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This blog allows the consumers to express their frustration and irritation concerning unsatisfactory products and/or services received from Companies in all industries.
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I ordered a shirt from DistilledTees.com on Oct 21,2009 and have not received anything from them. I sent several emails inquiring about its status and got a response saying I would receive the shirt in 2-3 days and would refunded. Neither of these have occurred and I cannot get a response from them about what is being done. I believe the site is run by one person, Jacob Huff, and they never actually ship shirts. They just post them as bait until some "buys" them. They stole my money, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is full of opportunities to make money and earn passive income. With these great opportunities, there also comes risk of scams.
ReplyDeleteWay back before I started this site, I have already been searching for ways to make money on the internet. I even tried enrolling in make easy money programs online, only to find out it was a scam. But I have no regrets because through my years of experience, I have grown and is now more cautious in investing online.
Here are ways to check if a website is indeed legitimate.
Check the Contact Information VS Whois Information
Any decent website would definitely have a contact page with company address and contact numbers. Check the informations using a whois search if they match. Most of the time, fraudulent websites state that their company resides in the US but has a different story when checked in the domain whois.
Check the Age of the Website
A several month old website is more likely to be a scam site, although not all of them are. Because of this uncertainty, I only use the age of domain as an additional information in deciding whether the site is legitimate or not.
Check How Long is the Domain Name Registered
Do a quick domain lookup. Websites that plan to stay long in the business registers their domain names several years in advance. If the domain name is registered for only a year, I’d already have my doubts.
Check the Neighbors of the Website
Do a quick IP search to check the hosting neighbors of the website. Most fraudulent websites are in a shared IP address. If the neighbors sounds fishy or looks spammy, I won’t risk dealing with the site.
Ask Websites Associated with the One You Are Checking
Most people would ask around forums on whether a site could be trusted or not. The problem with this is you are asking for other people’s opinion. Opinions help but doesn’t really answer.
What you want is to contact websites associated with the company like it’s web hosts or site partners. This way, you are asking a person with the knowledge to answer you back with confidence.
Look at Reviews or Customer Feedbacks
This can only be done if the website does have reviews or show customer feedbacks. If not, you can contact the customers personally. Ask the customers about their experience with the company. Did they get paid? How long have they been a member?
It was actually a good thing for me getting scammed for several bucks. At least now, I am more careful when I am dealing with new opportunities.
Lastly, I would like to emphasize that it is good to doubt fishy offers, but let us also be open minded because there really are many genuine opportunities on ways to make money online.
Don't fall for this e-mail scam
ReplyDeleteProtecting_passwords
Yesterday, the following message with the title, "Please help," arrived in my e-mail "in" box, signed by a friend of my parents:
I hope you received my message? And is very urgent. I could barely think straight at this point. I had a trip here in Uk on a mission. I hope you are fine? I'm sorry i didn't inform you about my trip to UK for a program. I am presently in UK and I am having some difficulties. I misplaced my bag on my way to the hotel where other valuable things were kept along with my passport. I feel so ashamed because i am so stranded and idle. I will like you to help me with a loan of $2000 to pay my hotel bills and also return back home. I will refund the money to you as soon as I get back, I have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively I currently have limited access to emails for now.
From the get-go, this smelled like a scam.
For one, the grammar was totally off (are scammers always this illiterate?). For another, the purported sender never writes me; maybe once I've heard from her via e-mail. Finally, judging from what I know of her, she is unlikely to be in the situation described.
When I called my parents, they confirmed that yes, this was a scam. The woman in question had recieved calls from friends, relatives and contacts all over the world questioning the message. Someone, it seemed, had got a hold of her e-mail address. And, as my mother noted, now they have ours as well.
What should you do if you're in this situation? The most straightforward step would be to change your e-mail address, though that means letting everyone who uses it know right away.
As the New York Times reported yesterday, changing your passwords also is essential to protecting your accounts and e-mail addresses, especially if you've taken the lazy route and stuck for years with "12345." The article offers some suggestions for creating better passwords. The FTC, for its part, offers an entire Web hub devoted to preventing Internet fraud.
Finally, for more on inexpensively protecting yourself from identity theft and other frauds, check out Consumer Reports' comprehensive package of articles here.
The biggest consumer scams of 2009
ReplyDeleteTod's tightwad mug The Better Business Bureau today came out with its list of last year’s top scams and, not surprising, offers preying on Americans’ vulnerability in tough economic times accounted for many of the ripoffs.
While some come-ons were perennial problems, according to the BBB, others were particularly timely such as offers that tried to convince people they could land a new job, avoid losing their homes to foreclosure, or get their hands on a piece of the stimulus package.
In no particular order, here’s the list from Alison Southwick, media relations manager with the Council of Better Business Bureaus:
• Acai Supplements and other “free” trial offers – Ads offering trial offers for teeth whiteners, acai anti-aging pills, and other miracle supplements blanketed the Internet, including trusted Web sites of national news organizations. The marketing campaigns often falsely claimed an endorsement by celebrities like Oprah, Rachael Ray, and Dr. Oz. Thousands of consumers complained to BBB that the free trial actually cost them up to hundreds of dollars, month after month.
• Stimulus/government grant scams – Even before President Obama announced the stimulus plan in February, scammers had already set up schemes for misleading consumers and small business owners into thinking they could get a piece of the pie. Offers for worthless assistance and advice on how to get government grants bombarded consumers online, over the phone, via e-mail, and snail mail.
• Robocalls – Owning a cell phone or having a phone number on the do-not-call registry didn’t halt harassing automated telemarketing calls in 2009. The robocalls often falsely claimed that a consumer’s auto warranty was about to expire or offered help in obtaining a lower credit card interest rate. The prevalence of robocalls violating federal telemarketing laws prompted the FTC to increase restrictions on the practice.
• Lottery/sweepstakes scam –Victims received letters in the mail pretending to be from Reader’s Digest, Publisher’s Clearing House, or a foreign lottery informing them that they’d won millions. The letter would be accompanied by a check representing a portion of the total winnings. In order to get the rest, the victim was told to deposit the check and then wire hundreds of dollars back to the scammers supposedly to cover taxes or other bogus fees. Victims would wire the money, but never receive any prize.
• Job hunter scams –Scams targeting job hunters varied and included attempts to gain access to personal information such as a bank account or Social Security number, and requirements to pay a fee in order to even be considered for the job. Another common scam reported to BBB: prospective employers told job hunters that they had to take a look at their credit reports before being considered. The job offer was actually a marketing ploy for online credit monitoring that cost the victim every month until he or she cancelled.
• Google work from home scam – Countless Web sites cropped up in 2009 that claimed you could learn how to make money from home using Google or Twitter, and offered a free trial of learning materials. The sites often included the Google or Twitter logo to make them seem more authentic. As a result, many people who complained to BBB thought they were getting a job with Google or Twitter when in, fact, they were being lured into a misleading free-trial offer and were billed every month for the materials and other mysterious charges that added up to hundreds of dollars.
• Mortgage foreclosure rescue/debt assistance – With many families struggling with mortgage payments and credit-card debt, there was no shortage of hucksters offering to help them save their house from foreclosure or help them get out of debt. Unfortunately, victims paid hundreds of dollars up front for assistance they desperately needed but ultimately never received.
I provided my mobile number to a website called send me or something like that and they charged me $10 a month until I texted the words "stop all" to a specific number...Bunch of Mother F....!!!They deserve to be sued!!
ReplyDelete