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More than $1m lost by punters lured by scammers using Google, Facebook
Author Name, ProPublica
2021-08-02 00:00:00
Four of 10 scam websites were registered to the same IP address in Newark, New Jersey. Another was also hosted in Newark under another IP address, three were hosted in the North Carolina city of Asheville, one in the Arizona city of Phoenix and one in Moscow.
Steve Byrnes, Container Traders managing director, said his company, a legitimate Newcastle-based business selling containers Australia wide, had been inundated with people sharing stories about being ripped off.
Byrnes says he started looking into the scam after customers started mentioning who they were comparing quotes with.
“There were a few things I thought were unusual. I know many of the dealers in Australia and the market rates, so what I was hearing raised red flags immediately. I completed an online enquiry through the reported website and was quickly contacted,” he says.
“I worked out he was definitely a scammer by the way he described the products, the price point and his lack of knowledge about the local industry. I tried to gain as much intel as I could, such as requesting more details about their business and operation which they avoided supplying. I shared the information I gathered with a few other industry operators.”
We are fighting back and will continue to do so, but the impotence of the digital advertising and banking enablers is extremely frustrating. — Steve Byrnes
Byrnes says within days reports of other victims started flowing in.
“I started noticing all these different names and none of the websites used .com.au. All of them had similar traits, so we engaged a few and they’re mostly using the same template.
“I saw they were using paid advertisements on Google and Facebook, and even recruiting work from home sales positions on a New Zealand job website. That’s when I realised it was organised on scale.
“Initially it didn’t occur to me how sophisticated this scam is, even going to the extent of recruiting people to be, perhaps unknowingly, part of the scam.”
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Byrnes and his company have taken a series of steps to try to get the websites taken down and the Google ads blocked. However, Byrnes says they’ve only had temporary success with one site, container-pty.com, as it was a clone of Container Traders’ company website and a clear copyright infringement. At least 14 others have continued operating.
Byrnes and other leading industry operators co-ordinated efforts to raise awareness through paid advertising to warn people of scams, placed website notifications, included warnings on email signatures, and scripted employees to warn unsuspecting buyers. They also reported to Scamwatch and the Australian Cyber Security Centre, to banks facilitating payments, fair trading and police, and created a private Facebook group for victims.
“It’s affecting the industry. In isolation, it is easy for a customer to pick a scam amongst a group of comparative quotes,” he says. “However, with the numerous scammer websites taking most top paid advertising spots on Google, the legitimate sellers are looking like the odd ones out, making it very hard for consumers to spot the scam.
“The secondary impact is that a legitimate seller will lose a sale they would have otherwise made. After losing money to a scammer, many don’t have the funds to still purchase a container.
“It is tough enough in the market at the moment without the added negative reputation resulting from scam operators. The additional resources and time spent trying to educate and assist consumers is immense.
“We are fighting back and will continue to do so, but the impotence of the digital advertising and banking enablers is extremely frustrating.”
Donna Cameron, a professional based in Canberra, was searching for a shipping container to help with moving house, when she found an ad on Facebook Marketplace for container-discounts.com. She inquired about a container and was asked for her phone number so the company could contact her.
Donna Cameron said the operation were very good at social engineering. Alex Ellinghausen
“They contacted me and that’s when the sales pitch started,” Cameron says, noting the high level of social engineering.
“They sent an invoice, and I didn’t pay it for three days. He chased me saying ‘oh, accounts are getting really edgy about this invoice’,”
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Cameron says he backed off after she explained she’d been working and was busy. But the seed was planted.
“That triggered me to start thinking about it,” she says. “When you’ve got an invoice, your natural instinct is that you owe someone money. That’s the trick, so I never really stopped to think about the legitimacy of the invoice.”
Cameron says she realised something was wrong when she called to give instructions about getting the container on to her property – the phone rang out and emails went unanswered.
The container never turned up and Cameron ended up losing $3460. She says she reported the fraud to Facebook, but got no response. She reported into various financial institutions involved, the ACCC’s Scamwatch, made complaints to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and the Australian Federal Police.
CyberCX chief strategy officer Alastair MacGibbon says platforms such as Facebook and Google need to do more about protecting users.
“They’re allowing criminals to exist on their site where they are detectable and to make any enforcement action the responsibility of the broader public, which is not a responsible business approach. In the offline world, you wouldn’t accept it,” he says.
“I would have thought they could determine when the same computer comes back in and creates the next ad. They can digitally footprint every device that interacts with them. Once they know that’s a scammer’s device, you can prevent not just ads, but bad actions, ads, fake emails and more.”
Australian contact numbers – which were listed on only some websites, or in email correspondence shared with the Financial Review – either failed to connect, or rang through on international dial tones.
The Financial Review tracked down one business whose Australian Company Number was being used by scammers on two of the fraud websites. While the registered business name does include the word container, it is not involved in shipping containers at all – instead, Container Made works on packaging in the cosmetics industry.
We’re working to get ahead of scammers by making investments in our enforcement. — Facebook spokeswoman
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Jonathan Vigar, co-founder of Container Made, says he became aware of one website last week, container-discounts.com, and reported it to Scamwatch.
“Over the weekend I got a phone call from a guy who’s got a freight business in Coffs Harbour. He let me know about the forum about that website,” Vigar says.
He contacted the ACCC again on Tuesday morning, and within two hours the site was taken down. However, he was unaware of a second website – containersalesau.com – using his company’s ACN.
“Separately, the very next phone call I received was from Maitland police. The officer was looking into a case where a local had lost money,” he says.
Containersalesau.com had the same IP address as dukecontainersaustralia.com, alshippingcontainersau.com and anderscontainers.com – all hosted in Newark. All these sites have now been blocked following industry reporting and inquiries by the Financial Review.
The URL to contact the business states “kontakty”, which is Czech for contacts. There are no phone details on the website, and the number given to prospective victims has been disconnected.
ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard says lockdowns across the country are making it harder for people to make sure what they’re buying is the real deal.
“It’s hard in this situation,” she says. “One of the things I always tell people in this situation is Google the name of the organisation, the exact words of the ads and see what others have to say, because people do go online and tell others. But that’s not a guarantee you’re not going to get scammed.”
Given the difficulty of the situation, Rickard says to be 100 per cent sure, those looking for shipping containers could take down phone numbers from those they might see while driving around.
Earlier this year, the Financial Review revealed a similar fraud operation using Google’s search engine and cryptocurrency infrastructure to dupe small investors, lured by the promise of high-yield funds badged by the world’s most trusted finance brands.
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A Facebook spokeswoman says the issue of scams is not unique to Facebook, but the company doesn’t want them on its platform.
“We’re working to get ahead of scammers by making investments in our enforcement, taking legal action against fraudsters, and providing tools for people to spot and report suspicious behaviour,” she says.
“We continue to work closely with law enforcement and government partners to quickly review and action their reports to stop these scam ads and the people behind them.”
A Google spokesman says its ad enforcement team investigated a number of the ads, many have been removed, and it is taking further enforcement action.
He says protecting users from fraud is a priority for the company and it uses automation and people to evaluate whether ads follow Google policies. The company manually reviews all complaints about ads, which helps it remove or suspend accounts.
[END]
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