A Nottinghamshire engineering firm says people are being defrauded out of thousands of pounds and left "distraught" by a fake website imitating their business. Staff at Rock Civils Engineering in Langar say one recent customer came from as far as Glasgow to find that what he had been sold did not exist.
"People are obviously just seeing these cheap prices and getting caught in the trap of coming, but it's getting absolutely ridiculous. The phone never stops ringing and people are coming in person everyday expecting to pick things up that just aren't here. Mr Kane says one recent victim of the scam had paid just under £20,000 for two dumpers that didn't exist. Chris Ireland, the plant manager with the business, said: "We first found out about this on July 27 when someone came in to collect a horse box which we hadn't sold.
"People who have been paying on credit card have been able to get some money back from the bank, but they're never going to get all of this back. We just need the website taking down and the message getting out there to people not to buy from it or any of these social media accounts." Mr Kane added: "The message we're getting is that the actual people who have been defrauded need to be coming forward and I think reputation is a bit of an intangible asset. But it is using up so much resource to be answering all these calls and dealing with all these complaints.