Man believes he bought vehicle at Solan Motors in Madison; but the dealership doesn't exist.
UPDATED Thursday, October 13, 2011
NBC15.com
MADISON--At first click Solan Motors appears to be a legitimate car dealership: pictures of good-looking, high-end used cars, local contact information, even a map showing where they're located.
So, Sophearoath Yuk, who lives in California, tried to purchase a 2011 Range Rover for his brother in Cambodia. "What happened is I purchased a car and then I let my brother, he wired the money to the account," said Yuk.
Yuk's brother wired $63,000 to the Solan Motore account and they were told the car would be sent to Yuk's address--but the vehicle never came. "After we wired the money, for a week he never pick up the phone so that's why I fly out there to find him," said Yuk.
The Solan Motors website lists 350 Atlas Avenue as their location here in Madison,WI. We stopped by the area where the building should be--and there was no sign of a car dealership anywhere. Which is what Yuk realized when he got here. "I didn't see any dealer, I know the first thing I have to do is report it to the police in Madison," he said.
"It actually only exists in cyberspace," said Joel DeSpain, the PIO for the Madison Police Department. "We started investigating and Solan Motors, at least the IP address for this company, comes back to the Ukraine."
DeSpain said the Madison Police Department doesn't have any ability to go after the people in Ukraine, other than to pass the information on to federal authorities. But he said protecting yourself against internet scams like this is pretty basic. "Don't wire money somewhere on something you've not seen to people you've never met," he said.
For his part, Yuk said he'll be doing things differently going forward. "Next time I will go check the car, everything, before I wire the money," he said.
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Posted Thursday, October 13, 2011 --- 12:40 p.m.
From the Madison Police Department:
Incident Type:
Fraud
Incident Date:
10/11/2011 - 10:15 AM
Address:
809 S. Thompson Dr. (MPD East District)
Victim:
Male, age 31, Rosemead, CA
Male, Cambodia
Details:
At first blush the website looks legitimate, with offerings of some very expensive used vehicles at discounted prices. However, if you live in Madison, chances are you have never heard of Solan Motors.
According to its website, the dealership is located on 350 Atlas Ave. There is even a map showing the Madison location, problem is when you try to see a street view, or get specific directions to Solan Motors by clicking on the website, it doesn’t work. That’s because Solan Motors does not exist, at least not in Madison, WI. It’s only somewhere out there in cyberspace, and is the brainchild of someone in Kiev, Ukraine.
The MPD now knows this because one of our computer forensic experts traced the IP address after a California man showed up at the East Police District Tuesday morning.
He had come to Madison to pick up a white 2011 Range Rover, a vehicle for which his brother paid $63,000. The California man explained that his sibling lives in Cambodia, and that he was going to drive it back to California. It would then be a shipped to his brother.
The brother had found the SUV online, and thought he had good deal. He believed he was negotiating with a Madison based internet car dealer by the name of “Tom Davis.” He ended up wiring funds from Cambodia to a Wells Fargo account, which had also been setup in Madison.
Wells Fargo representatives have told MPD investigators the funds have already been removed from the account.
Again, this is a sophisticated scam.
Solan even established a couple of phone numbers with 608 area codes. They were also bogus.
The victim’s brother said Solan Motors had been listed on Cars.com. The phony company is no longer found on that website, but Solan Motors still appears to be open for business, as the “company” can be found through a simple internet search.
Potential buyers can read about how “straightforward and honest” those at Solan claim to be, and how they “ look forward to meeting you!” Just don’t try to find anyone from Solan in Madison. They’re in the Ukraine.
UPDATED Thursday, October 13, 2011
NBC15.com
MADISON--At first click Solan Motors appears to be a legitimate car dealership: pictures of good-looking, high-end used cars, local contact information, even a map showing where they're located.
So, Sophearoath Yuk, who lives in California, tried to purchase a 2011 Range Rover for his brother in Cambodia. "What happened is I purchased a car and then I let my brother, he wired the money to the account," said Yuk.
Yuk's brother wired $63,000 to the Solan Motore account and they were told the car would be sent to Yuk's address--but the vehicle never came. "After we wired the money, for a week he never pick up the phone so that's why I fly out there to find him," said Yuk.
The Solan Motors website lists 350 Atlas Avenue as their location here in Madison,WI. We stopped by the area where the building should be--and there was no sign of a car dealership anywhere. Which is what Yuk realized when he got here. "I didn't see any dealer, I know the first thing I have to do is report it to the police in Madison," he said.
"It actually only exists in cyberspace," said Joel DeSpain, the PIO for the Madison Police Department. "We started investigating and Solan Motors, at least the IP address for this company, comes back to the Ukraine."
DeSpain said the Madison Police Department doesn't have any ability to go after the people in Ukraine, other than to pass the information on to federal authorities. But he said protecting yourself against internet scams like this is pretty basic. "Don't wire money somewhere on something you've not seen to people you've never met," he said.
For his part, Yuk said he'll be doing things differently going forward. "Next time I will go check the car, everything, before I wire the money," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted Thursday, October 13, 2011 --- 12:40 p.m.
From the Madison Police Department:
Incident Type:
Fraud
Incident Date:
10/11/2011 - 10:15 AM
Address:
809 S. Thompson Dr. (MPD East District)
Victim:
Male, age 31, Rosemead, CA
Male, Cambodia
Details:
At first blush the website looks legitimate, with offerings of some very expensive used vehicles at discounted prices. However, if you live in Madison, chances are you have never heard of Solan Motors.
According to its website, the dealership is located on 350 Atlas Ave. There is even a map showing the Madison location, problem is when you try to see a street view, or get specific directions to Solan Motors by clicking on the website, it doesn’t work. That’s because Solan Motors does not exist, at least not in Madison, WI. It’s only somewhere out there in cyberspace, and is the brainchild of someone in Kiev, Ukraine.
The MPD now knows this because one of our computer forensic experts traced the IP address after a California man showed up at the East Police District Tuesday morning.
He had come to Madison to pick up a white 2011 Range Rover, a vehicle for which his brother paid $63,000. The California man explained that his sibling lives in Cambodia, and that he was going to drive it back to California. It would then be a shipped to his brother.
The brother had found the SUV online, and thought he had good deal. He believed he was negotiating with a Madison based internet car dealer by the name of “Tom Davis.” He ended up wiring funds from Cambodia to a Wells Fargo account, which had also been setup in Madison.
Wells Fargo representatives have told MPD investigators the funds have already been removed from the account.
Again, this is a sophisticated scam.
Solan even established a couple of phone numbers with 608 area codes. They were also bogus.
The victim’s brother said Solan Motors had been listed on Cars.com. The phony company is no longer found on that website, but Solan Motors still appears to be open for business, as the “company” can be found through a simple internet search.
Potential buyers can read about how “straightforward and honest” those at Solan claim to be, and how they “ look forward to meeting you!” Just don’t try to find anyone from Solan in Madison. They’re in the Ukraine.
6 comments:
You got both from me,my sympathy and my laugh,a lot of laughs in fact.This amount of money was equal to my (last) full year salary(I retired 10 years ago). So whoever wired from Cambodia must be relatively rich!
Do not be so naive especially when you live in the US!
It is just less than my annual salary. But I must wonder why these two Cambodians are so naive to wire/send $63,000 to a car dealer without having seen the car or visit the dealership. I would never send $1000, let alone $63,000 to anyone without having seen the car or the salesman personally. I wonder why the guy in America didn't ask the brother to send the money to him and then he can buy a check to give it to the dealer personally. If I were him, that's what I will do. If I can't see the car, then I won't pass over the check to him. Period!
What comes around goes around. The $63,000 was probably from raping our country of her resources. ROFLMAO!!!!!Stupid buffoon!!!
Cambodian govt should start TAXING these richest people in cambodia, they got 50-100,000. of dollars buying brand new Lexus,LX570-2011, range rover...? I knew some people getting away from TAX, because they used STATE's License plate...Damn!
Money came from illegally logging business, land grabbing or land robbing, scams the state's money, foreign donors money....
Get real! aren't you guys currently living a country that have a sound legal syetem? Don't you ever hear "innocent until proven guilty"?
I too, hate those traitors who abusing their powers and rob the country and our ppl for their own benefits. But in this case, he is a victim! Just b/c he has $63000 to spend on a car, it does not mean that he deserve to be scamed.I hate the socalled "patriot" who accuses others of being a traitor (based on one single factor) to mask their jealousy.
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