'Supreme'

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

Postby Lowell Ferrer » Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:13 pm

Another site is ondealshop.com which was in Facebook in which i too got dupe.They use the Australian base Bicyclesonline.com.au to trade.Here i was thinking ordering and paid for a Polygon XQUARONE EX9
AU$13,156.45 valued for $169.00. #6436258 approved 26/06/2018 1 AU$167.18

BE AWARE

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

Postby opik_bidin » Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:57 pm

got this scam from transactionverified@dr.com and scottdan231@gmail.com

asked about my ad in gumtree, then want to only communicate by email, then sent this

---
(scottdan231@gmail.com)
Thanks for the swift response and do as well advise on the least amount you will like to give it away as i am buying this for my daughter and due to the nature of my job and location...i will not be able to come for inspection,am a very busy type as i work long hours everyday,i have gone through your advertisement and i am satisfied with it.

As for the payment..i can only pay via the fastest and secure way to pay online(PayPal) here.

I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after the payment have been made...

You can now send me your PayPal email so i can pay in right away and also include your address in your reply.If you don't have a paypal account, you can easily set up one...log on to www.paypal.com.au and sign up its very easy... i would have loved to talk to you on phone but i work mainly offshore, our phone is down on the rig right now due to bad weather, that was why i sent you an email, i even wonder how my message deliver to your phone but for now we can only communicate through the same mailing channel.await your reply.
Thanks
---
then the email sent this :

---
(transactionverified@dr.com)

Dear xxxxxxx,

This email confirms that you have received an Instant payment of $1270.00 AUD from Daniel Scott via PayPal Service.

Reversals : This method of payment can not be reversed.

Status : Pending - Transport Agent Awaiting Payment.


View the details of this pending transaction below


Payment Details
Merchandise Amount: $900.00 AUD
Transport Charges:
Transfer Charges:
Total:
$300.00 AUD
$70.00 AUD
$1270.00 AUD
Status: Pending
Merchandise Title:


Bike








The total funds has been deducted from Daniel Scott(buyer's) account including our service charges and a temporary hold as been placed on it by our fund verification team, the payment will not show up in your account balance due to the temporary hold placed on it. The total fund is being held at our fund verification team desk for verification due to the Route of this transaction. Below is the verification procedure you are to follow before we can release the total sum of $1270.00 AUD which is on hold to your account.

1:You are to send the added shipping fee of $300.00 AUD upfront to the shipping agent's name and address below via Western Union at any Western Union Money Transfer location.

2:Forward the Western Union Money Transfer details (MTCN,Senders name and address) to us by replying directly to this email after sending the shipping fee so that we can proceed in our verification process and release the total funds to your account immediately after we get the requirement from you.

Please note:
The Buyer will not be permitted to reverse the funds before or after you have sent the shipping fee to the shipping agent's name and address below via Western Union.This means that you are also safe and secured by sending the shipping fee upfront to complete this transaction.

Please, find below the name and address of the Transport Agent where the $300.00 AUD should be sent via Western Union.







First Name: QUANG VAN

Last Name: TRAN

Address : 109 Tran Hung Dao Boulevard

City: Ho Chi Minh

State: Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh

Zip Code: 700000

Country: Viet Nam.


Address Status: Confirmed













Your account will be credited accordingly after replying to this email with the details of the Western Union requested which are the:

(1) MTCN;
(2) Sender's Name;
(3) Sender's Address;

Note: As this transaction was done via our e-mail payments service, all inquiries should be directed to us by replying to this email. This email is the one being monitored for this transaction because the status of this transaction cannot be accessed via our customer care phone service section.Sincerely,

The PayPal Team

-------

I was careful as although it did look like it was sent by paypal in my phone, I clicked details to really see if it was sent by paypal, also opened my paypal account to see if there was money coming in. so it was most probably scam

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

Postby Bunged Knee » Wed Jul 25, 2018 10:20 pm

(AT) opik_bidon, this is a common scam and been reported in Google search.

It had the same wordings as in https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/349193.

If I was asked like that, then I will blocked the sender's email and report them for scam.
ID please? What ID? My seat tube ID is 27.2mm or 31.6mm depending on what bikes I ride today.thanks...

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

Postby AUbicycles » Thu Jul 26, 2018 7:54 am

The ‘private courier’ scam is, as noted a common one. Digital payment can indeed in many ways be reversed, but the confirmation emails is simply faked.

Western Union is the preferred payment service for scammers, once you send your money, it is gone forever.

It is unusual that on the first contact there is extremely detailed info how to use paypal... it is not nomal to get such detailed instructions on a first contact.

Also, as a seller, why would you pay money.


While the scam isn’t hard to spot for any savvy person, thanks for sharing as this info genuinely helps others.

What you can do is report the email to gmail. They are hopeless responding, but who knows... if they loose their email, it stops their other running scams.
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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

Postby MichaelB » Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:39 am

It just goes to show, that even when it's really obvious, people still fall for it.

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Re: Scam Watch - Too good to be true bikes for sale

Postby Bunged Knee » Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:14 am

LOL on this old Whirlpool post of Gumtree scam.


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ID please? What ID? My seat tube ID is 27.2mm or 31.6mm depending on what bikes I ride today.thanks...

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