Something is
missing in Heather Brake's life. Yep sure is. It wasn't
cheap. No it wasn't. And she doesn't know where it is. No
haven't got it. It should be here but all she has to show
for her $12,000 is a hole in her backyard. One on this side of
that container, one on the other side of it.
And a hole in her bank account. Yeah no it was just gutted yeah
losing that much money. And there's plenty of holes in
backyards all around New Zealand. You give our f'in
money back you. The police are on the chase. There is a a male
of interest. But the people with the missing money are
still operating. William is it possible that you're just a
scammer? Let's start with Heather Brake in Rotorua.
She wanted a container and there were plenty on Facebook. I
messaged them all. She settled on Contdex containers. And these
ones seemed really genuine and they were good price. Twelve
thousand dollars for two twenty foot brand new containers.
Heather paid up in full. It was in New Zealand numbers, New
Zealand company everything like that New Zealand bank accounts.
Everything was going well. Hello? Till the phone rang. They were
going to deliver them and then all of a sudden they weren't
coming they needed some money to have them released from
Auckland. No sorry I'm not giving you 15,000 I've already
given you twelve, I don't have any more to give you. Sorry
you've already got all my money. What's worse Heather's
containers never showed up. Everything started going
downhill and tried to get the money back to the bank but
their bank said no they refuse their client refused to refund us and
Contdex containers have blocked Facebook and won't take her
calls. They're just rip offs. I hope noone else puts their money
into them. Kia ora Wayne here. For Wayne and Kat of Kawerau it was easy
too. So yeah we're after a 20 foot container. Wayne wanted
two containers. But Kat was cautious. She says nah we'll
get one container first and once it arrives then we'll get
the second one. For five grand they were going to get the
container delivered to Ōpōtiki and then we can take you to where the
containers going to be placed on site. On delivery day they
packed the car and headed off. Wayne even got a call from the
truck driver with his container. About 2 hours. Oh
yeah you must be about at Tauranga. They were expecting. Yeah. And
excited. We're already picturing where the container's
going and... Then the little weight got bigger. Oh we were
there for hours. And bigger. From lunch time till dark
6 hours. Eventually the inconceivable was the only
logical conclusion. The container was not arriving.
Empty, empty in the guts. Not for food. Especially at a time
like this. The paper mill closed up here last year and I
got made redundant.
But then the man with their money returned. And he rings
back the next morning. Sorry we had truck truck issues. Wayne
was insistent on a phone number. No. You tell you read
out. You tell me the number now. Do not call. Do not text.
Tell me the number now. When we even we called him in a phone
call. He would eventually just yes wait wait one minute 15
seconds later hang up. Yeah no the number we talked to you
yesterday. But then he would ring back the next day. I'm after
a container. He even got family members posing as
potential customers to try to lure them. Ah but it depends
on your location, so where are you located? Every time a
slightly different scenario. Different name and different
account number every time. They also tried their bank but they
had emptied the account and and closed it. There he is. Right
there. Container ripoff. Kat did make one more phone call to
Contdex. It was the day she lost her cool. Wayne remembers it
fondly. You give our f'in money back you asshole. Yeah, I
had let out what I had held onto, I guess, for all that
time.
We did find containers, lots of them. This is the
Auckland headquarters of international container giant
Royal Wolf. Their boss Paul Creighton says demand has surged,
prices have doubled and their uses have multiplied. The
dangerous goods containers, refrigeration containers,
offices, lunchrooms, amenity buildings for the construction
industry, down to just what we call standard tin cans for for
dry good storage. And it turns out Royal Wolf have also been
scammed. A scam invoice I have seen very limited to actually
what's on it. Fake companies were using Royal Wolf's address
on their invoices. Oh it's frustrating because the the
it's a bad look on the on the industry. Are you right
Patrice? So I guess the first question is do you own a cargo
container yourself? I don't. My father does but I don't. Senior
Sergeant Greg Dalziel says this is a classic non-delivery scam.
The only way to beat it is to do your homework which
includes: also looking for things like emails, phone
numbers, a location. Does it actually have physical
location? Well I guess you're safe nowhere. You just have to do
your your background checks. Um social media are there to
connect people and does it very well. Um you just have to be
very aware that there are people out there trying to to
get your money. Sergeant Dalziel says they're hunting a man
in Christchurch who may have Kat, Wayne and Heather's money.
There is a a male of interest and we're still trying to
locate that that person. While the police investigate the
scammers are still operating. Hello? G'day. I'm after a container, do you do
containers? I've been looking at a website and this phone number
was there. Oh yeah, this is William from Contdex Container.
We thought we'd call the Contdex Container hotline. Yeah, it's
going to cost 5,500 dollars. It's an Auckland
landline number that a Wellington based tech firm
sells to overseas companies to make them look local. We are
located in Otara, Auckland. What's your address? Yeah,
that's something currently we not
accept clients to our address so we can not provide that.
William, I've got a couple of people who I know who brought
containers off you and the containers never showed up.
What's going on? Uh we do not do that type of thing, sir.
Where's the money, William? I'm saying we do not do that type of
thing. You got Heather in Rotorua.
She paid you $12,000
for two containers. Where's her money, William?
William, is it possible that you're just a scammer? Nah,
sorry. We did not do that.
The Contdex Containers Facebook page does have some interesting
followers like Titi who says she's in West Auckland but
seems to spend a lot of time in Cameroon. Where are you right
now, William? I'm saying we are based in Otara. You're in Otara. So
what's your address?
Wayne and Kat, who are still $5000 short, want to know the
same thing. What's your address bro? I want your address. Wayne
has a piece of advice too. Get a job and earn your own money
maybe. Wayne will save again, maybe from his pool winnings.
Make him fight for his win. And eventually him and Kat will get
a container. But this hurt he'll remember. They're
scamming people out of money's low life eh? That's what you
are. They're just low lifes.