Deposit Fraud | Car-Sale Fraud | Confidence Trick Fraud

A logistics company from Poland is looking to expand its lorry fleet. On the internet it finds a supplier of commercial vehicles from Bielefeld who entices with very favourable offers. Two employees of the Polish firm, who later engage Kurtz Investigations Bielefeld, travel to East Westphalia to inspect the vehicles. The seller greets them on an extensive site with numerous commercial vehicles, shows the vehicles which he claims are his property, conducts test drives with the interested parties and also produces the genuine vehicle documents – everything appears reputable and watertight. Our clients negotiate the purchase price down by €10,000, sign the purchase contract and transfer a total amount of €136,000 to the dealer. As the vehicles are said to be in short-term use, an immediate collection date is agreed.

On the day of collection nothing is to be seen of the dealer on the premises. The clients of Kurtz Detective Agency Bielefeld visit the local office of the logistics company. They say they know the dealer, but are unaware of any sale. The man had approached the firm with a trade business for the purchase and sale of commercial vehicles and had told them he immediately had a buyer for the lorries. For this reason vehicle keys and documents had been handed to him so that he could act as an intermediary. However he had not been seen for some time and no money had been received. The lorries of course do not belong to the seller but to the logistics company, and the alleged owner has disappeared with the €136,000. Accordingly Kurtz Investigations Bielefeld is to locate the deposit fraudster.

Further frauds? Contact with a seller

Because the name given by the target person is almost certainly false, an address investigation is initiated via the mobile number used to process the purchase by the confidence trickster. Using this number the investigating detective from Bielefeld finds several further telephone numbers and internet entries, among them an advertisement for the sale of a Mercedes Sprinter. Under a cover story of being a prospective buyer for the Sprinter, the investigator first contacts the advertiser by telephone (unsuccessfully) and then by WhatsApp. After almost two hours the advertiser calls back and gives a name that is not identical to the alleged name of the lorry dealer. We refer to this man in the report below as "Mr Bünde". He readily provides information about the Sprinter and agrees to reduce the purchase price by more than €1,000. The Bielefeld detective and the prospective target arrange to view and collect the vehicle at an address in Hamburg.

Detectives establish the correct target person

The preliminary research is thus provisionally complete and the economic investigators begin surveillance of the address given by the seller on the following day. On site Kurtz Detective Agency Bielefeld does indeed discover a Mercedes Sprinter, but it is not identical in specification to the one advertised. As there is no other Sprinter in the immediate vicinity, this vehicle is kept under visual observation. Furthermore the detectives over the following hours check the address for the arrival of the target person, for whom a description is available. In the afternoon a person does in fact arrive at the residential address who, after consultation and photo comparison with the clients of Kurtz Investigations Bielefeld, can be verified as the sought deposit fraudster. The Mercedes Sprinter offered for sale is shortly afterwards driven into the target street by two other persons.

One of the two employed economic detectives from Bielefeld approaches the three men and can hear from their conversation that the two unknowns had just made a test drive with the Sprinter. However the buyers and seller cannot agree on a price and therefore separate. The target person enters his residential address. In this way our investigators are able to verify the identity of the seller and are now in a position to involve the authorities.

Organised gang crime?

On the following day the agreed appointment of our detective with the seller takes place. In advance Kurtz Investigations Bielefeld had discussed the arrest of the fraudster with the LKA Hamburg. At a meeting point near the planned arrest location our Bielefeld detective meets two colleagues from Kurtz Detective Agency Hamburg to discuss the operation, and afterwards the operational team of the LKA Hamburg – the operation leader and several officers in plain clothes. Because the official investigators suspect organised gang crime with potentially violent offenders behind the activities of the target person, the arrest team consists of more than ten LKA officers and additionally some uniformed protection police. Our private detective from Bielefeld is to make the initial contact with the target person on his own while the operational unit secures the situation. A phone call to the operation leader of the LKA is agreed as the signal for the arrest.

When our purported purchaser is informed that all LKA officers are in position he drives into the target street. The Sprinter is already on site and the target person is said over the phone to be arriving within a few minutes. While waiting our Bielefeld detective examines the Sprinter with interest, since it is not yet certain whether he is being watched by other members of the suspected gang. Finally Mr Bünde appears with his fifteen-year-old son and immediately hands the investigator the vehicle keys so that he may inspect the van. The vehicle registration document is said to be in the glove compartment and the vehicle title in the estate car. The detective poses as an expert and examines the vehicle with the engine running; in the end he agrees to the purchase for €7,500 instead of the previous €8,600. Mr Bünde accepts the stated price and indicates that he still needs the vehicle for his snack business for about a week, but that the buyer may make a deposit. The detective says that he has €500 as a deposit on him and could transfer the rest to an account. Unfortunately Mr Bünde does not have a purchase contract with him, but everything could be noted in the block carried by the buyer. The Bielefeld private detective asks Mr Bünde to write down his account number on the block and asks for his identity card. This is a German identity card actually issued in the name given by Mr Bünde. Thus the suspicion arises that the sale of the Sprinter might not be a confidence trick but rather a genuine private sale. The fraudster even scrawls a provisional receipt on the detective’s block.

Rapid arrest by criminal investigators | Arrest of the perpetrator

As the handover of the €500 deposit is now to take place, our private detective from Bielefeld pretends to make a call to his office but in fact informs the operation leader of the LKA Hamburg that the arrest may now be carried out. Afterwards the investigator engages Mr Bünde briefly in conversation and holds him between the open passenger door and the seat. Shortly afterwards plain-clothes officers emerge from all directions and arrest the fraudster. Once the danger situation is resolved and Mr Bünde stands handcuffed at the vehicle, further members of the LKA Hamburg team arrive; these are officers from the traces and evidence preservation unit. The police secure the immediate vicinity of the target street.

In the debrief with the investigators of Kurtz Investigations Bielefeld and Kurtz Detective Agency Hamburg the officers report that a bag with €5,000 in cash was found on Mr Bünde. The son of the target person is escorted to his mother’s house after being interviewed by two officers. A police van remains on site to supervise the removal of the vehicles to be seized.

Confiscation of assets

Following the investigations we are informed where the criminal proceedings are being processed. There the Polish clients of Kurtz Investigations Bielefeld and East Westphalia may bring civil claims for the return of the paid sum of €136,000 plus the costs incurred by our investigations and the apprehension of the target person. Some assets may already be seized immediately after the arrest of Mr Bünde.

We warmly thank the LKA Hamburg for the highly fruitful and exemplary cooperation with the authorities.