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Mr. Stefano Carboni And Wholesaledeals.co.uk

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Isn’t fate a strange and flirtatious creature?

Here I am being ripped-off by Mr. Stefano Carboni, and his “Trade Portal” eSources; when I check out search terms on my blog and see that someone has arrived at my pages through a search in Google for the following string, “stefano carboni scam“.

I think to myself, “Hello, what’s this?“, and follow the link to the Google search page where I find a number of links connecting Mr. Carboni’s name to the word “scam“, and not in a very positive way. Actually, in a very negative way.

Interestingly the first two listings are mine. One I published on the RipOffReport website immediately after I lost my first money to him in April; and the other directing people to my previous eSources article in this blog.

Another Of Mr. Stefano Carboni's Sites.

Another Of Mr. Stefano Carboni's Sites.

The third link connected me to a site called UK Fraud Forum, where I found an article simply entitled “wholesaledeals.co.uk“. In which article an individual describes his or her attempts to get the goods for which they’d payed £ 476.80. This individual had tried to email the site, for support, backup, and information; however this was apparently nothing but a send message function, not a real email address, and so simply bounced back.

Additionally, no one answered the phone, as is also the case with eSources, where they provide a phone number to make the page look legitimate, but don’t “offer telephone support“. Meaning, absolutely nobody to talk to at any point in the event of anything going wrong.

This person, then got on to the police, their bank, and also the Trading Standards Office, but eventually got Mr. Carboni’s attention by ordering goods to the value of £ 30,000, but didn’t complete the payment schedule section.

By which point, it had now been three weeks that this individual had ordered their goods, without them having arrived, and had been unable to attract Mr. Carboni’s attention by any of the usual media.

Now, however it would seem, that since Mr. Carboni could see the potential of reaping a £ 30,000 windfall, as it flickered across his screen, or shot him off an email warning him of a failed transaction of  £ 30,000; within a mere hour of seeing this failed transaction notice, Mr. Carboni himself called the victim. Isn’t greed a wonderful motivator? Evidently, he hadn’t checked the details of this “client“, and wasn’t aware that he was in for a bit of an ear-bashing.

In the complainants own words,it went on from there. a few excuses followed. delivery never turning up and another excuse, and on and on. they turned up in the end but some things were broken, items were of a cheaper nature then what i ordered. i definately will not use them again. one of the worst companies i have ever had to deal with.

I think this individual was extremely lucky to even get these things. It’s quite possible that Mr. Carboni’s own greed for the possible £ 30,000 was behind this individual getting anything remotely resembling his or her actual order.

Another point to note is that the street address, as published on this website  is different from the eSources address; moreover, the complainant, in this particular case, did a little research, and discovered that the post code for the address given, was not actually in concord.  A fake address? They didn’t match. I haven’t confirmed this myself, but I’m quite interested to try the same with the eSources address. Although, I have recently been informed another victim of Mr. Carboni’s unusual business practices, that the address for the eSources business is merely a postal address, and the business doesn’t reside there in actuality. Indeed, this former victim is in doubt as to whether Mr. Carboni’s business enterprises are actually located in the UK.

Why not publish a real address? What’s he got to hide?

So, what do we have here?

We have faulty addresses, no phone, no proper email service, failure to deliver, and only contacting the client in the hopes of getting his hands on £ 30,000.

Another interesting connection to Mr. Carboni is to be found on the following link to a page on Data Wales’ website entitled:

“The fake job offer fraud. They promise a percentage, but you would lose money (and possibly your liberty). The checks they send are forged!”

Where they list the following, “Stefano Carboni, eSources UK, esources.co.uk, 27 Old Gloucester Street London  WC1N 3XX, st.carboni@yahoo.com.hk.” as being an alleged perpetrator of such an email scam or fraud.

It’s interesting to note that, Mr. Carboni doesn’t use his eSources email address, as one would expect from a respectable business person, but uses  instead a Yahoo, Hong Kong email address.

Why is that I wonder? Something to hide perhaps?

Moving on, I next find Mr. Carboni’s name connected to the Antifraud International website, where his name is listed at Number 286 on the Representative Fake Cheque Scam (RFCS) page.

Sprinting on, we next find Mr. Carboni’s name mentioned on the Scam Baiter website in connection with the RFCS cited above; and again on the 419 Scam site, and on.

So, it certainly seems that Mr. Carboni has a history of fraud and scamming; unless he has been the victim of identity theft himself?

Check it out for yourself at Google.

If you have had any problems of this kind with either of Mr. Carboni’s websites, please email your details to me. Thank you!

Keep you posted!

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Originally posted 2009-08-13 01:05:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Popularity: 48%

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Quick Checklist – How To Spot A Scam

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Quick Checklist For How To Spot A Chinese Scam Site.

The following six red rags are simply a list of indicators, which in isolated terms, may or may not mean anything; however, when found all together, should ring some alarm bells. As with anything in business or life, the whole is greater than the sum of its’ parts.

1. The Site.

The website has an absence of any Chinese version for its’ own pages.

This means they’re targeting only one group of prospects – foreigners.

That is to say, people who will not stand a hope in hell’s chance of chasing them up after the bolt is shot.

In my experience, companies in China that have Chinese and English versions of their pages are usually genuine, as they’re making themselves accessible to the home market too; particularly for companies dealing in electronics, phones, and computers.

An absence of such, may, but not always, indicate a potential scam site.

O.K. our website only has English, but we deal with requests from foreigners, and we seek-out suppliers. Suppliers seldom seek us out; although, we occasionally have a Chinese company approach us with an offer and  an introduction.

2. Contact Information.

All the email addresses are ‘Hotmail‘ or ‘Yahoo‘; there is a distinct absence of a company email address.

This in and of itself doesn’t carry too much weight, as many genuine Chinese companies operate with private email addresses.

However, it is a common enough marker amongst the scammers.

You can also try running a quick check on the company’s name and address, via the online English language page of the Yellow Pages for China, found at: www.yp.net.cn/english/.

If they have no listing, then there’s a good chance they aren’t a genuine company; either that, or they’re a SOHO (Small Office Home Office), and use their home as an office, as they usually never come face-to-face with clients, and have no need of an office as such.

However, this wouldn’t usually be the case for a technology company, as they’d normally have to have an official office, and storage facilities out of mere necessity.

3. Company Registration Number.

Of course, as a legally registered business entity, they’d need to have a business registration number.

When once you have that number, you can go to the following Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) page, for contact details of the Local Administrations office, and try to get the data for the government business registration office in the city, and the province where they claim to be registered. You can then email, fax, or phone requesting to know if this number matches a genuine business.

MOFCOM Local Administration Contact Page: http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/topic/chinainvest/localguide/200702/20070204378447.html.

Sadly however, the Ministry’s own website is very poorly put together, as you yourself will note upon visiting it, and a search for the contact data for the appropriate office may not actually work; neither does the page display correctly. I have informed the Ministry of this fault, as have others, but to no avail.

This is something I’m in the process of changing by putting together my own listing, and which I shall make available to registered users of Safely Sourcing China, and collated on a provincial, and city level.

The inaction of the Ministry to properly display this data, and its’ accompanying suspicion which is cast upon the Ministry itself, seems to have escaped them.

4. Unbeatable Offer.

This one is a complete no-brainer; if the price seems to good to be true – then it’s a scam.

5. Payment.

Ask if the company will accept an L/C (Letter of Credit); if they only take Western Union, PayPal, and the likes, then they’re more than likely a scammer.

6. IP Check.

Run an IP address check on the company and see how many other web addresses they have registered to them.

Personally I’ve come across guys with upwards of 2 or 3 hundred websites connected to them as the registrant.

Go here and type the web address, MINUS the WWW bit, into the box: whois.domaintools.com/.

This last one is a definite NO-NO. If you see they’re registered to a cartload of websites, just turn your back, shake the dust from your sandals, and leave.

And that’s about it for your basic checks; more to come in the future.

Trade Safely!

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Originally posted 2009-08-13 01:20:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Popularity: 18%

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