Hi Guys,
I’ve had a friend of the family relay a bit of a horror story to me earlier on today and thought I had better post here.
Aforementioned friend recently decided to do the transition from Bus Driver to Arctic Driver. Like all good prospective customers he did his homework and contacted as many companies as possible to try and get the best deal.
A few days after ringing around and sending emails he got a call from a man reportedly from "A HGV Training Company" one of the companies he had filled in an online enquiry form a few days previously, and had already got one call from.
The guy on the end of the phone guaranteed to beat any quote he had been given if he agreed to go with this company My friend was unsure but the guy really did seem to beat every quote he had been given.
The guy told him there was no rush and he could call him back any time to book, my friend phoned round to try get the quote beaten but it was still the best in the area.
So he phoned back, agreed to send a cheque and the guy forwarded another brochure and said he would call in a few days to confirm the cheque had cleared.
After a week my friend became uneasy about having not heard anything and tried to ring the man in question. However the number given no longer worked (it was a mobile) so he tried the training companies main office who claimed to have no knowledge of these deals and certainly the PO Box given to send the cheque to didn’t match their address so they advised him to call the authorities.
He went to the police who weren’t interested, and his bank couldn’t stop the cheque. So he went to trading standards who confirmed that they were aware of other people in his situation and got him to write a report.
It turns out that the gentleman reportedly from the training company is a internet fraudster who has, on several occasions, bypassed security systems on commonly used website “Contact us” forms. To have the peoples information sent to his email, as well as the official companies.
A few days later he rings the victim claiming to be from them and offers a deal that can’t be refused. He takes the money via internet transfer or personal cheque to an offshore account, and then disposes of the mobile phone that was used (a £20 pay as you go one I imagine) as the money taken has always been over £1000.
The trading standards office say that other LGV training companies have been affected but wouldn’t say which ones, they also say that this is a big issue at the moment and a good amount of people have fallen victim.
They haven’t been able to trace the person yet and it is thought he is still active and many people have been scammed but haven’t reported it to the correct authorities.
Sorry for the LONG post but I would hate to think any would-be truckers fall into this trap.
PLEASE, if you are going to organise things over the internet and phone VISIT the training company and get a contact who you can speak to in future and recognise their voice over the phone.
Its sometimes hard when the company you want to train with is out of your area but in that case try and get a contact from someone who has been with the company before, and can give you a name and number to ring.
Best of luck, and I hope nobody here gets caught out.
All the best,
Alex
NOTE: the name of the company has been removed at their request, They have been in contact with both the police and trading standards over this topic and as yet have no reports back from either that this is happening. they also are in contact with myself. as is clear in the thread the company mentioned is not involved in an sort of fraud, and "if " this is happening it is affecting more than one company and it would not be right to single one out and name them.
