You'll recall I purchased my niece a gift online from a site in Australia to ensure the safe and prompt delivery of the gift for her 13th birthday which was on May 22 as I was nervous good ol' fashioned international mail would let me down.
As I hadn't received a confirmation email, I went to the website and sent an email enquiring where the order might be as no money has been taken out of our account.
No response.
I rang the number on the 'transaction record' and I knew something was odd. The number was a +1 which is USA and not +61 which is Australia. The person who answered the phone didn't speak English.
I started to worry! Hence ONLINE SHOPPING chat earlier.
I then thought I'd email the company of the brand of jewellery I bought as they might (a) have a stockist contact email or phone number or (b) like to know that there might well be a scam going on, using their products which are very well known and positioned at the higher end of the market.
I received a prompt email which read:
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately we do not have any stockists, online or retail, in Australia.
The email link you sent us is counterfeit.
We are very sorry.
Kind regards
Customer Care Team
OMG!
$%&*()$%^&*((#$%^&*(
G is following up with our bank to cancel the payment as it still hasn't shown up on our statement (good thing)
I emailed MissS and explained the situation and apologised, assuring her that her gift will be there, next week.
What I wonder tho is HOW does one tell a counterfeit website these days? This one had macfee security logo's and DHL courier logos along with others, it had the PAYPAL, VISA, Mastercard signs etc.
Admittedly when I read the FAQ's and other sections of the website it very quickly raised alarm bells. The language and sentence structures are pathetic to the point of not making any sense at all.
So, after years of shopping online very successfully, I've been duped.
Hopefully, they won't take the money from our account as our bank is super critical of all our online transactions.
Tomorrow I will go to the High Street and buy MissS her gift, and post it registred mail and insure it, so that it's trackable.
I'm feeling rather embarrassed about being duped and angry that MissS has had to wait for her gift.
With friendship
x
I'm so sorry to hear that happened. But remember bad things sometimes happen to good people. You aren't stupid or silly or gullible, those sites are designed to pull people in - and you surely weren't the only one. thanks for the warning!!!
ReplyDeleteBTW I experienced my first theft at the charity shop - a woman asked if she could take a piece of jewelry (costume) to the other side of the store, to see if it matched a blouse she was looking at. "Of course" I said...and of course she never did pay for it. It wasn't the money, it is that someone stole from a charity shop!!! As my mother would have said, what do you expect from people - they shot Lincoln, what will they do to you!
OMG I can't believe someone would steal from a charity shop! That's rather sad.
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