Fake social media profiles impersonating two Brisbane trucking businesses, with customers losing thousands of dollars
Fake social media profiles are impersonating two Brisbane trucking companies, with customers losing thousands of dollars to the online scams.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Fake social media profiles are impersonating two Brisbane trucking companies, with customers losing thousands of dollars to the online scam.
Operators of Rocklea Truck Spares and Rocklea Truck Parts say their customers are being targeted by fake social media profiles claiming to be truck parts businesses.
While multiple attempts have been made to report the scam profiles, owners of both businesses claim the Facebook pages are back up and running days later.
General manager of Rocklea Truck Parts, Ben, who didn’t want to provide his last name, said multiple Facebook pages have been made using his business’s details.
In a post to social media, Rocklea Truck parts advised customers of “scammer impersonating” the legitimate businesses and said there were fake versions of the Rocklea Truck Parts, Rocklea Truck Spares, Truck Salvage and Toowoomba Truck Spares Facebook pages.
“These fraudulent sites are copying real businesses to trick people. Please take extra precautions,” the post said.
Ben told the Courier-Mail he started to receive phone calls from disgruntled customers demanding their truck parts.
“Customers would call for parts that were purchased for $1000 and above. They wanted to know why parts had not been picked up or delivered,” he said.
A fake invoice claiming to be from Rocklea Truck Parts was shared with the Courier-Mail, that had used Ben’s business address and ABN in a bid to trick customers.
“The invoice was through our name and logo and that wouldn’t be ours; everything down to the ABN is ours but the banking details,” he said.
He said the scam has impacted credibility of his businesses, and knows of around 30 customers that had been impacted with an average spending of $1000 per order.
“They understand and have no issue there once we go through everything. But this has been disrupting the business and we have got customers getting ripped off,” he said.
Griffith University senior lecturer in cyber technology Dr David Tuffley warns businesses to ensure their profiles are verified with a blue checkmark.
“It adds credibility and helps customers identify the authentic page,” Dr Tuffley said.
He said it is important that businesses and customers be vigilant.
“[Operators should] monitor for impersonators. Regularly search, once a month, say, for your business name on Facebook to identify potential scam pages,” he said.
“Let your customers know your official channels to inform them about your authentic online presence and how to identify it.”
Dr Tuffley said the persistence of these scam sites despite multiple reports is concerning.
“It suggests that Facebook’s current systems may not be adequately responsive or effective in dealing with this issue,” he said
“Facebook needs to improve their AI and machine learning systems to better detect and flag potential scam pages. Increase human moderation resources dedicated to reviewing reported business pages. Implement stricter verification processes for pages claiming to represent businesses. Develop better tools for businesses to protect their brand identity on the platform.”
Wendy Berry, Rocklea Truck Spares co-manger said they had a farmer in Tasmania call them who had paid $2000 for seats he did not receive.
“It started with phone calls from customers asking where their goods are and asking for their wrecking parts from trucks and we don’t do that,” Ms Berry said.
Ms Berry said the scammer had also copied their logo, business name and phone number on invoices provided to customers.
“I messaged him on Facebook and he is pretending to be Rocklea Spares Pty Ltd,” she said.
“His name is Sean. I organised to buy a part he was selling and he said he needed a deposit first.”
Ms Berry said she arranged to meet up and see the product.
“He didn’t turn up and I never got to see the part I was supposed to buy and he blocked me,” she said.
Peter, CTR Truck Sales owner from Dandenong in Melbourne, placed a $12,000 order for Western Star Legacy Seats with the “Rocklea Truck Parts” scam site.
“We have dealt with Rocklea before, and I asked them for a discount and they offered me a huge discount and this doesn’t sound right,” he said.
“Conversing via Facebook when I worked out it wasn’t right, all of this doesn’t sound right, when I said to them you can deliver the seats to a transport company in Darra he got all weird.”
Peter said he then reached out to the real Rocklea Truck Parts and was advised the seats he had ordered were not listed on their site.
“Every time I saw that page come up I reported it. I tried to make other people aware. If you bought four seats for trucks for $12,000, profit margins are 10 per cent, that’s $120,000 profit you have to make to get $12,000 back,” he said.
Originally published as Fake social media profiles impersonating two Brisbane trucking businesses, with customers losing thousands of dollars
Premier’s pledge to NQ after one in 100 flooding disaster
Premier David Crisafulli has arrived in the isolated town of Ingham where residents have been left without fresh water where police are searching for a man swept away by flood waters.
Metro commuters caught up in state’s bungled smart ticket rollout
Commuters on the $1.5 billion, state-of-the art Brisbane Metro bus service must continue to use Go Gards, with the ability to tap on and off with bank cards and phones not yet available.