ScamVictimsUnited.com

This is a long thread, which you may wish to read to see how the mystery behind these frauds unfolded. A summary of the most up to date information is located at http://erichkofmelinfo.googlepages.com/?ref=SUMSVU


Dear SVU,

We would be very grateful if you could make your users aware of the following fraud. We have identified several victims already.

The fraudster has used the email addresses [b]shortterm@live.com and incontro2005@hotmail.com.

He advertises properties on sites inclduing craiglist.com , http://www.inkiti.co.uk , http://www.evelez.net , londonpbb.com , http://www.livetray.com , http://www.inkiti.co.uk , http://www.holidayhomeonline.com

The properties have include apartments in London, Rome, New York, Lazio, Paris, Mallorca and other cities around the world. The problem, is that the properties do not exist.

The 2 victims from the bulletin board above paid for a flat 25, when the flat numbers only went up to 24. We know there are victims in the UK, USA, France, Germany and Canada.

From numerous victims we have indentified that the scammer asked for funds to be tranferred to transfer funds by BACS to various UK based accounts under the name "Mr Eric H. Kofmehl" and the address "85 Sommerville Road, Bristol BS7 9AE, England". We believe the mailing address to be false. When asked for a phone number, he has responded to multiple victims "My phone number is ++44 7931 588 634. Sorry, if I don't pick up (work related). I prefer e-mail."

This is where it gets interesting, however. Multiple victims have received bogus booking confirmations. In the AUTHOR information it is listed as Erich Kofmel. [note the different spelling... whoops, slipped up there Erich didnt you). We have further highly credible evidence that these people are one and the same.

A quick google of " Erich Kofmel " will reveal that Erich Kofmel, a student at the University of Sussex will take you to news articles in the national press about property scams such as this one:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages/ ... _page_id=8

Oh.... and by some coincidence, the sort codes for the bank accounts above are for bank branches.... you guessed it, in Sussex.

EDIT - We have been contacted by victims who, because of the relatively small amount of money involved in each individual case, failed to report it to the police. We advise that you report your crime in writing - specifically ask for a CRIME REFERENCE NUMBER.

Could it be possible that the REAL Eric H. Kofmehl is a victim of Identity Theft and the person who is scamming these people is just using his name?

We have EXTREMELY convincing evidence to the contrary

I just felt I had to ask, since I have seen things like that happen before.

No problem I am happy to take this up in email. The use of the spelling of Erich Kofmel is quite legitimate. Here is an image from a victim:



For the avoidance of doubt, we are not accusing any individual or individuals of committing any crime, we are simply presenting the facts as known to the authors, to the best of our knowledge. Just because "Erich Kofmel", with links to Brighton / Sussex, has been featured in the UK national press (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgag...9&in_page_id=8) associated with internet scams, does not make him guilty. The evidence, and the evidence alone, will prove any case. It will be for the relevant law enforcement authorities to determine if there is any link. Please further note that all intelligence we hold has already been passed to relevant authorities.

Briefly, The fraudster will "cancel" the booking at very short notice before the booking but then fail to provide a refund or answer any correspondence for example

"Die Nachbarin, die Sie treffen sollte, hat seit einiger Zeit über Unwohlsein geklagt und ist gestern ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert worden. Sie wird auf unbestimmte Zeit nicht in der Lage sein, sich um die Wohnung und meine Gäste zu kümmern." [German Version]

"The neighbour who was supposed to be meeting you has complained for some time that she was not feeling well. Yesterday, she was hospitalized. She will for some time not be able to take care of my guests or the apartment." [English Version]

Thank you once again for the continued expansion in intelligence. We can now report the email addresses used by the same fraudster are:

shortterm@live.com
incontro2005@hotmail.com
hols4you@hotmail.com
your-holidays-2007@hotmail.co.uk
holiday-lettings@hotmail.com
apartment_london@yahoo.com

Quick update.

1 more email address used in the scams:
eric.kofmel@virtualpost.ch

1 more false mailing address:
44 Mill Lane Avenue, B91 3GS, Birmingham, Großbritannien.

ANOTHER email address and it now looks like the frauds date back all the way to July 2006

hols-apart@hotmail.com

This is getting depressingly massive.....

Following police investigations by numerous UK forces, the Federal Trade Commission (USA), Guardia Civil (Spain), Policía Nacional (Spain), the German police, Austrian police and indeed INTERPOL ......Erich Kofmel was arrested, on suspicion of Fraud, by the Economic Crime Unit (Fraud) of Sussex Police at approximately 17:00hrs 7th May 2008.

Kofmel was due to give a lecture at 17:30 entitled "Comparative Political Theology "at the London School of Economics. Kofmel was arrested on his way to the lecture which was subsequently cancelled [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:nU9a_0X3GG8J:http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/rel...n&ct=clnk&cd=1
].

Potential victims of these frauds are advised to contact the Economic Crime Unit (Fraud) of Sussex Police via their main switchboard. [Source: Sussex Police Spokesperson].


Particular thanks to SVU for letting this thread run when others removed it after much hot air from Mr. Kofmel. And thank you to all the people from this and other boards for sharing information.

Another fascinating development for those SVU readers that are following this..... since Mr. Erich Kofmel's arrest in London on suspicion of fraud in Moay 2008 (in relation to the property frauds above).

You may have read how Mr. Kofmel had been in the Bankruptcy Court in Switzerland (over his companies Gemeindebüro Treuhand AG and others). Note the spelling very closely.

We reported that he had MISSPELT this company name in a CV for potential investors of his more recent companies Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) and SCIS Technology Ltd.....

By misspelling the name of his previously dissolved company Gemeindebüro Treuhand AG as Gemeinebüro Treuhand AG investors would not be aware of his history.... the reason.... a Google search for the latter did not reveal Kofmel's dirty past.

Since reporting this, that copy of his CV on his website has now mysteriously disappeared as well. What is Mr. Kofmel trying to hide?

Fear not you can still see that it was on Kofmels website by Googling "Gemeinebüro Treuhand AG"... and indeed the CV itself remains on Google's cache by clicking on VIEW AS HTML

If you are a law enforcement agency and require any original documents, or a victim, feel free to get in touch shorttermEK "at" gmail.com

STOP PRESS: The frauds have continued well into April 2008 and sadly we have identified a new email address used by the fraudster:

shortterms@hotmail.com

Note that the "Staff Profile" on Erich Kofmel's University of Sussex Page has been taken down, the significance of which in uncertain.

Google Result:

Mr Erich Kofmel : Centre for Social and Political Thought ...University of Sussex staff profile for Mr Erich Kofmel.
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cspt/profile184128.html

Several people have had difficulty in accessing the above google cache of the CV (including the deliberately misspelled bankrupt company name) that was hosted on the website of the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) [http://www.scis-calibrate.org/]. Several other copies of the CV with the incorrect spelling still remain on the internet.

If you are not able to access the Google cache there is a copy of it here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc5j262m_7c3txdwdv

Please drop me a line if you need the original PDF that has been deleted from the website, or have any other inquiries ( contact me at through the links below).

In the interests of public protections and providing an up to date and reliable source of information regarding Mr. Erich Kofmel and the associated Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) we have set up a webpage at

http://erichkofmelinfo.googlepages.com

Over the next few weeks we will try and maintain it as an up to date reference source and include relevant source material.

STOP PRESS! (9/7/08)

We have been contacted by another Kofmel victim with a slight variation of Mr. Kofmel's vacation property fraud..... he cancels at short notice due to essential maintenance of the vacation property (no air conditioning or water ect).... promised returned cheques do not materialise (like the hospitization of a neighbour excuse above).

The full text of the excuse is below and as previously, full details at http://erichkofmelinfo.googlepages.com/

"Leider gibt es ein Problem mit der Wohnung, das ich hier von der Ferne aus versucht habe zu lösen. Ich hatte gehofft, dafür noch einen Ausweg zu finden, aber glaube, dass uns nun die Zeit davonläuft. Die Wohnung, die ich vermiete, ist eine von vier im selben Gebäude und alle gehören verschiedenen Eigentümern. Ich bin letzte Woche von der Management-Gesellschaft informiert worden, dass Arbeiten an den Wasser- und Lüftungs-Anlagen des Gebäudes für den Zeitraum vom x bis x x geplant sind. Dies würde Ihren Aufenthalt stark beeinträchtigen (z. B. Wasserversorgung und Airconditioning werden nicht funktionieren). Ich halte es deshalb nun für das beste, Ihre Buchung zu annulieren und hoffe, es wird Ihnen möglich sein, noch rechtzeitig eine andere Unterkunft zu finden. Ich werde einen Scheck über die erhaltene Vorauszahlung an Ihre Adresse senden." [German Version of variant fraud]