Chinese con artists posing has British architects have cloned websites and submitted fraudulent bids to Chinese clients in an effort to win work, reports Building.
Architect Broadway Malyan had its website copied by an unknown attacker, who submitted a fake project pitch in its name, while design firm Aedas had to shut down a company that had registered in the UK under its name and was bidding for work with the Chinese government.
Broadway Malyan was alerted to the scam when a client contacted the company to ask whether it had put in a bid for a Chinese contract, a source told Building: ‘They asked whether Broadway Malyan was interested [in the bid] – but [Broadway Malyan] hadn’t actually put the submission in.’
The scammer was hoping to capitalise on Broadway Malyan’s strong reputation and had even meticulously cloned its website, the source said. The practice is now taking legal advice on the matter.
A similar fraud hit Aedas about a year ago, said David Roberts, chief executive of its Asia division: ‘We had a company that took the trouble of registering in the UK, who took information from our website and bid for projects … They submitted one or two bids, which included government projects, before we found out.”
Aedas went to the Beijing courts to get the company closed down, which proved successful, although the perpetrators were never caught. It’s thought criminals have used similar tactics to hit at least one other major UK practice.
One of two groups was likely to be responsible, according to Nick Bolter, a partner at law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge: ‘It might be that a firm of Chinese architects was looking to win work, or it could be a more conventional scam from a group that will disappear after the first payment has been made.’
Comments are closed.