FAKE WEBSITE IMPERSONATING FORMER WASHINGTON CO. BUSINESS UNDER INVESTIGATION

  

A fake website using the name of a company that formerly operated in Washington County is the target of an investigation by local, state and federal agencies.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is alerting the public of a scam involving unknown individuals who are using the company name Lambert International or Lambert International Equipment.  The original owners of the business in Chappell Hill have closed it and sold the land, but the sheriff’s office says undetermined parties are now using a website called https://lambertinternationalequip.com, to conduct fraudulent activity that has resulted in some buyers losing tens of thousands of dollars to purchase heavy equipment that does not exist. 

Sergeant Investigator Mike McAnally says the sheriff’s office has reached out to the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Rangers because the activity involves victims both inside and outside of Texas.

McAnally says he has been contacted by at least six or seven different people, including an out-of-state senator, about whether the website was real.  One person out of Nebraska reportedly paid $25,000 for equipment they never received. 

McAnally says the website is very convincing to anyone who is unsuspecting.  It lists the address of what used to be Lambert International at 7800 Highway 290 East, a phone number that victims reported goes to a live person, and photos of equipment “for sale.”  While the physical location does have some pieces of equipment and old school buses on site, McAnally says they are nothing like what is shown on the webpage.

It is unknown where the scam is originating from, but McAnally said investigators do not believe the perpetrators are local.  There is suspicion they are foreign, as he said the phone number listed on the website, despite having a 979 area code, did not come back as a United States number after a search.  He also believes the website address may have been altered from the original, adding “equip” to the end of “lambertinternational”.

The former owners of Lambert International and the current owners of the property are working with the sheriff’s office during its investigation.  Since there is no way locally to shut down the website, the sheriff’s office is issuing notice to citizens to be aware of the situation.