The Sidney Police Department was contacted in reference to a suspicious website offering vehicles for sale at extraordinary prices. The website is www.uvehicles.net and claims to have a warehouse of over 200 used vehicles and tractors located in Sidney, NE.
Upon preliminary investigation, www.uvehicles.net has all the indications of a fraudulent website designed to defraud innocent people of their money.
The website domain is registered to a PO Box in Sunnyvale, CA and was created on 03/16/2012 and is only valid for one year. Additionally, some of the elements used on the website have been confirmed to have been copied from a legitimate website to give the appearance of legitimacy.
The Sidney Police Department strongly urges the public to be very careful when conducting online business transactions. Some important tips to remember are:
• Know who you are dealing with – legitimate businesses will have valid phone numbers, physical addresses (not just PO Boxes) and methods of contacting them other than just email or a “Contact Us” form on their website
• Guard your personal information – Don’t disclose your credit card or bank account information unless you are dealing with a company you know.
• Pay the safest way – which is usually a credit card with fraud protection or a single-use card number issued by your credit card company
• When in doubt – Back Out!
• Additional tips to avoid internet fraud can be found at:
www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud/internet_fraud
Feel free to contact the Sidney Police Department with any concerns you might have regarding suspicious online transactions and always remember: “If it looks too good to be true, it most likely is”.