More than $1m lost by punters lured by scammers using Google, Facebook

Four of 10 scam websites were registered to the same IP address in Newark, New Jersey. Another was also hosted in Newark under another IP address, three were hosted in the North Carolina city of Asheville, one in the Arizona city of Phoenix and one in Moscow.

Steve Byrnes, Container Traders managing director, said his company, a legitimate Newcastle-based business selling containers Australia wide, had been inundated with people sharing stories about being ripped off.

Byrnes says he started looking into the scam after customers started mentioning who they were comparing quotes with.

“There were a few things I thought were unusual. I know many of the dealers in Australia and the market rates, so what I was hearing raised red flags immediately. I completed an online enquiry through the reported website and was quickly contacted,” he says.

“I worked out he was definitely a scammer by the way he described the products, the price point and his lack of…