A Big Problem

donaloconnor

Hey...

Ok let me start, I puchased this information about how to get free electronics. Maybe some of you know this allready but ....

You see I made a company, someone told me that its legal for a person to start his or her own company without registering. They said that you only need to register if you want to become a Limited (LTD) or Co-operative (CO). OK I decided to start the company, it was going to offer internet services.

Right, I was set to get the free electronics. I requested the products using the company that i made.

ok.... A few days later i get a letter asking for my company details. They told me that they were investigating me and that if I don't give the company info :

"> Should we not hear from you within 48 hours, your e-mail will be
given
> to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Trade
> Commission (FTC), and the appropriate national Customs authorities,
> for further investigation. We welcome your prompt and full
cooperation.
"

I emailed them back telling htem that i'm sorry and didn't understand.

what will happen to me I'm only 16!!!

Winters

As far as i know (And i dont know much ) it is legal for a person to have a company under there own name ... im not too sure on that.

How did you find a place that offers "free electronics" anywho.... must have been stolen or somefin.

The company must be then based in the US if they are going to report you to the FBI. The fbi cannot do anything to you (Unless you go over to the states) without the copertion of the Gards.

donaloconnor

Hey...thing is that its not in my own name. Your talking about a Sole Trader. Thanks for the info on the FBI, thats a bit off my back, just heard that another guy i know got the same email, so maybe its an automated message to scare people. I'll let u know how things go, I remember talking to you about dreamweaver mx lol. Talk to you later...:D

Rabies

what is name of the company offering free electronics.

are they a well know company or is it possible that it is another internet scam and you have been hit.
did they ask for any registration fee first or anything like that?

they said that they will give your email address to the FBI. what email address did you give them. was it just an online address like hotmail/yahoo etc or is on that can be traced back to you.

i wouldnt be too worried about it. they are over in america, you are here and you are a minor so nothing major should happen unless you forgot to mention something serious in your first post.

donaloconnor

Sorry i didn't amke my self clear. Its not a company thats offering the free electronics. Its a trading website allowing 1000s of companies world wide to get information and prices off other companies + samples.

LegacyUser

I think I'm familiar with the site (and procedure) you're talking about Donal. I'm not going to post the details as you've paid for the information.

Wouldn't worry about it too much - the FBI don't have any jurisdiction here.

However, to correct you on one point:
You can't just say you have set a company. You have to prepare and submit a number of documents to the Registrar of Companies - memorandum and articles of association, statutory declaration (filled out by your solicitor or by a person designated as first director or secretary of the company) that all provisions of the Companies Acts have been complied with (under s5 of the 1983 Act), Statement of particulars, statement of the companies assets, liabilities and expenses, and finally the appropriate fee (fixed at £50 by the Companies (Fees) Order 1997. If all of these are in order the Registrar issues the cert of incorporation. From this date, the company can begin trading (s18(1) of the Companies Act (1963)). That's regardless of whether the company has unlimited liability or limited.

So you haven't got a company at all - you're a sole trader (or more correctly a chancer:D). I wouldn't go putting the word "limited" or "ltd" at the end of any correspondence you're sending out.

sceptre

^bah - damn login timeouts.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by donaloconnor
what will happen to me I'm only 16!!!

Be still my bleeding heart; don't try playing all grown-up and then play the 'I'm just a kid' card when it starts getting messy.

I suggest you ignore the matter. Failing that tell them you're a sole trader (which effectively you are) operating under your own name. Unless you've falsified credit card details, I don’t think there's a hell of a lot that they can do.

However, sceptre rightly pointed out that you didn't do your homework when setting up. You might consider doing first that for your next venture.

And good luck when you do.

donaloconnor

Hi,

First of all thanks for the responses. I told the site that i'm a new company and have yet not registered. I don't think there is much they can do really as I didn't say I would buy products. In most of my emails i said: "I may be interesting in purchases a sum of these products" I didn't have any agreement there about buying anything.

As for not doing my homework, well thats true, i knew all that stuff as I did business studies. But it didn't quite cross my mind when doing this. I wouldn't have set up a company specially for this anyway, i was just taking a chance. My friend tried it once and they also emailed him today with the exact same email. I believe that this email was a automated email sent out to scare companies that are non genuine.

I just want to ask something here: How much would it cost to get a company registered and how old do you have to be. Like Can I a 16 year old set up a company. I know that ye are thinking, he is only 16 and allready trying this. Well I've being in to all this stuff a lot. I'm setting up a website, well too achually with my friend. He is 20. he is goign to register us as a company. They are goign to be review sites: tech-review.net and reviews-online.net - Quite good domains don't you think.

About the information i didn't pay for it achually, I got it off a friend that did pay for it. I would post the link to the document here only that I promissed my friend not to tell anyone about this trick for getting free products.

I emailed the campany back saying:

Dear [xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

The reason that we were [xxxxxxxxxxxx] is because we wanted to get information and prices. We did not understand that we were committing a fraudulent activity. We want to thank you for emailing us and warning us of our activities. We will cease and desist using your service as a means of gaining information and prices in the future.

[xxxxxxxxxx] is a new company and not yet registered

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Kind Regards,
Donal O Connor

I hope that, that was ok, I sent it off earlier today. I don't think that they can do much after me emailing that.

Well thats my story, I don't think that anything is going to happen me (hopefully!)

But if someone is familier with the site its called Gxxxxx Sxxxxx.com. (Couldn't give the full name of it) please contact me and advice me if ye were in a similer situation as me.

Thank You! Please send yer feedback

Gordon

Well you should ask in a more appropriate board. I'm guessing Business/economy but I could be wrong. I'll transfer this thread to there.
Apologies if I returned this as a volley to the wrong forum, my backhand is lacking.

donaloconnor

Ok maybe it would be better there. Thanx

b20uvkft6m5xwg

2 quick points:

**You are criminally responsible from the age of 7 onwards, so no point trying to weazle out of anything with that excuse

**As Sceptre said, what is the jursidictional context of this e-mail and what law(s) are you purported to have breached ?

donaloconnor

Dear XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,

Your Request for a Free Sample is being investigated. There is
concern
that you are participating, either knowingly or unknowingly, in a
fraudulent activity by misrepresenting yourself as a commercial
buyer.

Your inquiry for a Free Sample from a XXXXXXX client will not
be
processed without your providing more information about your company.
A form is provided below outlining the information required. Please
hit
REPLY, answer the questions below to complete the form and send it to
us via email.

If you are not a commercial buyer, and you have purchased information
through an online auction service on how to make requests for Free
Samples of products by representing yourself as a commercial buyer,
discontinue this activity. Please advise us of the source of this
information.

You may wish to ask for your money back from the seller or online
auction service where you purchased information on how to request
free
samples in this manner as well as send comments to the seller
regarding
the fraudulent method promoted in the information you purchased. Most
auction services provide a place for users to comment on the quality
ofthe service they provide.

Should we not hear from you within 48 hours, your e-mail will be
given to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the appropriate national Customs authorities,
for further investigation. We welcome your prompt and full
cooperation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX


**********************************************************************
Please give us more information about your company and your business
by filling in the blank fields below.

Registered Company Name:
Registered Address:




Company Registration Number:
Authority Registered with:

Tel:
Fax:

Nature of business:
DUNS (Dunn & Bradstreet) number [If available] :
COFACE Number [If available] :


**********************************************************************
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
EMAIL:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


There guys, thats the email. You probably now know what i'm doing. I dont want anyone to be getting ideas though from this.

All I done was Say I was a Company which as i just found out isn't true cause i must be registered.

Thats all I done, thats all that is fraud. The rest is totally legal.

Venom

Sadly the FBI cant lay a finger on you due to living in a different country.But hopefully they will pass on your details to the guard's who can do more than lay a finger on you

The FBI take email/internet scams very seriously and this trend is catching on in many other countries now.You tried to pull a scam on a company that has procedures to prevent this from happening and got caught red handed.

As for all that nonsence about "your company", what a load of bollocks.Can you just imagine what sort of fun you will have at 16 in Mount Joy showers

Thats is if you get caught tho, but we can always hope

donaloconnor

Thanks for making me feel even worse. If you read up there properly i said i Didn't understand that I was doing anything illegal. It was not ment to be a scam. I thuoght it was legal for a person to set up his/her own company without registering but i was wrong. + A friend got the same email, i've a feeling that this email is an automated email to scare non-geniune companies off. But you must believe me here, I would not have intented in doing this if it wasn't legal, + The source of the information how to do this told me it was legal, which obviously it wasn't.

If you are not a commercial buyer, and you have purchased information
through an online auction service on how to make requests for Free
Samples of products by representing yourself as a commercial buyer,
discontinue this activity. Please advise us of the source of this
information.

You may wish to ask for your money back from the seller or online
auction service where you purchased information on how to request
free
samples in this manner as well as send comments to the seller
regarding
the fraudulent method promoted in the information you purchased. Most
auction services provide a place for users to comment on the quality
ofthe service they provide.

There talking about the source information there. As far as I can see they are blaming the Source of the information on how to get these products

(http://www.allfreeelectronics.com )

Why would I do a thing illegal, I didn't understand but i've defintally learned a lesson and I hope that this will pass by

Borzoi

So in summary:

Scam net company says: Give us money, we'll tell you how to get free stuff.

You give them cash, they give you a list of co's. and tell you to ask for free samples

You ask for the free sample passing yourself off as a legimate trading company

The manufacturer, who at this stage is pissed iff getting these requests replies saying effectively:
1) Establish your bonafides
2) Or tell us who is passing out our name as part off a scam
2) Or we report you

Seems totally fair to me, you've three options, if you don't want to to be reported, grass up whoever sold you the info, or establish yourselves as a real company.

Move on in life and consider it an object lesson in the dog eat dog world of business.

donaloconnor

Thanks for the reply...

I don't see why the trading site should be bothered emailing these things. The website just offers a link between companies , providing a service to allow manufacurers to communicate. Like why do they even bother, I wouldn't mind if it was the achual manufacturers that were complaining. + I didn't say i was going to buy anything. I siad I "MAY" be interesting in purchasing these products please send me on a sample. I don't see anything very wrong in that only passing myself as a company i'm not.


Summary:

A guy sells you this word document on ebay.

This guy was a marketing director of a big american company and knows the tricks of trade.

He tells you this website where companies go onto to get info on products and suppliers. The website offers a service to request info and samples of other manufacturers.

You see nothing wrong with this until you get that email i got up there.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by donaloconnor
Thanks for making me feel even worse. If you read up there properly i said i Didn't understand that I was doing anything illegal.

Ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law.

It was not ment to be a scam.

Yes it was. In your initial post you admit you were "set to get the free electronics" - so you were expecting something for nothing at the very least. Did you ever have any intension of actually trading? Nothing you've posted here would indicate that. Indeed, you admit that you were "just taking a chance" and now you think we’re going to swallow that this wasn’t a scam faster than a 30 Euro blowjob? Not likely m8.

Fortunately for you, it is unlikely that anything will come of this, although you may now appear on some industry blacklists as a direct result. Which is as well, because regardless of your age and alleged ignorance (I say alleged because it’s obvious from your previous posts that you knew you were up to no good) were the company in question more of a mind and position to pursue you, it would not be difficult to catch and convict you, IMHO.

So hold your breath that nothing comes of this, then pick yourself up, lick your wounds and move on with this experiece.

donaloconnor

Thanks. I have certianly learned from this I just pray to god nothing will happen me

Moriarty

LoL

Fùcking chancer

Beruthiel

I just pray to god nothing will happen me

perhaps you can plead insanity, after all, you do post on the boards on a regular basis!

The Corinthian

Originally posted by donaloconnor
I just pray to god nothing will happen me

"Prayer is the last refuge of the scoundrel" - Lisa Simpson

:rolleyes:

Caesar_Bojangle

ffs relax man, its not as if you have done something bad like murder or rape someone. If the cops do come knocking on your door which is highly unlikely, as the have more important things to do like find out who framed roger rabbit.

Play the fool and deny everything, its not as if the cops really give a shlt about you trying to scam some american company.

donaloconnor

Thanks, I think it has being ignored but i'm not ever going to pull that trick again

Clintons Cat

as far as i can see you have broken no laws,any one can set up a buisness.if you do face civil proceedings you can claim you were planning to start a market stall selling x products and you required the sample stock for start up.
I cant see the FBI being particullarily intrested in you,but they might be intrested in the people organising to defraud said company,They've had your money and all you've brought is a whole lot of trouble and anxiety down on your head.
Shop them you owe them nothing.
oh and learn from your mistakes.