Fraudsters are fleecing people around the country using the names of defunct Alabama businesses, reaping millions from those seeking sweet deals on heavy equipment.

Carl Bates, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Central and South Alabama, said the scam has been showing up for the past six to eight months. Just in the past six weeks alone, Bates said unwitting consumer victims have deposited anywhere from $2 million to $3 million into the hands of scammers.

“In the four years I’ve been here, this is probably the most sophisticated and the worst scam we’ve seen,” Bates said.

Take, for example, a call Bates said he received from an Alaska man seeking a good deal on a snowplow for $50,000, with shipping costs of $4,000. The “seller” even sent photographs of the plow. When Bates asked the address of the vendor, the man gave one belonging to a grocery store in East Lake – that was closed.

“If that guy hadn’t called locally to check it out, he may have taken the risk of sending a deposit and that money would have been gone,” he said.

According to Bates, the scammers have so far used dissolved businesses based in Tuscaloosa, Millbrook, Beatrice and Cleburne County. Using websites, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, the scammers advertise great deals on bulldozers, Bobcats, harvesters, snowplows, dump trucks and other equipment.

Photographs of equipment or showrooms are snatched from other websites. Buyers are sometimes provided bogus licenses and tax ID information. They even offer warranties.

“Area codes within half a day’s drive are blocked,” Bates said. “They won’t take the calls.” That keeps them from getting customers who might drive to the site to check out the equipment and discover there’s nothing there.

“Once the buyer electronically transfers the money, (the scammers) drop them, block their email, block their phone calls. The money is immediately transferred to an off-shore account. There’s no equipment,” Bates said.

Investigators believe the scam may be based in Indonesia. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service are investigating. Alabama is not the only state where the scam is taking place. Buyers in Utah, Washington State, Oregon, New York State and Minnesota have so far fallen victim.

What’s more, the scammers have responded as more people have learned about it. Bates said the Better Business Bureau website, after one story publicizing the fraud, received a cyberattack involving one IP address sending tens of millions of hits an hour, trying to access a page on one of the bogus businesses.

What can buyers do to safeguard themselves? Bates said to thoroughly research any seller, not just online. Contact the local Better Business Bureau to verify a business.