The internet is truely the great equaliser. Last year an industry colleaque mentioned about these “amazing” 3D Optics projector deals on TradeMe in New Zealand. However when I bought my life time of experience on projectors to bear I smelt something, and it was not the smell of a woman’s perfume. In fact what I smelt was a stinking rat parading as a cute rabbit.
Since then I have doug deep into what is known as the White Van scam and the 3D Optics and Kevlar fake AV gear. Sure the gear is real but it is a complete fraud for what it is claimed, including the web sites, 100 pages highly glossy cataloque. All of it is a complete scam and I would go to say is probably the largest audio visual scam seen on the streets of New Zealand and many other countries. We know it is prevalent in Australia as well.
Since our covert operation (see earlier posting) we are recieiving regualr phone calls and emails from those who were about to be scammed or those who were scammed. Thanks to these folks we are publishing these details the scammers gave to their potential clients.
All these details below are assoicated in some way as direct sellers or part of the 3D Optics and Kevlar speaker scam. We expect in due course that once they clear exisitng stock they may flip over to another scam brand name – see the list we published in our earlier article.
We know these names are scam sellers of the 3D Optics, Kevlar gear in New Zealand. (we will keep adding to this list)
Jake Furmage (vehicle license sighted)
Mobile tel number 021 02216602
Vehicle driven DGR385
Other Vehicles used by scammers include
FLQ533
TX6704
Cell PhoneWatch out for their confidence trick where they will say… “we will give you our cell phone number, look ring this number and and it will ring on my phone” Remember this could easily be a prepaid and belong to the man on the moon. If it is prepaid you will have no way of tracking them and besides you can pickup a phone for $50 use it for the week and then sell or toss it a week later. When you are making a huge killing and profit margin on each unit sold this is a small minor cost to run the scam.
Be sure to read the article at this link on the covert operation we carried out.
If you are looking for a reputable projector with discounted pricing with genuine savings and some bonuses, ICE AV is running a Mitsubishi ex demo promotion for July and August 2013.
If you are looking for a reputable projector with discounted pricing with genuine savings and some bonuses, ICE AV is running a Mitsubishi ex demo promotion for July and August 2013.
UPDATE Since posting this article we are receiving calls every other day of people buying this rubbish from the scammers. Calls from Wellington, Marton and just now 29 April from Takapuna. Why are people being so stupid and falling for their sales pitch. Maybe it is the Royal Wedding excitement. So let me repeat this. No and I repeat NO Reputable Audio Visual Company in New Zealand or anywhere for that matter sells 3D Optics projectors, Kevlar Audio or any of the brands listed in this scam article AND WILL NEVER SELL IT TO YOU FROM A VAN, CAR PARK, SIDE OF THE ROAD
Furthermore none sell equipment out of the back of vans in car parks, garage service courts or in public places and try and catch you off your guard. Warehouses that sell Audio Visual equipment DO NOT and I say again DO NOT go making mistakes sending out stock. So wake up people you are being scammed for thousands of hard earned dollars with the same story over and over. Also this scam gear is being sold on Trademe, EBAY. Believe this gear is complete rubbish. On the whole the projector specifications they state are rubbish. The only true aspect is the native resolution which is so old no major brand of manufacture, Sony, Christie, Epson, BenQ even manufactures this resolution…in fact they stopped making projectors of this resolution about 15 years ago.
So if you have purchased the gear we have found their warehouse location should you want to go and get a refund. 35 Greenmount Drive East Tamaki, Auckland. Take someone with you should you visit there.
Do not believe the colour cataloq they will show you, it is printed in Hong Kong for the global market. The delivery documents they will show you showing delivery documents to commercial companies you might recognise and is all designed to make you ignore the inner warning signals that you will have saying warning warning..your gut feeling is telling you the truth.
A deal seemingly to good to be true should bring all the warning signs and start the alarm bells ringing, especially when the deal is out the back of a white van in a non descript location such as a petrol station or shopping centre car park.
Been a rather quiet though eventful day. Went out on a covert operation to engage with the white van scammers circling Auckland ripping off people in the White Van Scam with the HD8500 3D projector and Kevlar audio gear. You can read about the 3D projector scam over here.
Many people read of scams but never get to see them happening or they hear or read about urban legends of white van scams, well folks they are real and alive in a city near you. Here we report on a live actual covert operation right here in Auckland. No actors here just real scammers and “interested buyers”
We have been on the trail of these guys for sometime and today we had a covert operation to acquire further details and video of these scammers operating in Auckland.
Van load of fake scam AV gear
“They are touting the same story over and over, overstocked, warehouse made a mistake, the last time the warehouse did this we told the boss and he sold it off and never told the warehouse and pocketed it for himself. So we are not telling him now and just sell it to a lucky buyer and keep it to ourselves.” If you pop over to the link above you will see this scam is happening in Australia where a number of unfortunate Aussies ahve been scammed and have left details of their experience.
Today we met up with the guys selling the van load of scam audio visual over in West Auckland. We had been alerted and we set up a meet at a community hall with an interested buyer. At the scheduled time they had not turned up so we phoned them and they wanted to change the location to the Shell Petrol Station further down the road. They turned up and drove in as if to buy petrol in two Hi Ace Vans and one having 3 complete sets of gear that the warehouse had made a mistake on and they were now wanting to get rid of them for a bargain price.
Scam operator on the phone to a potential victim
Here is the video of the covert meetup.
Even if they sell one complete set a day for $1500 that is like $1300 profit or $6,500 per week or $195,000 per month or $2,340,000 per year - JUST FROM ONE VAN OPERATOR
So this is what we discovered after all the questioning….
– When pressed with the question they admitted they were the importers.
– They said they had a office and show room at 188 Queen Street, Auckland, which is just next to Lippies. When we checked there was no show room. Do you think these guys can afford a show room in NZ’s most expensive street .. Yeah Right. We had indicated that we wanted to hear it in action and they said if you do that the boss is going to charge you $6,000 because he does not know about this gear the warehouse oversupplied. – I asked if they can take a credit card or eftpos and no it was only cash. – They showed a very glossy genuine looking Entertainment Magazine that had a Hong Kong based adress inside the cover. The magazine covered alot of reviews of the range of 3D Optics and Kevlar Audio gear, plus reviews of brands such as BenQ, Sony etc. To my eye a glaring mistake was a small review of a BenQ projector but the text described it as a Mitsubishi model. A tiny error but the quality is in the detail they say and English text mistakes are common in English publications out of Asia. The equipment and models from the Kevlar and 3D Optics and associated range had pricing printed showing what purported to be retail pricing. The major well known brands also had pricing however I suspect these were there to make the 3D Optics and Kevlar gear look good value. When I indicated that I had never seen this magazine before , which almost bordered on their catalogue masqurading as a magazine I indicated that this must have been a international magazine, making the pricing even more expensive by the time it was changed to $NZ. They said it was a NZ magazine and they were NZ$. This alerted me to that this could be just the tip of an international scam and I had spotted the tip of the iceberg..see comment below. International Scam
Would you trust this man?
– I asked if they sold all the other gear in the magazine and they indicated they did. However they had no interest in selling it to us. It included iPads, projectors that could take an iPhone, Panasonic Plasma and the like. – I asked if they had another copy of the magazine and they said if they did not return this that the boss would fine then. What sort of boss fines the staff for distributing sales literature. This magazine would have had 1,000’s of copies printed to justify the copy quality. – Van driver No2 was a Maori male of around 40 years old. Despite saying he was just helping out, did alot of the talking with regards to the tranasction and promised to give all his details such as drivers licence number, we could ring his phone to prove the number was his. – Van driver no 1 (younger than 30yr solid build – big fella) in the orange shirt did most of the product talking. His female companion piped in when talking about the tranasction that they would write out the receipt for $6,000 for the full price even though we were going to be paying only $1,500. – They showed us what was purported to be their courier delivery schedules where they had delivered gear. These could have been genuine or simply made up and they noted Jennian Homes Ltd, Golden Homes amongst others. We will check with these companies that they are purchasing AV gear of very shonky quality.
White Van Scam vehicle selling the fake 3d Optics and Kevlar speakers
– When asked who was the company that was distributing the 3D Optics projector and Kevlar Audio and motorised screen that they worked for, they stated it was Compass Freight Forwarders. – This company Compass Freight Forwarders is not listed in the Auckland Telephone book however we find this listing in the Companies Office records.
2320796
Incorporation Date: 10 Sep 2009
Company Status: Registered
Entity type: NZ Limited Company
Constitution filed: No
AR filing month: October , last filed on 04 Oct 2010
FRA Reporting Month: March
Company Addresses:Registered Office
L27 188 Quay Street, Auckland , New Zealand Address for service
Directors Showing 1 of 1 directors
Guan Ding WANG
Unit 6, 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, Victoria, 3051 , Australia
We will visit this office at level 27, 188 Quay Street and suspect it will be an accountants office or holding office and certainly not a busy office of a freight company. We might be wrong but I highly doubt it.
Now we find it interesting that they have only one director and he is based in Australia (nothing unusal in itself) which unwittingly or innocently gives us a possible link to the 3D Optics and Kevlar scam hitting cars parks throughout Australia. Given that he is also of Chinese background gives us a direct link back to China. Now the web site address on the 3D Optics box is http://www.optimax.com. Now when we check who owns this URL it has private registration to this ISP in the USA. We find this aspect simply another of those, “I smell a rat here” Check out what these folk have discovered in the USA
Interestingly the web site was registered just 6 days later.
Domain Name: OPTIMAX3D.COMCreated on…………..: 2009-09-15 23:12:21 GMT
Expires on…………..: 2011-09-15 23:12:23 GMT
Last modified on……..: 2010-09-17 10:03:24 GMT
Registrant Info: (FAST-12785240)
Bluehost.com
Bluehost Inc
1958 South 950 East
Provo, Utah 84604
United States
Phone: +1.8017659400
Fax..: +1.8017651992
Email: whois@bluehost.com
Last modified: 2010-12-06 18:43:32 GMT
Now we did further research of the registered company address of Compass Freight Forwarders sole shareholder and director Mr Guan Ding WANG, and the address of Unit 6, 33 Alfred Street…and guess what no such address exists, in fact there are only even numbers in Alfred Street.
White Van Scams are alive and well ripping 100's of people of their hard earnt dollars
The only looser is a person called YOU. Do not let your guard down and be smooth talked into a scam that might just feed that need you have for a deal. Walk away.
Pertinent details. Neither van had sign writing of any description and both had dark tinted windows preventing eyes from glancing inside.
Van registration numbers – FLP535 – This fella was driving the deal and was accompanied by a woman in the 20-30 yr age group. Drivers cell phone 021 081 285 78
Second van Hi Ace TX6704 driven by his helper that also had a young boy and a male around 20 years old. He did most of the talking regards to the actual transaction. Towards the end of the meeting about 20minutes plus in duration he went and sat in his van.
I need you to see how bad the scam can get. Now watch this video uploaded by a guy who got scmmed in the USA. Now as you watch the video your brain is going to tell you something does not look right….and what you are thinking is right. the entire packaging is printed in reverse. Now you might say how stupid to see a box with incorrect printing ..bit like the rare stamp error. But wait a minute, I can bet you they would use a line, hey the factory stuffed up the printing, blah blah blah and have we got a deal for you….and you will fall for it easily.
This is the location of where they said their office and show room was at 188 Queen Street, Auckland.
3D Optics Office showroom suppose to be at 188 Queen Street, Auckland
For those not familar with normal packaging of AV gear may not be aware, but to my knowledge and international experience AV companies like Sony, Yamaha, BenQ, NEC, Optoma etc all package their gear in non descripe brown boxes with plain black or blue text printing with serial number labels on removable adhesive labels. In my experience the only companies to package speakers, projectors and amps in full colourful boxes are major suspects. Again to fool you.
International Element
We have comments and evidience from buyers in the USA, New Zealand Australia of this scam. We suspect that an underground network exists to flog off this gear on unsuspecting buyers around the world and that there is a netork operating. The 3D Optics and Kevlar Audio gear filter onto sites like Trademe, eBay and others where either the scammers are selling the gear or unfortunate victims are simply wanting to off load their unfortunate purchase. Nobody prints the quality of magazine they had unless they are a sizeable company like Sony or Panasonic or a publisher like NZ’s resepctable AV mag Tone.
So in my estimation that since they have this quality mag, and I have seen 100’s of AV magazines in my years in this industry this one has all the trappings and to the untrained eye it seems legit except to experienced eyes.
InspectionWe have physically dismantled the projector and can verify it is a heap of junk and no where the quality that exists in projectors on the market from reputable companies like NEC, BenQ, Acer, Sony, Panasonic and the like. It is manufactured in China and has all the hall marks of low grade projectors using old technology. Don’t get me wrong, the Chinese based companies make state of the art gear for the world leading brands or the major brands base their production plants in China, it is the lower tier manufacturers who are bringing out low quality gear as they do not a=have access to the latest technology. We can actually source this low quality gear direct from the factories for less than a $100 but would not bother as they lack any substantial quality. The 3D Optics projector is no way able to deliver a high quality 3D – sterescopic image. The scammers noted that they do not sell the 3D glasses and suggested we go to the local cinema and keep the glasses they give you for a $1.
Now for the unfamilar these glasses used in the cinema use what we call 3D polarisation systems and what is projected are two separate images slightly overlapping and the polarised glasses realign the image for your eyes and your brain sees it as images with depth. For a single dataprojector to achieve this typically you would use the active glasses. The other aspect I noted on the box was the words in big colourful lettering is Light Emmitting Diodes….aka LED. This projector can not use an LED lamp and achieve 8000 ANSI lumen. No manufacturer in the world is delivering this and if they were, companies like Optoma, Sony, Epson, Samsung and others would be sure to be delivering. The bulk of 3D projectors on the world market are using the Texas Instrument DLP technology.
Here are some photos from our meetup.
Scams are alive and well in petrol stations and car parks in Auckland. Van Rego TX6704
This video is a short review by a scammed victim and has posted this video on you tube.
These scams first started appearing about 15 years ago and it is only since the internet became what it is that information started to be shared widely on these scams. Now they are on sites like Trademe in NZ. Just doa search on HD 8500 for example and they will pop up. Some people who know of the scam have indicated they have been banned from such sites for making negative seller comments. So it would seem Trademe is unwittingly allowing this fake product to be sold online.
Make sure you read this wikipedia link. Any donations for all the money we have saved you should be given direct to the Salvation Army Earthquake Appeal.
I am providing a list of the most common so called brands that are associated with these scams today.
* Theater Research (has many other names)
* Accusound (Not related to Accusound Australia nor the Accusound speakers made by Audiosphere in Canada)
* Acoustic Monitor, Acoustic Studio Monitor 3311/3312, Acoustic Response, Acoustic Image, Acoustic Lab Technology, Acoustic Reference
* Advanced Sound Technologies (AST)
* Afinity
* Ashton, Ashton Home Theater Systems
* Audio Resource
* Audio-Tech, Audio Tech Pro
* Audiofile
* BSS – Brendle Sound Systems (No relation to BSS Audio, part of the Harman Pro Group), also Brendel, BrendelElectronics
* Camelot Audio
* Carlson Audio
* Cerwin Vega (counterfeit)
* Cleo Acoustics (Singapore)
* Columbia Audio [
* Definitive Sound Technology (no relation to Definitive Technology)
* Denmark, Denmark Audio, Denmark Optics
* Deutsch Akustik
* Dogg Digital, Digital Dogg Audio
* DanWave, Dan Wave
* Dahlton
* Digital Pro Audio, Pro Audio, Digital Audio, Digital Audio Professional Speaker Systems, Digital Audio Skyline, Digital Research
* DiVinci
* Dynalab
* Elite Audio
* EKO
* Eurosound
* Epiphany Audio
* Fleetwood Audio (no relation to Cadillac Fleetwood)
* Genesis Media Labs, Genisis Media Labs (no relation to Genesis Technologies)
* Glatten Audio
* Grafdale
* Hauffman
* HD-8500 3D Optics
* Hy- line Sound Electronics
* I-Cinema
* Icon MediaLab, Icon Media Lab Digital FusionNo relation to LBi Ltd., the registered trademark owners of the Icon MediaLab name)
* Image Audio Concepts
* JBL (counterfeit)
* Jannsonn & Fynn
* Kauffman
* Kevlar
* Kinetic
* Kirsch, Kirsh
* Linear Acoustik
* Linear Phase
* London
* Matrix Audio
* Millennium Theater Systems (MTS)
* Norway Audio
* Olin Ross
* Omni Audio
* Oracle Projector
* Optimax 3D HD-8500 (3D Optics 8500)
* Orix
* Palermo
* Paradyme (no relation to Paradigm)
* Paramax Audio
* Proline Acoustic
* Pro-Optics
* Protechnik
* Protecsound (PTS)
* PSD
* PurTone
* Pure Acoustics
* RDX
* Rothdale
* Samaurai
* Skyline
* Sutherland Technology (no relation to Sutherland Engineering)
* Theater Logic
* Theater Research, Theatre Research, Theater Innovations
* VAV
* VisionMax
* Vokl Audio
* Volk Audio (also has a projector branch known as Volk Cinema
If you need to purchase a projector and audio system we can help you with fully warranted models that can be guarranteed, that is sold from our show room in NZ from a well known local and international company that has a deep level of expertise. We don’t do “deals” or underhand techniques and stand by all that we sell and advise you.
Contact us on 09-414 2348 if you require assistance.
If you have been approached about this scam please leave your comments and a note of your experience below. The more people out their talking about the 3D Optics and Kevlar scam or any of the above names will help to eliminate these scum bags.
If you found this posting helpful please let us know below in the comments section. Please keep comments on topic. Many thanks.
Before you go here is another switch on the White Van Scam
Audio Visual Technology 