Wiltshire Police is investigating a timber scamming fraud which has so far been attempted at six merchants.
One merchant Cricklade-based A Grade Timber confirmed it had lost a small amount of plywood to the scammer, who uses the name of legitimate Newcastle-based construction firm MGM Ltd, part of the Northern Bear group, to open a credit account and order goods.
The scammer has assumed the identity of MGM’s managing director Brian Young and uses fake telephone numbers and references to try and order timber products which he has no intention paying for.
Five other timber merchants are known to have been approached by the scammer, though they became suspicious and did not supply any goods.
The real MD of MGM, Brian Young told TTJ he felt “violated” and “upset” that his identity had been taken by the scammer. “I feel sorry for the people that have got caught out.”
He urged timber traders who were contacted by the scammer to contact Wiltshire Police.
“The letterhead on the fax is different to ours, the bank details are not ours and the telephone number is not ours. The number is a Newcastle landline but takes ages to connect, as if it’s re-directing to a mobile phone.”
The first company to alert him was tarmac/cement firm Cemex which had been approached by the scammer wanting some tarmac.
David Keeling, of Abingdon-based Acorn Timber Supplies, told TTJ how he came very close to supplying an order to the scammer.
“The guy was very keen to open a credit account. He rang every day to see if everything had been agreed.”
After checking out the three references supplied and MGM’s details at Companies House, Acorn opened the account and the customer immediately placed an order for three packs of plywood and two packs of timber, worth £2,000-3,000, to be delivered in two days time. The combination of the short notice and lack of interest in pricing raised suspicions.
“We googled it and the delivery site looked like a disused farm and was the registered address of a haulage contractor. We backed off and asked for more time.”
The caller then said his contract had been cancelled anyway and disappeared.
Mr Keeling tracked down the real MGM, which told him that it was aware of the scam and that its name was being used by someone in an attempt to fraudulently obtain goods without paying.
“We are very careful with new customers and never take things at face value, but this one actually got as far as us opening an account.”
“We need to make people aware that this is happening.”
A spokesperson for Wiltshire police confirmed there is an investigation going on and urged companies who were suspicious to contact them by calling 101.
