I decided to share my experience with scam/credit card abuse, just to inform how easy it can happen and to help anybody who experienced it.
I for one was definitely thinking that I am more protected against it. I also believed that if it does happen, who ever behind it would be easily caught.
So I was naively buying stuff on line for years and getting so used to it that I stopped checking for and taking care of the most basic things one should think off when giving his bank card number away.
Until I gave it to the wrong person and was shocked to find out how big and perfected scamming business has become and how there is very little one can do even when trying to get help from the police, consumer agencies etc...
(The dates of the posts are fake to achieve a reverse order)
Sunday 2 August 2015
Saturday 1 August 2015
Soo stupid...
One day I noticed an add on Facebook about some diet/supplement pills that were supposed to be really healthy, natural and help you lose weight. There was even a bunch of real comments saying how great it is. After clicking on the add I was redirected on this web page, it is in Swedish, since I live in Sweden:
https://offers.dietanddetoxproducts.com/VFJHQ0dTMDAx/a/a/1
As you can see, the page is quite neat and full of good stuff about the product. All seeming very legitimate and a great offer to get the product for free, only paying for the shipment.
I had never really come across how scams are made and was too naive and stupid to notice it was an obvious scam. I was so used to smoothly buying stuff on-line that I completely forgot to check for the basic things before giving my bank card number away. After paying for the shipment of the "free" product, I was just redirected to another product for "free" , saying they work really great together etc...:
so I ordered that as well and received two confirmation emails with the order ID a bunch of useless information and a statement:
Please note that the purchase will show on your credit card statement as Positive CS .
I was so ignorant that I did not notice that there was an absolute lack of any information about the company sending these products in the confirmation emails as well as on their web page offer.
https://offers.dietanddetoxproducts.com/VFJHQ0dTMDAx/a/a/1
As you can see, the page is quite neat and full of good stuff about the product. All seeming very legitimate and a great offer to get the product for free, only paying for the shipment.
I had never really come across how scams are made and was too naive and stupid to notice it was an obvious scam. I was so used to smoothly buying stuff on-line that I completely forgot to check for the basic things before giving my bank card number away. After paying for the shipment of the "free" product, I was just redirected to another product for "free" , saying they work really great together etc...:
Please note that the purchase will show on your credit card statement as Positive CS .
I was so ignorant that I did not notice that there was an absolute lack of any information about the company sending these products in the confirmation emails as well as on their web page offer.
Friday 31 July 2015
So angry...
As one can see on the web page offer, there is no mention of any subscription, membership, auto-ship program, paying for the full price after 14 days... none of that, nothing in the email confirmations neither.
About a week later, I was lucky to notice a similar web page, but this time from a real Swedish company so all of the above mentioned terms of getting the free sample were written big and clear. Around this time I also received the free samples over post. So I went and checked all the web pages from the free sample offer, all the email confirmations, the papers that came with the package and there was nothing:
But by than I already got suspicious since I noticed that none of these had any real information about what I got and from who, the only thing that was written on the package was “Distributed by Diet&Detox Products D-24976 Handewitt”. So just to be safe, I emailed the companies customer support, saying I would like to unsubscribe and cancel everything. That was 11 days after paying for the shipment of the free sample.
And the next day I really got a response saying that I had been successfully removed from the auto-ship program and will not be responsible for any further shipments or charges:
REALLY....?! I was not even aware that I had subscribed to something but OK....whatever. I thought that was it and did not give it much more though, but did realize it was a scam, since I really did not see any terms of ordering the free trial that would insinuate the above.
A week later I was checking my bank account and there it was...on the same day I had "successfully" unsubscribed, 1416,67 SEK was taken as Positive CS without me being informed about it howsoever. I was shocked and so angry.
About a week later, I was lucky to notice a similar web page, but this time from a real Swedish company so all of the above mentioned terms of getting the free sample were written big and clear. Around this time I also received the free samples over post. So I went and checked all the web pages from the free sample offer, all the email confirmations, the papers that came with the package and there was nothing:
But by than I already got suspicious since I noticed that none of these had any real information about what I got and from who, the only thing that was written on the package was “Distributed by Diet&Detox Products D-24976 Handewitt”. So just to be safe, I emailed the companies customer support, saying I would like to unsubscribe and cancel everything. That was 11 days after paying for the shipment of the free sample.
And the next day I really got a response saying that I had been successfully removed from the auto-ship program and will not be responsible for any further shipments or charges:
REALLY....?! I was not even aware that I had subscribed to something but OK....whatever. I thought that was it and did not give it much more though, but did realize it was a scam, since I really did not see any terms of ordering the free trial that would insinuate the above.
A week later I was checking my bank account and there it was...on the same day I had "successfully" unsubscribed, 1416,67 SEK was taken as Positive CS without me being informed about it howsoever. I was shocked and so angry.
Tuesday 28 July 2015
Enormous scam organization
I had no idea that I am dealing with an enormous scam organization, I still thought that it is just a small company trying to do get away with small prints and accidental charges no one notices and complains about.
So I contacted the customer support, demanding my money back. I got a few ignorant emails in a sorry attempt to convince me that the money was taken according to what I had agreed to when paying for the shipment of the free sample:
Of course all of it was bullshit since the terms were in fact not written anywhere and the transaction was done 11 days after the order of the free trial, so it was within the free trial period and it was on the day I "successfully" canceled everything...
It is not straight away clear that it
is the same company, but one can see, that all the free trial offers
have the same customer support number, the same “official” web
page and sometimes even the same company information.
So I contacted the customer support, demanding my money back. I got a few ignorant emails in a sorry attempt to convince me that the money was taken according to what I had agreed to when paying for the shipment of the free sample:
Of course all of it was bullshit since the terms were in fact not written anywhere and the transaction was done 11 days after the order of the free trial, so it was within the free trial period and it was on the day I "successfully" canceled everything...
So I decided to call the costumer support, it took a while to find the right number since the one in the email was faulty. The call was just a long torturing experience for me and the poor person on the other side who really had no idea what is really going on and who is behind it. I heard it all, trying to confuse me about the dates of free trial expiration, cancellation date etc..I just insisted and after repeating the same thing the 5th time, I was told I will be refunded 75% of the money. I was appalled, since it was clear that they are not serious and saw no reason why on earth should they keep any of the money. So I was upset and demanded all my money back and some sort of a guarantee I will get it. So just like that I was told I will get 100% refund, but they were unable to give me any information about the company. I insisted and all they could tell me was that the company is called Purelife or Buypurelife and that it is situated in Denmark, Taulov. I had no choice but to accept whatever I was told and hang up.
The next day I even received an email from them
saying I will get a full refund within 3-5 business days:
Note that this time there was an odd email attached to the contact email.
Of course the money had still not been refunded
and I reported everything to the Swedish consumers agency, European consumers agency, to the
police and my bank where I also had to change my bank card.
I kept writing to the companies
customer support and demanding my money back, but all I got was
ignorant responses. On the 7th of August I even received
another package of the product in my mail box. When I called the
costumers support they were just telling me I will get the money
back, this time they told me it takes up to 10 business days and blah
blah and this time when I asked for the official name of the company
I was told it is Gaiadetox and all they could give me was the packaging center RD Logistics Postbox 500 DK-7017 Taulov in Denmark.
I was really angry for being scammed
like that so I started researching the Internet for whatever I could
find.
I was shocked to discover how many
people were scammed and stolen from in the exact same way from the
same “company”. Swedish consumer agency has more than a hundred
scam/credit card abuse reports about Purelife or Buypurelife. Over
200 reports were also made for Diet&Detox Products, Cleanlife,
Garcinia Essentials, Vitatrade, Raspberry Ketones,…. since they are
all really names for the same “company”.
Here are some screen shots, since there
is no link for the individual search at http://diabasweb.kov.se/doksok.asp?DSN=0
Even when I received my free samples
they were from Diet&Detox Products, when I contacted the customer
support I got an answer from Purelife, but then the unordered package
that came after I canceled everything was from Cleanlife.
Here are some “official” webpages,
all really the same:
For Cleanlife there is even a little
bit different official page: http://www.cleanlifewebshop.com/,
but clicking on customer support redirects you to the Diet&Detox
Products customer support.
Just out of curiosity I tried buying a
product from Cleanlife web page using fake data and before the final
execution I noticed that the money would have been payed to a Paypal
account Urriaco Limited DBA CleanLife, screenshot:
So I started researching who is this
Urriaco Limited and found information at :
So I looked further and the same
director ΧΡΙΣΤΙΝΑ ΧΑΤΖΙΔΟΥ (CHRISTINA CHATZIDOU) and
“secretary”
E.C.A. KARTOIR SECRETARIAL LTD,
whose
director is actually Christina Chatzidou and
a few other people,
had
all
together more than 70 companies at the same address, which is
actually:
Souliou,
11, VAMIKO 5, 1st Floor, Flat/Office 14, Strovolos, 2018, Nicosia,
Cyprus
Other
people involved are ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗ ΦΕΝΕΡΙΔΟΥ,
ΕΥΑΓΟΡΑΣ ΔΡΑΓΟΥΜΗΣ, ΑΝΟΥΣ ΚΟΣΤΙΚΙΑΝ,
ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗ ΚΟΣΤΙΚΙΑΝ, ΒΙΤΑΛΙΟΣ ΦΕΝΕΡΙΔΗΣ,
ΝΑΞΙΟΥΝ ΚΑΖΑΝΤΖΙΑΝ, ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΒΕΝΙΑΜΙΝΙΔΗΣ
and the names of some of the companies
are:
Leivadio Limited, Arorma Investments
Limited, Mefora Limited, Moslok Limited, Aedificatore Limited,
Bracteatus Limited, Wereldo Investments Limited and many more.
I also found that a few companies had
also two other addresses and those are 11 Richter, Agia Fyla,
Limassol P.C. 3120, Cyprus and Calypso 22, plan 3, Flat 5, Akropolis
2014 Nicosia, Cypern.
When googling these companies and the
address in Strovolos
I got an enormous amount of web pages from the previously mentioned
names of the same “company”, like Purelife, Rasberryketones etc.
offering free samples of diet and detox products, webhosting,
trading, money loans, films etc.
All of them had a small print of either
:
Billing services provided by: “one
of the above companies like Arorma Investments Limited ”
, 11 Souliou Vamiko 5, Office 14, Strovolos, Nicosia P.C. 2018,
Cyprus
or
Credit Card Transactions Faciliatated
By: “one of the above companies like Mefora Limited”,
11 Souliou, Vamiko 5, Office 14, Strovolos, Nicosia P.C
or
Charges will appear on your statement
as TrimCL8005288129 “one of the above companies like
Leivadio Limited” - 11 Souliou Vamiko 5, Office 14, Strovolos,
Nicosia P.C. 2018, Cyprus
or
Owned and operated by: “one of the above companies like Arorma Investments Limited ”, 11 Souliou Vamiko 5, Office 14, Strovolos, Nicosia P.C. 2018, Cyprus, +1-9173102882.
or
Owned and operated by: “one of the above companies like Arorma Investments Limited ”, 11 Souliou Vamiko 5, Office 14, Strovolos, Nicosia P.C. 2018, Cyprus, +1-9173102882.
here are some exemples:
https://detoxisystem.com
cleansifysystem.com
https://mycleansemybody.info
www.greencleansingsolutions.info
And what I also found when researching
these was an enormous amount of complains from all over the world,
but mainly USA and Europe. People reporting about the exact same
thing that happened to me and it was from this same “company”.
Their money was never refunded and most of them had reported this to
the consumer agency and the police.
Here is just the Swedish complains at
the consumer agency and at a diet web page/forum:
https://kundo.se/org/konsument-europa/d/buypurelifecom/
https://kundo.se/org/konsument-europa/d/pure-life-skickar-piller-hur-bli-av-med-dem/
http://www.viktvagvisaren.se/bantningspiller/garcinia-essentials/
http://www.viktvagvisaren.se/detox/gaia-detox/
http://www.viktvagvisaren.se/bantningspiller/green-coffee-bean/
http://www.viktvagvisaren.se/bantningspiller/varning-for-bantningspiller-bluff/
http://www.viktvagvisaren.se/detox/gaia-detox/
http://www.viktvagvisaren.se/bantningspiller/green-coffee-bean/
http://www.viktvagvisaren.se/bantningspiller/varning-for-bantningspiller-bluff/
Monday 27 July 2015
How can this be?!
So I was shocked to realize that the amount of money taken from me was in fact little compared to the amount other people had reported....And so many many people....That sums up to an enormous amount of so to speak stolen money.
How can this be, how can they get away it?!
I had reported this to local police, the Cyprus police, all the possible consumer agencies from national to European to international. Nobody seems to have the authority to do something about it, or the right and sufficient evidence.
Even when I googled the odd email address pianordlow@hotmail.se, which appeared in one of the emails from the "companies" customer support, and found out it belongs to a real Swedish person Pia Nördlow who was registered with this email, it was not even enough to have her questioned.
Honestly most of the people I contacted were extremely nice and helpful, like my town's consumer agency and the town's police, but none of them could actually do something about it.
I received an answer from the European consumer agency, confirming that indeed the free trial offer where I payed the shipping did not have any terms stated, even when proceeding with the payment.
So the fact that I did cancel everything on time is actually irrelevant since no contract, subscription, or any kind of binding agreement had been done in the first place, meaning the transaction was completely unauthorized, making it plain theft.
But still no action made.
I can understand the consumer agency since there is no real company registered and there is still a great lack of real information. And at the end of the day the problem is not poor business practice of a company, but an actually crime committed by an organization.
But now since the organization is abroad, the national police can not do anything. I was told that the authority goes to the Cyprus police, but the Cyprus police had told me they need an official rogatory letter from the Swedish police in order to proceed with all the necessary investigation in Cyprus.
I tried to find a way to report this to either the financial section of Interpole or EC3 of Europole, but it is impossible.
So just like that, one can steal tons of money and get away with it....and the saddest thing is, that with the whole magic diet and free samples, poor and fat people are the target :) just kidding lol
But seriously I think something should be and can be done.
How can this be, how can they get away it?!
I had reported this to local police, the Cyprus police, all the possible consumer agencies from national to European to international. Nobody seems to have the authority to do something about it, or the right and sufficient evidence.
Even when I googled the odd email address pianordlow@hotmail.se, which appeared in one of the emails from the "companies" customer support, and found out it belongs to a real Swedish person Pia Nördlow who was registered with this email, it was not even enough to have her questioned.
Honestly most of the people I contacted were extremely nice and helpful, like my town's consumer agency and the town's police, but none of them could actually do something about it.
I received an answer from the European consumer agency, confirming that indeed the free trial offer where I payed the shipping did not have any terms stated, even when proceeding with the payment.
So the fact that I did cancel everything on time is actually irrelevant since no contract, subscription, or any kind of binding agreement had been done in the first place, meaning the transaction was completely unauthorized, making it plain theft.
But still no action made.
I can understand the consumer agency since there is no real company registered and there is still a great lack of real information. And at the end of the day the problem is not poor business practice of a company, but an actually crime committed by an organization.
But now since the organization is abroad, the national police can not do anything. I was told that the authority goes to the Cyprus police, but the Cyprus police had told me they need an official rogatory letter from the Swedish police in order to proceed with all the necessary investigation in Cyprus.
I tried to find a way to report this to either the financial section of Interpole or EC3 of Europole, but it is impossible.
So just like that, one can steal tons of money and get away with it....and the saddest thing is, that with the whole magic diet and free samples, poor and fat people are the target :) just kidding lol
But seriously I think something should be and can be done.
Sunday 26 July 2015
Before and after
Leaving all this behind now and I have learned a huge lesson. Which is, that it is definitely not so safe to buy stuff on line.
First, one needs to check for the obvious red flags, like free samples, magic diets, no proper company information, no reputation, what google says about it, etc...
Second, one needs to bare in mind that even if one does check all that and all is in order and still the bank card gets abused and the money stolen...from what I had experienced it is all the same...nobody can really do anything about it or prevent it...so it is best to stick to buying stuff only from large well known companies.
And that is also something that is a new lesson for me in this. After this I lost my faith in the consumers agencies, police organizations, banks....I seriously believed that they have more competence and feel very disappointed that they are letting this happen.
But still, if one should have the misfortune to experience scam/credit card abuse I think that he/she should do the same and report it to as many consumers agencies as possible, here are some emails and links:
Swedish:
First, one needs to check for the obvious red flags, like free samples, magic diets, no proper company information, no reputation, what google says about it, etc...
Second, one needs to bare in mind that even if one does check all that and all is in order and still the bank card gets abused and the money stolen...from what I had experienced it is all the same...nobody can really do anything about it or prevent it...so it is best to stick to buying stuff only from large well known companies.
And that is also something that is a new lesson for me in this. After this I lost my faith in the consumers agencies, police organizations, banks....I seriously believed that they have more competence and feel very disappointed that they are letting this happen.
But still, if one should have the misfortune to experience scam/credit card abuse I think that he/she should do the same and report it to as many consumers agencies as possible, here are some emails and links:
Swedish:
info@hallakonsument.se
arn@arn.se
www.arn.se
konsumentverket@konsumentverket.se
www.konsumentverket.se
European:
info@konsumenteuropa.se
www.konsumenteuropa.se
International:
And of course the local police and personal bank, where the card should immediately be blocked/changed.
I think that would serve the purpose of increasing the chances of this ever being investigated and acted upon.
But individually, regarding ever getting the money back, the only promising and hopeful thing is to file for a reclamation or a refund from the personal bank. Usually all banks have a form to be filled out for this case and the police report has to be done and attached. If possible, other documents should be attached as well, showing that the transaction was indeed unauthorized, in other words a theft.
And that is it. I felt very very stupid having this happened to me. But after discovering the scale of all this and the amount of other victims I feel a bit less stupid, I hope after reading this, anybody with the same problem will as well.
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