Alert about Dragon Engines scam

[nautickleone]

In support of others who have also been tempted by the apparent relatively cheap cost of sourcing new engines from offshore, I wish to confirm my concerns and add to those of others about Dragon Engines from Indonesia.

Over the past month or so I have been trying to purchase replacement Yanmar engines for my cat from Dragon Engines who appeared through an online google search of suppliers. Their advertised and quoted price was less than half the retail price through Australian suppliers and they answer ýes' to every question i asked about engine specs and inclusion of insurance, GST and Import Duties etc ... at no extra cost.

All they require is full payment by Wire Transfer in US dollars before any other shipping details will be provided. They will not consider payment through an Escrow service or similar facility and ignore any questions about fraud or scam.

The price is very tempting so as a warning to others, please be careful and complete your own due diligence. And do not send any money until you have some form of guarantee the engines will actually be delivered.

Best wishes to others and hope this alerts some before it is too late. Please spread the word to reduce the chance of others being scammed by these rogues.

[sailormed]

There is also a website from a company called Dragon Engines based in the UK.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by sailormed

There is also a website from a company called Dragon Engines based in the UK.

A different dragon, I believe.
Dragon Engines Ltd
Henry Street, Whittington Moor
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
S41 9BT
Tel: +44 (0)1246 456 123
Email: sales@dragonengines.com

[sailormed]

Yes I thought so, the Indonesian site must be usurping the identity of the long established one and surfing on the goodwill of the UK company.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by nautickleone

In support of others who have also been tempted by the apparent relatively cheap cost of sourcing new engines from offshore, I wish to confirm my concerns and add to those of others about Dragon Engines from Indonesia.

Over the past month or so I have been trying to purchase replacement Yanmar engines for my cat from Dragon Engines who appeared through an online google search of suppliers. Their advertised and quoted price was less than half the retail price through Australian suppliers and they answer ýes' to every question i asked about engine specs and inclusion of insurance, GST and Import Duties etc ... at no extra cost.

All they require is full payment by Wire Transfer in US dollars before any other shipping details will be provided. They will not consider payment through an Escrow service or similar facility and ignore any questions about fraud or scam.

The price is very tempting so as a warning to others, please be careful and complete your own due diligence. And do not send any money until you have some form of guarantee the engines will actually be delivered.

Best wishes to others and hope this alerts some before it is too late. Please spread the word to reduce the chance of others being scammed by these rogues.

So, did you actually purchase the motors and they didn't show up or is this thread based on the general principle of not giving people money before you see the goods?

[Pillroller]

The English Dragon engines are recognised high quality rebuilt engines for cars and commercial vehicles. Do not do marine engines as far as I can see.
Pillroller.

[Stewie12]

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

[waterman46]

You never stated what was your actual problem other than difficulty getting shipping details. Agree you need to get shipping details but is that the only issue so far? Please let us know what happened that you call this a scam.
Interested because I'm considering buying another item from a different Indonesian supplier.

[Captndave1]

I had looked at dragon engines also, and came to the same conclusion, they must be scam , the prices are the dead giveaway. I bought a Nanni N3-30, great price and Kubota based engine. Love it.

[CarinaPDX]

It has been awhile but IIRC the norm in the business world is to provide a letter of credit, not cash payment. Full cash upfront, no escrow, on substantial transactions is a risky practice to say the least. Also, when dealing with products made by major companies like Yanmar one should keep in mind that their distributors are almost always assigned geographical areas and are not allowed to sell outside them. There is too much fishy here...

Greg

[Stewie12]

You could ask the Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia if the company is legit. The cost of labour there is way less than in the USA. When I think about it the cost of labour anywhere is less than the USA.

[doog]

Just to add thanks for sharing and there are also SE Asian outfits offering motorcycles and gensets at ridiculously low prices, Facebook advertising that is unconscionably unethical to even run these reported as fraudulent ads..Looking into it these are fake offers from known fraudster outfits.

This is the new Information Superhighway, whose major driver was first pornography resutling in more slavery and abuse than...And now political and medical frauds and this sort of fraud is just a small piece of the pie.

We all need to learn to test the waters and taste the sample and see if its good stuff or poison or a trap. The old wild wolves were uncanny at avoiding traps, they would pile up the poisoned meat and crap on it as a clear message. And the worst sorts of strategy was tricking them with the scent of a family member and using their own loyalty to kill them. Thats our species..But its not mine.

God help us all. And thanks again for the caution.

[Siberian Sea]

On scammers.com you can enter a company URL web address and check to see about them. I did this from this company and it came back not to do business with them, very high probability of scam. Of course we all know to NEVER wire money to anyone we don’t know or trust. At least with the use of Visa, Pay Pal ect you have some measure of protection against scammers. Request to wire money is the first dead giveaway to illegitimate business practices .

[nautickleone]

I did not go ahead with the purchase because there were too many alarm bells. It's sad because those behind these scams are obviously clever people but for whatever reason have turned their talents to trying to rip off decent people just looking for a better deal.
Even their emails are very similar to the legit parent company, and easy to miss unless careful and have an eye for detail.

[David B]

Originally Posted by Stewie12

You could ask the Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia if the company is legit. The cost of labour there is way less than in the USA. When I think about it the cost of labour anywhere is less than the USA.

I suspect from what I hear, that labour in USA is cheap compared to Australia and UK at least.