Description

I quoted an auto transport on I believe RoadRunner Auto Transport.com. I was contacted by a broker named Rick James who works for Five Star Auto Transports. He provided me with legitimate-looking invoices, shipment dates, and insurance policies. At first, he had me pay the down payment, brokerage fee, and insurance through Zelle and Stripe. There were several times where he provided me with accounts that wouldn't accept the payments. Along with the accounts I previously put under Financial Transactions, he tried getting me to pay through multiple accounts until one worked. I didn't think anything of it at the time because I had shipped vehicles before and this is typically how the industry is, where a broker takes a finder's fee and then finds a driver that you pay separately, often using a third party for insurance and drivers. However, obviously, a driver never showed up on the date we had set and he hurriedly urged me to pay an additional amount of money to hold a new driver. He kept making excuses and dodging questions about why a driver never showed. After this, I did some research and discovered that "Five Star Auto Transports" (https://fivestarautotransports.com) is very similar to and uses the same physical address as a company called "5 Star Auto Transport" (https://5starautotransportinc.com). I reached out to the "5 Star" business and they confirmed that this Rick James individual is impersonating their business and that they have an investigator working to take the fake website down. They said he is believed to originate in India, and I can confirm he spoke with an Indian accent on the phone. I unfortunately took a hit of over $1000 in this scheme, it was quite elaborate and I hope this post serves as a warning to other consumers to avoid this fake website.