Note: the title of this thread was going to be "possible" scam website, but since I was able to verify it actually is nothing more than a fraud I opted to remove the ambiguity.
As some of you may have seen there is a website called topchooseus.com that purports to sell just about everything under the sun, for ridiculously low prices. The only payment methods they accept are Western Union and some Chinese bank, even though their website has banners for Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and Paypal. Instantly you start to smell a rat, but the thought occurred to me; "since this place is obviously a rip-off how can they still be up and running"? Intrigued, I decided to find out.
google searches showed very little -- it was mostly links to the website and various products -- so it must be new, right? Not according to whois, because the registration date was over 6 months ago. That doesn't tell you how long the website has been up, but it usually gives some indication. Not in this case though, since by now the internet would have exploded with comments about how people had been ripped-off.
To find out for myself I ordered something. Yes, you read that correctly; I knew it wasn't going to end well, but I took the plunge nonetheless. I didn't buy anything expensive, mind you, because I'm not in the habit of losing money, but I 'took one for the team' so to speak in order to find out for myself. I was also quite curious as to why these places can continue to be on-line when you know they're scams. What I found out is sickening.
I placed an order, got my "confirmation" and then waited for my shipment information which (obviously) never came. I then sent emails to the company asking where my product was. No reply. I used their Customer Service form on the website to inquire. No reply. I sent an email to the registered owner from the whois database. No reply. Notice a pattern? None of the emails bounced as undeliverable either, so I know the accounts are at least valid. I set a threshold of attempts and days before I finally concede that I had been taken (which I knew all along, of course, but I wanted to make it realistic for when I started to report the crime). It's at this point where you're likely to feel ill.
The first thing I did was contact the registrar, which is godaddy.com. They told me to call my local police department and report the crime. No, that's not a misprint; they wanted me to walk into the police station and file a report about a website in China! Assuming the cops wouldn't have wet themselves laughing I doubt the report would have achieved much more than provide them a nice story to tell each other over dinner that evening. godaddy.com=imbecile. Strike one.
I then contacted whois.com and reported invalid information, because if you look at the record it's obviously a bunch of crap. To my horror they told me the exact same thing! Call the cops? These people are out of their minds too, and in my book should be considered complicit in the crimes because they've openly chosen to do nothing to prevent this. Strike two.
Both Visa and American Express have not replied to my initial report, which was over 4 days ago. Way to stay on top of things fellas. Discover essentially said "we'll forward that on to the appropriate people". What that means I have no idea, because they no longer reply to my emails requesting clarification. MasterCard sent back a generic, canned reply that had absolutely nothing to do with what I reported. Like Discover, they too have stopped responding to my emails asking them to give me a legitimate answer associated to my original message. Strike three.
On a whim I also filed a complaint with Amazon, telling them this site was obviously using their general layout to subliminally trick people into a sense of security because of the familiarity. They replied with the same thing Discover did; "thanks for alerting us, we'll look into it". Does that make it strike four?
So there you have it. The primary reason these sites are allowed to exist -- actually, flourish -- is because no one will get off their fat @ss and do a thing about it. People are getting ripped off right and left, yet not a single company gives a crap! So long as they get their money it's all good. At least that's how it seems, because the apathy is rampant.
I did also contact the FTC, but that was just this morning (it hadn't dawned on me they might be able to assist until today, but I'm certainly not holding my breath that they'll care more then the rest of these slackers did). When (if?) they reply I'll update this thread.
So spread the word if you will; stay far away from topchooseus.com. They are, for a fact, nothing more than a scam. I took a small financial hit to satisfy my own curiosity, and to see how this whole underworld functions. I came away truly disgusted with how easy everybody makes it for them. Basically they are allowed to operate with total impunity because everyone simply looks the other way. To be perfectly honest I'm not sure how to fix this problem, but there has to be something better than what's happening now. Which is absolutely nothing.
