Has anyone dealt with W & B Precision Machinery in Knoxville, TN?

[Dave Mura]

My father recently bought a machine on eBay. After he won it, he was contacted by the owner who said I have to deal with W & B Precision Machinery who were suppose to sell the machine for the original owner, but were unsuccessful and it was listed on eBay.
So now this company is asking me to wire transfer them the money, they won't take the company credit card because the price is over $1,350 and I have just asked them if they would allow me to pay with cash on the spot to which they declined because their policy states they would only take wire transfers because of the amount, they also declined any COD. They never called me back after all the voicemails that were left, talked to them once on the phone after calling, the rest just goes on over e-mails.

This whole thing just seems like a scam to me, but maybe someone here bought from them before?

[David Christopher]

RUN Man RUN

[Dave Mura]

You're right, I looked at the whois info on the domain http://whois.domaintools.com/wbpmachinery.com

IP located in Russia, website registered two weeks ago, uses some sort of "safe-mail" and registrar is in NY under a po box
Googled the name Serpino Berbeto, seems like a big time scammer

[Mike Lipke]

How's about a link to the ebay listing? I 'd like to see what they said in their listing.

[Mike Lipke]

Still like to see the listing, but sounds like you need to email Ebay and turn them in for investigation. I can tell you that Ebay got right on a seller I had an issue with. What you don't want, is this seller giving you a black eye for backing out.

[guy knight]

run Forrest run

[Chris Kennedy]

Cash is legal tender for "all debts, public and private." It is illegal to refuse to take cash.

This is a scam. I would not only report it to eBay, but the police as well.

Cheers,

Chris

[Paul Ryan]

I agree with Chris. I would really go after them. A couple of years ago I got roped into a deal through ebay to buy a whole lot of computers cheap, all were new models. I was dumb and sent some money via western union. I can remember what tipped me off, but a couple of hours later, I was able to stop the western union transfer before the money was collected. It was really dumb of me because the web site was over seas but the person was located in LA. In the end I was able to get my $$ before the person got it. But I contacted ebay, and checked out what to do as far as internet scams go. I ended up contacting the FBI cyber crimes. A few months later I was contacted by the local LA police because they had arrested the women and wanted a statement about what happend to me. She had scamed all sorts of people out of money, but they ended up putting her away for 20 years.

[Bob Wingard]

My father recently bought a machine on eBay. After he won it, he was contacted by the owner who said I have to deal with W & B Precision Machinery who were suppose to sell the machine for the original owner, but were unsuccessful and it was listed on eBay.
So now this company is asking me to wire transfer them the money, they won't take the company credit card because the price is over $1,350 and I have just asked them if they would allow me to pay with cash on the spot to which they declined because their policy states they would only take wire transfers because of the amount, they also declined any COD. They never called me back after all the voicemails that were left, talked to them once on the phone after calling, the rest just goes on over e-mails.

This whole thing just seems like a scam to me, but maybe someone here bought from them before?

Got an address for them ?? ?? I have a friend there who would be willing to check it out for us !!

[Gary Click]

Several years ago I had the same experience buying a Surface Grinder via eBay from a company located in Atlanta. They also refused a credit card, refused to allow me to pickup the machine and pay cash for it. They became more and more insistant to get a wire transfer and I started to balk.

I did a search on sold surface grinders and found that the grinder had been sold before by the same seller in Atlanta. This can sometimes indicate that the deal had simply not gone through but the seller's feedback was only 3. I contacted the other buyer, (this is when eBay still posted bidders ID's) and learned that he had paid for the grinder and was awaiting delivery.

I notified eBay and they canceled the auction and barred the seller. I am sure that he reappeared the next day with a different ID. I also received a few threats from the seller, he was going to come to Birmingham and yada, yada, yada. I told him to bring the grinder with him and I would pay him for it. Needless to say he never showed and I bought another grinder.

[Scott Rollins]

I'm in Knoxville. I will check it out if you have an address.

[Mike Lipke]

For some reason, even with all the replies and very generous offers of help, the OP, Dave, doesn't want to give us any more info, even the ebay listing.
I am not giving one more second of thought to it.

[Tim Tallerico]

Hi all. I am also right now in the middle of a transaction with this W & B Precision Machinery and an ebay seller. I have sent no money as of yet. I also have been trying to find ANY information whatsoever that would lend to the legitimacy of this company before transacting further. I personally called 411, the City of Knoxville, The County of Knox, searched the Tennessee Secretary of State website, amongst other things and could not find one shred of evidence that this company even exists. Then again, it seems TN is very lax about things like business licenses and such.
The ebay auction I won is 140330332839 and have come across things similar to those you spoke of. They wouldnt answer any of my numerous questions before the auction ended, then gave me this partially intelligible broken english explanation about how W&B has the machine now and I need to complete the transaction with someone else there. I also requested to pick up the item but they insisted on their 'special discount' shipping by truck. I told them I wanted to choose my own shipper but was just ignored.
Their 'address' is listed on their website as 200 Prosperity Drive in Knoxville. You can go to Google street view and can see its just an office building with many other businesses within. Could just be their HQ. No one would say where the actual W&B 'warehouse' is.
Oh, and I believe that Serpino Berbeto is just an IP provider/host. I dont think he's involved. But I dont know for sure. I did however notice their www.wbpmachinery.com (http://www.wbpmachinery.com) domain (they sent me to) was created at right about the same time the auction was first listed.
The other names I have are Charles Harris (head of sales dept) and Carol Millar (the 'Top Manager'). The seller on ebay is Estefania Ingrid. Any names ring a bell Dave? The ebay seller hasnt had any feedback in a while - so the account very well may have been hijacked. Or maybe this Estefania might be innocently caught up in something herself? Or maybe she's the Russian ringleader? Who knows. Probably just an inexperienced ebay seller.
I havent called the phone number on their website yet. (888-591-4780) I'm afraid they'll just say "sure were real - send the money". Could be some punk in his bedroom for all I know. The Knox County people said if I had the name of the owner of W&B or its parent company they might be able to research it further. I imagine that'd be the thing to ask when calling. But if that doesnt pan out whats left to do? I guess take a chance and hope PayPals Buyer Protection will get my money back?
All I can say so far is- if it is a scam, they sure went through a lot of trouble to make it at least appear authentic. Although it wouldnt be that hard to throw together a convincing enough website with pictures and text copied from somewhere else. Hacking ebay accounts is a little trickier, but I suppose it'd all be worth it for $5k per scam...
Then again, if after all they are found to be legit, I'd feel real bad putting them through all this suspicion- but they sure have a long way to go on instilling customer confidence!
Dave, please let me/us know if you find out anything more! I'll do the same. Thanks

[Dave Mura]

For some reason, even with all the replies and very generous offers of help, the OP, Dave, doesn't want to give us any more info, even the ebay listing.
I am not giving one more second of thought to it.
Hi friend, here is the eBay listing http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=180372294648

You can read more about this over at fraudwatchers.org, this guy has a big operation
http://fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=31678#11

@Tim it's a scam, just report the seller to eBay so they can investigate and close the scammers account. I will also send you a question over a PM.

Thanks for your help everyone!

[Matt Meiser]

The first hint that this was a scam should have come from the user's feedback. Score is 13 and the latest transaction was 4 years ago. The user isn't a scammer. He/she was dumb enough to fall for a phishing site and gave their account to a scammer.

[Tim Tallerico]

Thanks for the links! Wow. How is it a guy can have an operation this elaborate yet I cant seem to even get a simple domain name transferred correctly?!
I thought the Serpino guy was probably just their IT guy or something, but seeing his name for all contacts makes me wonder. Seeing the W&B site in the database of fake sites is pretty convincing too.
How these guys get to just walk around and do this stuff continually is beyond me!

[Tim Tallerico]

Well, I tried contacting the person I was instructed to close the deal with but got no reply. The machine is now relisted on ebay #140333302249

[Matt Meiser]

If that's the right number, Ebay has already removed it.

[Tim Tallerico]

Yup. Must have been busted!
Thanks for everything guys.