Manufacturer, Retailer, Survey and Consumer Feedback - embikes.com beware of scam

a site embikes.com advertises famous brand bikes (cervelo etc.) at prices 40 to 45% discount. They say they have adresses in Bilbao(Spain) and Stockton (California). The 2 telephone numbers (US and Spain)they give are VoIP and unlisted. They will ask you credit card or request a bank transfer. I have checked them out with FraudWatchers.org. They confirm it:It is a scam. BEWARE

I recently purchased a road bike through EMBIKES.COM my first payment via wire transfer was returned by their bank they gave me new account details to wire the money which I did. I was promised a shipping tracking order to track the bike. to date I have still not received that tracking number. They have said that they will ship the bike in the next couple of days but i transfered the money ten days ago but still no sign of bike despite a promise of two to four days to ship. I have had correspondence with the company via email which at first was fine but now they are getting hostile! I have done loads of research on the company and i am now highly suspicious as lots of things do not make sense. they have offered me a refund today....so let's see what happens.???
I will keep you updated. If i am proven wrong about my suspicions then i will post an apology!

Again, a detective story.

Information on the embikes.com website indicates that the business is based in Spain


Head Office / Shop / Warehouse:
Edward Murray Bike Shops Limited
Calle Lehendakari Leizaola 16,
Near Calle Elcano,
48001 Bilbao, Spain.
Tel/Fax: +34-928-400-915 (Please drop voice mail if our lines are switched to fax mode)


and has a U.S. branch in California:


US Warehouse:
Edward Murray Bike Warehouse LLC
Block 410-440,
1200 N. Gertrude Avenue,
Stockton, CA 95215,
U.S.A.
Tel/Fax: +1-209-774-0309 (Please drop voice mail if our lines are switched to fax mode)



A tracert to www.embikes.com goes to 67.225.206.150. That IP address resolves to barfolomew.liquidweb.com. Liquidweb.com appears to be a legitimate e-commerce web hosting company based in Michigan and has several data centers. A search for www.barfolomew.liguidnet.com does not lead to anything useful.

I did not look at everything on the embikes.com website, but the prices for bikes with which I am familiar did not seem to be discounted from MSRP. Not sure how they would get around shipping big name bikes direct to the buyer rather than through a dealer.

Nothing I found (including a BBB search) indicates a problem, but if I were going to buy from them, it would be with a credit card.

Hope this helps,
Barry

This is one of many long running online bike scams run by, if memory serves me correct, a Romanian criminal group.

I have thouroughly checked EMBIKES before giving my credit card number for a Cervelo. The whole set up was indicating fraud. In addition I check you www.fraudwatchers.org. I could not publish their answer because of authorisation issue. I am sure they will tell you the same thing. It may be too late if you send the money and I hope for you that I am wrong.

I have thouroughly checked EMBIKES before giving my credit card number for a Cervelo. The whole set up was indicating fraud. In addition I checked with www.fraudwatchers.org. I could not publish their answer because of authorisation issue. I am sure they will tell you the same thing. It may be too late if you send the money and I hope for you that I am wrong.

With EMBIKES, after suspecting scam, I went as far as simulating a credit card purchase. I was requested to complete a long authorization form and to fax it back to that CA VOIP number. I checked with Visa as far as reimbursement in this case of fraud and their answer were ambiguous. Amex will honor these kind of fraud reimbursement but they do not take Amex. Www.fraudwatchers.org did confirm my suspicion.
Cervelo, Trek have been advised and apparently have taken action. Their original bank has been changed.
Let us hope <<srgrost>> will get his purchase...

Interesting....

Is it a fraudwatchers shill, or is it just a random troll?

I think this is one of the companies that used to spam me pretty heavily. I have zero faith in anyone seeing a bike from them.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

NO BIKE and NO £1400 back either. My bank assisted me in getting me back a grand total of £400! The bank in Spain shut down their account and gave me the balance...£400. All they will do is set up another account elsewhere and continue ripping people off... how is it that the site is permitted to stay active/live?? I believe in what goes around will come around... so hopefully bad things will happen to these low life's.

Ouch.

On the bright side, posts like this will serve to educate other potential victims. See post #9.

Being the good LBS guy that I am, can I just point out that if you walk into a bike shop and buy a bike, you actually HAVE the bike? Yeah, it may cost you a little more, but you'll have your damn bike. And we don't keep your credit card information in a database for future reference, use, or theft.