There's been a major spike in online scammers using the used seat market as a playground. They've been stealing money from people left and right by offering deals that appear to be almost too good to be true.
These people have no shame. One person we spoke to paid electronically for the seats and arranged a local pickup of them - 4 hours away from where they lived. They were sending an employee of theirs to pick up to save on shipping. Nobody ever showed to meet him. We noticed a website while searching online and the prices were to good to be true. After we toyed with them for a bit via text and email. They wanted their payment to be by money order..that was very amusing this day in age. So we reported them to the good people at Google, and in less than an hour, Google took their website down.
Fake Groups & Companies
One specific group in particular has been identified, and if you've been dealing with any of these "businesses" which almost exclusively advertise on Facebook, RUN. The following Facebook pages and business names are all associated with a scamming group based in Cameroon, run by a man named Foryeh. He has been reported to the authorities, we've had a number of his pages removed from the internet. The Facebook pages unfortunately have not been taken down as of yet.
This Is NOT COMPREHENSIVE. This just scratches the surface. If you have been scammed by a similar website please let us know at support@oemcarandtruckseats.com and we will post it.
Fake Websites:
For the interest of safety and to not promote these websites, the .com has been excluded.
- QualityTruckSeat
- TronversegeLimited
- TronvergeLimited
- Anderson-automobile
Fake Facebook Pages:
- Quality Truck Seats
- Top Quality Truck Seats
- Universal Motor
- Truckseat Modell
Fake Contact Numbers
These scammers tend to use free texting apps, so they'll avoid phone calls. The numbers below are associated with the fake pages/websites above.
(909) 312-5394
(213) 761-4230
(909) 353-4320
(405) 877-0371
Tips For Avoiding Issues
Verify Information
If you're dealing with a Facebook page, click their "About" tab, and then click "Page Transparency". From there you can see some crucial data, including the physical location of the page manager. Even if it says USA, there's still no guarantee, but you'll weed out a lot of lazy scammers.As shown in the photo, this Auto Parts business is located in Cameroon, which is odd considering their About Us page says Los Angeles.
Click "See All" on transparency. You can see the former names of the page. These pages operate by purchasing popular pages that have facebook likes and then converting them to store pages. In this situation, Quality Truck Seat was originally "J Y K E", a comedy page.
Ask Questions
Ask for a physical address and then check google maps to see what's there.
Get the customer service phone number and call it. This will weed out many foreign scammers as they try to operate solely via text.
Ask for additional photos of the item. These scammers do not have possession of the item. Ask for close-ups, alternative angles, or even a photo of the seats with a paper that says the date on it.
Research the Company
Google the company you're dealing with. See if there are any mentions on the forums of them for firsthand unfiltered reviews.
If they have a website, check the about pages, the contact pages, legal, etc. Look for discrepancies.
Check to see if they sell product anywhere else online. Auction sites have buyer protections, so typically the large auto parts scammers will avoid them.
Stay Safe, Trust Your Intuition
If you feel like the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. Do everything you can to verify information because these people do everything they can to make sure you don't have the ability to get a refund. Don't let the fear of missing out push you into making a purchase that will come back to bite you. Buy from a reputable company or auction site, not a random facebook page.