Scammers Impersonate Tennessee Equipment Dealer with Fake Website

A small Tennessee forklift dealer was impersonated by online scammers through a fake website, according to the Tennessee attorney general. The dealer says the scheme tried to rob people of thousands of dollars in down payments for nonexistent construction equipment.

Steven Benson, who has owned Equipment Express in Lebanon, Tennessee, since 2006, told Equipment World he never had a website for his dealership, and scammers made a fraudulent site to impersonate him in early October. After several calls from random customers looking for machines he doesn’t sell, including skid steers, tractors and dump trucks, he received a call from a man who had wired a down payment to the scammers, thinking Benson had received it.

“At this point, I kind of caught on to what was going on,” Benson says. “He gave me the information to the website, and I immediately Googled it and brought it up. And sure enough, it was Equipment Express, with my physical address, different phone number, advertising all kinds of equipment. It was a nice website. It's very realistic.

“So, he [the scammed customer] also had some questions about how real this company might be. And they even sent him a copy of their business license, which I later found out was fraudulent. It was made up. They did a really good job at posing as my company.”

Benson says that after reaching out to several government agencies, Google and Facebook, only the state of Tennessee got back to him with assistance and took down the fake website. The scammers’ website was active for about four weeks.

The Office of the Tennessee Attorney General put out a press release November 20 warning consumers of the dangers of these fake websites, reporting that a fake auto dealership website, Leo’s Luxury Motors, had also been created and advertised fake inventory. This auto dealership website was stealing photos of real cars for sale at a Michigan dealership.

“I know firsthand what it’s like to see bad actors scam family members out of their hard-earned money. These scammers don't care one bit about your family’s financial well-being,” said Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. “Tennesseans should always be cautious when shopping online, especially as we near the Christmas season. We don't want Tennesseans to spend money they need on a vehicle or heavy equipment they'll never see.”

Benson said he never heard back from anyone else on the matter, including the FBI.

While Benson was not financially impacted by the scheme, he says the scammers were asking consumers to wire up to $20,000 as down payments on machines, and he’s not sure everyone got their money back.

Benson believes his business may have been picked because he didn’t already have a website, and because the name of his business, Equipment Express, doesn’t specify that he only deals in forklifts.

He considers the experience a lesson in due diligence and exercising caution when sending money to people you have never met.

“I buy equipment in other states, but when it gets to a certain amount, I physically go and look at it, or I deal with companies that I've dealt with in the past,” says Benson. “We just have to be more cautious today when it comes to purchasing equipment from people we're not used to working with. If you're looking at equipment to purchase, buy a $300 or $400 plane ticket. If you're going to spend $50,000 on a piece of equipment, go look at it. We just we need to take extra steps to protect ourselves.”