Police are investigating what could turn out to be a massive scam, which has drained thousands of pounds from people's bank and credit card accounts.

Computeractive and fraud specialist Early Warning have discovered that debit and credit cards used to pay for goods such as iPods and Nintendo Wii consoles from www.instant-av.co.uk have been used fraudulently elsewhere.

Cheekily, even after their card was debited for goods they had ordered, most people have told us they were also telephoned by an 'employee' of instant-av with the excuse that the person's card could not be validated; the victim was then asked for the details of another card that instant-av could use for the order.

Our investigations revealed the site, which is does not use a security certificate to encrypt people's details, was only set up last month. The address on the site is that of an innocent shop fitter in North London who was shocked to find his details on this site when we called him.

After we placed a notice warning about the scam on a Yahoo message board, people all over the country began emailing us. Some had only just placed their orders and were worried about being taken for a ride; others told us thousands of pounds had been taken from their account.

No-one has received the goods they ordered.

"I have had over £5,000 taken from my account," one person in Cornwall told us. Others have spoken of losing anywhere between £1,500 and £2,500 on top of the initial payment for whatever they ordered.

We know the money had been used to buy goods and thousands of pounds spent on cases of alcohol at four restaurants alone. The fraudsters sent the debit or credit card details of seven different people to order £10,000 of food and alcohol from one restaurant in London. However it is likely that thousands of pounds have been creamed off in other ways.

Payments appearing on people's bank statements show the money had been taken by an organisation calling itself GRT Electronics or GRT electro using Google's online payment system.

People who called Instant-AV to complain were given a new number to call. When we called the phone was not answered.

A spokesperson for GRT denied any involvement in any wrongdoing, and said that the company had in fact been the victim of a fraud perpetrated by those behind the Instant-AV site, and that it was cooperating with an investigation by Google.

The spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Computeractive: "GRT Electronics has been working very closely with Google in an attempt to catch these fraudsters, and we have supplied them with all the information we have about Instant AV.

Google Checkout has also begun to refund all the customers who purchased through the GRT Electronics site. Further GRT Electronics has at no time obtained or been paid any money from the victims of Instant AV."

The statement also insisted that Instant-AV had "attempted to use GRT Electronics Google checkout details to obtain money by deception". Google said it had suspended GRT's web payment facility although it did not give a reason.

We have handed the information we have on to the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Fraud Unit, a squad of specialist police officers and civilian staff set up in April 2002 to tackle the organised gangs responsible for much of the UK's card and cheque fraud. It is sponsored by UK payment organisation APACS, on behalf of the banking industry.

The www.instant-av.co.uk site is now down but Early Warning is keeping an eye on this situation and said other scams can be reported to it for investigation.
"Don't be blinkered by cheap prices; always look for the padlock that shows the site is secure. The fraudsters are buying consumables to sell on and there will be other ways they are getting the money into their hands," said Andrew Goodwill of Early Warning, which initially tipped us off to the scam on 10 May.