In February I responded to a Craig's List posting for a 2001 Fleetwood Discovery Diesel Pusher Motorhome. The person I contacted was a Rayan Larsson who represented himself as having recently inherited the Motorhome from his late father. Further he claimed that he had sold the motorhome once but the sale had fell through and as a result, shipping was already paid to any location in the U.S.
After researching the Motorhome via the VIN number through CarFax and finding the owner information as indicated by Mr. Larsson, I communicated with Mr. Larsson that I was interested in pursuing the purchase. Mr. Larsson stated that he wanted to use an on line escrow service to protect us both, and in particular InovoTrade Online Escrow Service. I did extensive WEB searches of InovoTrade and found over eight years of glowing reviews and recommendations. Mr. Larsson set up his side of the account, and InovoTrade contacted me to set up my side of the account. Once the account was set up, I was instructed to wire the funds for the Motorhome to the escrow company (InovoTrade) and the Motorhome would be delivered to me in 5 to 7 days, and I would have a 7 day inspection period in which time if I found any problems with the Motorhome, and or exceptions to how it was represented, I could cancel the transaction and InovoTrade would return my funds to me. I wired the funds and received confirmation from InovoTrade that they received the funds.
One day before the scheduled delivery date, Mr. Larsson emailed me and informed me that due to a snowstorm in Colorado the delivery would be delayed and he would contact me as soon as he knew the new delivery date. Since there was a severe snow storm in Colorado that particular day, I did not suspect anything wrong at that time. I waited for two days before contacting InovoTrade and they assured me they still had my funds and that their records indicated I would have the motorhome delivered the following Monday (3 days later).
After the fourth day, I tried to contact Mr. Larsson, and the InovoTrade for the next two weeks, and neither would take or return my calls or emails.
Clearly InovoTrade is coordinating this scam using multiple email names, phone numbers, and throughout the U.S. For several weeks after this, I found the same Motorhome posted for sale on Craig's List throughout bigger cities in the U.S. At one point under a new email name I contacted the seller and got all the way through the same process (scam) until the seller insisted on a phone # from me. Since I did not have a fake phone number to give (I'd used a new email address), I stopped at that point. I tried to get either the Internet Crime Complaint Center of the FBI which I had filed a complaint with, or the FCC which I had also filed a complaint with to do something with no help. Both agencies although funded with taxpayer funds, only seem to want to record information on scams, but don't seem to want to investigate.
In addition to the InovoTrade name, the bank showed the account I wired the funds to as being listed for Kaspars Group LLC at 18801 Collins Avenue, Sunny Isles, Beach, FL 33160.
It's also very disturbing that CarFax played a role in providing me with incomplete information that led me to believe that the seller was in fact the owner of the vechile and led to the successful completion of the scam. Without the CarFax confirmation I would not have had such confidence in the legality of the transaction.
The bank used by InovoTrade was CHASE Bank at 18235 Biscayne Blvd, Avenura, FL.
Record indicate that InovoTrade has also used TD Bank, at 16830 Collins Ave, Sunny Isles Beach, FL.in contacting the various other Craig's List postings for the same Motorhome posted across the U.S., various email names and phones numbers are being provided.
Just in the last month, my login to InovoTrade was disconnected and the WEB site seems to have been taken down. I am out the full amount of $23,000.
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