Hello, sorry if it is really OT, perhaps also for the OT category, but I need your (bit of) help.
A close friend of mine got scammed by a fake travel agency that advertise on Facebook promising super cheap flights, it “looks” exactly like one of that true sites selling flight tickets (gotogate, lastminute, etc…) but when it is time to pay it tells you that the credit card is not working and trick you to send money to a bank account in a Lithuanian bank.
I have tried to take this site down by months now, it’s incredible, the register doesn’t reply, I have no feedbacks from the police forces, my own reviews where I denounce the scam are either a drop in the ocean of fake positive reviews or are taken down for not respecting the terms (!)
The scammer(s?) is also started to point me directly like blocking my IP or creating buggy sites to cover up their activity in response to my reviews.
The site I am referring is mangoflights DOT com, I don’t add it here as a link to avoid them pointing back to this post.
I have wrote a page where I detail the scam:
Could you help me spread the link a bit so that it is indexed by google? Currently it isn’t, and I feel bad that there are people around that got scammed and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.
Before this case I would have never thought the scale of fake reviews… I was naive and thinking that most review sites apply some AI techniques, but no, they let pass everything… and when you try to explain the scam, they have likely just a few seconds to check, and if the business “looks” normal at first sight, they don’t take any action…
Not to speak about “trust score”… A site (scamadviser.com) is giving 100% trust score (!) just because the domain is 14 yers old, doesn’t matter it was a parked domain and it has been bought just a few months ago…
Which police forces? The country your friend lives in, or where the bank is? Was it reported to both? In most countries when you report something to the police (officially) you get some sort of acknowledgement by default, and a case number. In most (maybe all?) EU countries you can do this electronically now. But yes, after that their primary concern is not giving you or the victim feedback on a regular basis.
Even though going through law enforcement may seem like the tedious option, it is usually the only effective one. No one else has the authority and the tools to track down scammers.
Contacting the bank in question (in addition) may also be effective. Banks are extremely wary of being used for criminal purposes. Cite the case numbers you got from the police when you write to them.
I didn’t went to the bank way because I am afraid it is something little bit like a forwarding… Lithuania is a well known country for having developed internet friendly businesses, but this also means it is easier for a scammer to open a bank account and tomorrow just change it…
My friend (the one “scammed”) reported it physically to the Italian police (his country), I reported it to the US and UK agencies online, more than one month ago, but the site is still there… it is not that you report it and after few hours the site is down, I think they also are overloaded of customer reports…
Any how, after a few months they change name… but it is still an “investment” for them, so they don’t want to do it too frequently…
You need a valid photo ID to open a bank account — even if it was stolen, at least from that point they will know and it cannot be used for more accounts.
I would hope not, they should follow due process and investigate. Otherwise, imagine how easy it would be to taken down legitimate sites. And effectively, only the police can investigate cases like this.
If your friend saw a Facebook ad, he should consider reporting it to Facebook, and actually should consider using some wording like he will present charges against them (Facebook) for not veryfing that the website was legit.
Do you think they will act? I am a bit tired… for example I did click (twice) on “report abuse” on the cover-up site on Blogger: https://www.mangofight.com/
That’s clearly a cover up site, that the scammer set up as reaction of one of mine review, but nothing happened. The scammer has a facebook page (this is not a kid… they are using cloudfares, bougth for 1900$ a 14 years domain name…), now that you make me thing I did report that FB page, but as it was looking credible, we go back to the point before, they have just a few seconds to examinate your request, and if the site/fb page “looks” legit, they just ignore your request… crazy it is, it is like that…
A few years ago I met a friend of friend that was visiting from Spain. She was a full time employee of a travel agency (As per recollection) and her sole job was to try to deter these travel based scammers. So some inquiries with travel agencies may be helpful.
The account is not theirs. The scammers put ads on Facebook, where they tell people that they can make lots of money working from home. The “job” consists of allowing transfers into your personal bank account, and then passing it on, minus a commission.
If you contact the bank they will do an investigation and probably reverse the transaction. The money mule has already forwarded a large chunk of your money to the scammers, so he takes the loss. Also, it will be difficult for him to set up another bank account in the future.
The scammers don’t care. They still got their money. All they lost was one money mule, and there’s an infinite supply of those on Facebook.
Thanks for this information, if there is a great hacker in this Discourse perhaps that person can identify who creates the site, the location, etc. I feel sorry for those who have been scammed by this kind of sites.
If police can’t help maybe we need a better cyber police, since social media only spread porn, orgies party and scam fake site like this, no wonder dot-com bubble for social media will come in few years.
It will be solved don’t worry. Someone who reads this with great heart will do action and no talk.
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I have tried to take this site down by months now, it’s incredible, the register doesn’t reply, I have no feedbacks from the police forces, my own reviews where I denounce the scam are either a drop in the ocean of fake positive reviews or are taken down for not respecting the terms (!)
In Indonesia, a lot of seller in online shop like Tokopedia also do this they will drop the negative review, even if it is the truth, to be able to sell more. Defection happens, it is statistics. They only care about money.