HostGator Suspended My Account.

Uh... what?

Not once have I heard of a hosting company accepting western union.

PLUS - That wouldnt verify your identity anyway.. so whats this supposed to accomplish?

Make sure you're on the ACTUAL hostgator website, and not a clone like h0stgator or something..

I'll check back on this thread & see what some other people say, cuz now I'm curious.. lol

Whenever you are in doubt, rather than reply to an email, or answering a phone call you should start a NEW dialogue with the customer services of the company you are dealing with.

Either call the helpline or send a message to customer support.

This way you won't ever be scammed!

Regards
Will

That doesn't sound right! WESTERN UNION

From: tickets (at) hostgator.com

Hello Saurabh,

We will be unable to activate your hosting account at this time using the documents you provided. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. If you would like to activate your account, we will require payment for the initial invoice via Western Union. A minimum payment of $25 will be required for the first payment. Once you have successfully paid in this way, you will be able to pay using a credit card or Paypal in the future. If you choose to continue to pay via Western Union we will require a minimum payment of $25. If you choose to continue to pay with Western Union after the initial invoice, we will require a minimum payment of $100.

*We will grant a $25 service credit to your hosting account after we receive the initial Western Union or bank wire payment for the inconvenience.

Western Union:
Western Union has very particular processes and procedures that make it difficult for us to accept payment with Western Union.

Please DO NOT put a test question or any additional information or we will not take the Western Union payment and will not be able to allow you to pay us using Western Union in the future.

You can pay using Western Union by sending payments to:

Brent Oxley
11251 NW Freeway
Houston, TX 77092

After payment has been made reply back to this with:

What is the Money transfer control number? (MTCN)
What is the EXACT dollar amount sent? (do not sent less than $25 or we will not be able to take it)
What did you enter into the Western Union form in the first name field?
What did you enter into the Western Union form in the last name field?
What is your telephone number?
What city is the money sent from?
What state is the money sent from?
What Country is the money sent from?

Make sure you respond back with all of the above information. If you forget one thing, we will not apply payment to your account and will not allow you to pay HostGator using Western Union in the future.

Please include your domain name with us in the email. Western Union is one of the worst companies we have ever had the displeasure of of dealing with. They make it very hard for honest companies to collect payments sent to them.

It usually takes us over an hour in line to collect a single payment, and often even after waiting an hour, they tell us we can't collect the payment because of a misspelling in a name or the dollar amount being a few pennies off from what the customer provides.

Please keep in mind it may take a few days for the payment to clear, and we'll apply the payment as soon as possible.

We're sorry for any inconvenience, but this is needed to to protect ourselves as well as our customers. Please keep in mind that Western Union and bank wire payments are non-refundable and if they need to be refunded, the payment would be applied as credit to the hosting account.

Thanks for your cooperation! We look forward to working with you after we can get your account activated.

Cordially,
Stephanie C
Sr. Pending Agent
HostGator.com LLC
HostGator.com Support Portal

That sounds very fishy. Are you sure this is from Hostgator? Go to another computer, open the hostgator website and call the support hotline number you can see there and ask about it.

According to this site the payee information seems
to be correct although I've never heard of paying
for hosting by Western Union.

HostGator.com - Web Hosting Services, Reseller Hosting, VPS Hosting, and Dedicated Servers by HostGator

-Ray Edwards

Have you even visited Hostgator's actual site and contacted them directly?
Agree with others, it sounds fishy and I wouldn't send them Western Union.
_____
Bruce

this sounds like is not coming from hostgator, use live chat whenever possible to solve any issues with them or get skype and call their 1-800 free line.

I think its legit and they are running a legit scam coz' Brent Oxley is the owner of Hostgator. I seriously can't understand what to do now. If I had to pay $25, I'd rather go with someone like Site5.

NOPE

Dont do it. If it WERE legit, it wouldnt say Brent Oxley. It would say something like "HostGator.com, LLC"

I googled it, and Brent Oxley IS the founder of Hostgator..

But someone could have just got a fake ID with that name and address.

I wouldn't trust this.

Pick up the phone & call hostgator. Heres a link to the contact page:

HostGator.com - Contacting Us

As you can see on there, the name & address is the same as what this person is telling you, BUT like I said, someone could have easily made a fake ID with that name & address.

They don't sign (signature) there tickets that way. You have to be at a completely different website other than hostgator.com...

I would cancel whatever you are doing and go to hostgator.com and start all over.

I have never ever heard of a Hosting Company ask for payment by western union, let alone Hostgator. There's always a first time, but this can't be true.

All the tickets that I have with them replying to my questions always have an email address, toll free number and a local number within their signatures.

None of them say "Hostgator.com Support Portal" either, nor do they say "Cordially".

This may only be the case for me, but there is something completely wrong with what your experiencing right now.

Double check yourself before you move on.

You can use their Live Chat option too.

Its probably a scam. Just contact hostgator through live chat here https://chatlite.hostgator.com/chatl....php?region=us (Ahh, I love their quick support ovr live chat)

Ask them about this issue and they will surely solve it out.

Ok, there are some problems I think that may have caused a red-flag.
Number One, I was using a proxy for browsing, so while I am from India, my 2Checkout Invoice showed US.

Number Two: On verification, they asked for identity proof and a scanned copy of my credit card. I don't have a credit card and I use Virtual credit cards which our bank offers to all people with saving accounts. I told them that.

I am in Live Chat Queue and there are currently 72 people before me. waiting.
Any suggestions on how to handle this situation?

There's always Yahoo Sitebuilder. They go out of their way to help you succeed with your website.

Yeah - go grab a snack, grab a drink, and wait for those 72 people to finish.

Well, it can't be a scam coz' I can't login to my CPanel anymore that they have created for my hosting account.

In case anyone's getting confused over here.
I paid for the hatchling thingy. I got a Cpanel Hosting within an hour or so. I paid with 2Checkout. After a few hours I got the verfication mail. I sent them driver's licence scan. Now they ask me to pay $25 more via Western Union.

In case anyone's getting confused over here.
I paid for the hatchling thingy. I got a Cpanel Hosting within an hour or so. I paid with 2Checkout. After a few hours I got the verfication mail. I sent them driver's licence scan. Now they ask me to pay $25 more via Western Union.

Weird, but not impossible to pull off.

Picture this:

A scammer creates a fake ID with the HG founder's name & address.

Then, he searches the web. When he sees a site with Hostgator's "this page has been suspended" template, he does a whois search and gets your email.

Then he sends out this message.

Now, I could be over-thinking this way too much.. I admit that.

But I've never heard of a hosting company accepting Western Union, or even asking you to make a 1-time payment this way.

Okay let's cut straight to it, what link did you go to, to buy your hostgator account?

Oh..

I just checked to see who that Brent Oxley guy was, I didnt think to check if HG allows western union..

LOL oops.

OP, go ahead & make the payment.

(10:01:22pm)System:Customer has entered chat and is waiting for an agent.
(10:25:08pm)Jordan W.:Welcome to HostGator Live Chat! My name is Jordan.
(10:25:10pm)Jordan W.:How may I help you?
(10:26:10pm)Saurabh:Hi, I bought a hatchling yesterday and i GOT SOME problems in verfication. Can you help me out? Am email asked me to pay 25 bucks via western union, is it LEGIT?
(10:27:17pm)Jordan W.:Yes it is and you need to pay/verify before your account will be activated.
(10:27:34pm)Jordan W.:The ticket ID for that is HAR-17494367
(10:28:02pm)Saurabh:why do i need to pay 25 bucks for a hatchling plan?
(10:28:32pm)Jordan W.:Because you have not paid yet.
(10:28:33pm)Saurabh:i expected a cost-effective solution here at hostgator, thats why i came back
(10:29:03pm)Jordan W.:*We will grant a $25 service credit to your hosting account after we receive the initial Western Union or bank wire payment for the inconvenience.
(10:29:19pm)Jordan W.:You can read all about this in the ticket and you can also reply back with more questions for the admins to answer for you.
(10:29:38pm)Saurabh:they haven''t answered any of my questions yet
(10:30:04pm)Saurabh:c'mon 25 bucks is like 1400 rupees here in INDIA, isn't there any other way?
(10:30:19pm)Jordan W.:You haven't replied back to that ticket, yet.
(10:30:37pm)Saurabh:i mailed to verify at hostgator.com
(10:30:39pm)Jordan W.:I am sorry, but since your ID was not accepted those are the terms they are working with for you to activate your account.
(10:30:53pm)Saurabh:and to tickets at hostgator.com
(10:31:01pm)Jordan W.:You need to reply back to that ticket, not verify at hostgator.com - it will take less time if you reply to the actual ticket directly.
(10:31:10pm)Saurabh:HAR-17494367
(10:31:12pm)Saurabh:replied
(10:31:15pm)Jordan W.:Unfortunately, I cannot do anything about verifications in chat so you will need to reply to the ticket.
(10:31:22pm)Jordan W.:Ok, great.
(10:32:04pm)Saurabh:did the location set off any red flags? i use proxies for anonymous browsing BTW.
(10:33:44pm)Saurabh:anyone there?
(10:34:23pm)Saurabh:helloooo??


WAITING FOR THE REP TO REPLY.

I'd rather pay Site5 my 25 bucks than go with HostGator.

Interesting scenario. On the face of it, it did smell funny. Good lesson to not jump to conclusions without full information.

I say send them $500 through Western Union. If they accept it then you know it's a scam because they clearly stated in the email that they would not accept any payment other than $25.

This way you'll know for sure.

I will get Brent, the owner of hostgator to come gives us a real answer on this.

I am a reseller for host gator and never been asked for western union. Also, they used to be in Florida, but are in Texas now. Hence that gator name. This new request all seems so very fishy to me. I would not send the $25 dollars if I were you. Perhaps hackers got a hold of your personal information in some way. It pays to very careful these days - yes pays.

Count this as a blessing.

Do you know of any successful dot coms that host through Host Gator?

Neither do I. Successful dot coms usually self host. Those who use a hosting company at all use Hosting.com, RackSpace.com or SoftLayers.com (no affiliation with any of them).

Get a real hosting account if you want to build a real business.

i can easily see how this could be either one. with western union, once you send the money you can't get it back. so as a vendor there is little to no chance of you not getting to keep the money you are owed if you accept the payment via western union. Unlike with credit cards that have charge backs and such.

On the other hand, we have all heard of plenty of western union scams, and in truth most of us don't have the complete full story to go on. like email headers and such. that sort of info could verify this one way or the other, but we don't have that.

so basically folks are just guessing. I let Brent know about this thread, and I am 100% sure he will stop by in the next couple hours to clarify all this.

I am sure he is very interested in knowing about this situation either way. If that is one way they do business, then it would be good for some of us senior guys to know about that so we can help let others know. And if it is a scam using his company, then I am sure he needs to begin to take actions to help protect his brand and such.

lets see what the owner of HostGator has to say about this since he can easily access all the facts and stop all the guessing games.

FredJones, that doesn't sound like a bengali name (sorry can't PM thus writing here). Now I am bengali, and haven't heard of such a name in our community. GAWD, I can't imagine people saying "Ini hochhe Fred Jones, provasi banagli." Lol...ha.

U seem to be from India...
Does HG india have different method.

Why would the owner of hostgator ask someone to send money in his personal name when there is a company account. BTW western union can be picked up from anywhere in the world and folks in Nigeria don't bother checking many details as most of the WU outlets are involved in money scams thenselves. So better watchout when you send any money that has no way of getting it back.

This definitely does sound like a big scam. I'll let my IM community know about this

I say that you were smart to check this out. Any time anything seems suspicious you should check it out. It may or may not be a scam -- but do you want to risk it? There is no harm in checking something that appears that it is not on the up and up - and there is little recourse for you once you send money to something that isn't.

Always make your mistakes on the side of self protection.

When making a western union payment, that payment can actually be picked up at any western union location in the country. Our local news trouble shooter just did a segment on this where a person sent a western union payment to a landlord to secure an apartment and that payment was picked up in the wrong city and not even in the same province.

The person who picked it up had a fake id with all the correct info, and was able to answer any of the questions.

All someone needs to pick up a western union payment is the correct name and address, and all the right western union info.

It has been proven time and time again that western union is one of the least SECURE ways to make a payment for anything.

-- Jeff

Hi Everyone,

I'll be more then happy to offer some clarification. Thank you for notifying me David!

We did ask for a western union payment and have been doing this for years on suspicious transactions. This customer as stated signed up using a proxy, used a virtual card, and was showing from a different country then where he was actually located in India.

This order raised practically every sign of possible fraud that there is. Western Union and or a bank wire are two methods that guarantee an order is legitimate. The fraudsters and scammers have gotten really good over the years with photoshopping making passports and driver's licenses practically worthless forms of verification.

SaurabhDatta can you email me your ticket number to brent @hostgator.com? I'll review your order myself and do everything possible to get you activated without further hassle, having to western union, and or verification.

I look forward to hearing from you. thanks!!

Are you using the same computer ? your computer might caught a trjoan that is manipulating you.

A while ago my laptop caught a trjoan, each time I try to access my online banking accounts or PayPal, it redirect me to a page saying that due to changes in banking ... etc that i need to insert the following information.

The page looks pretty legitimate from Visa, requires SSN, Credit Card info, ... etc

if i re-type on url : paypal.com again after they re-direct me i can actually login to paypal without filling the information.

I would never type my SSN online not even for a governmental website, people can steal your identity with that.

I start to smell something phishy, specially my antivirus says there is an application trying to communicate through the internet but the antivirus refuse it.

McAfee sucked because they can locate the trojan but couldn't do anything about it, I tried to scan my computer online but the baster didn't let me access any online scanner (re-direct me to Google main page)

I end take my laptop offline remove McAfee and download another program who get rid of that trojan.

It could get pretty nasty, these scammers are becoming more professional

onegoodman, you should try Comodo.

Literally the best free antivirus you can get.

This thing stopped a Virut from doing any damage. If you dont know how nasty those are, google it. Now that is one messed up virus man.. lol

If HostGator shut you down just go to godaddy. Do business with reliable companies.

Michael

WOW, all of this is really amazing!
First, it's amazing that this turned out to actually be legitimate. That letter posted by the OP had all signs of a scam. Besides the obvious (Western Union payment), some wording in that letter had signs of a scam, e.g.: "or we will not take it" sounds like a foreigner wrote it. Strange capitalization also, "Country" is capitalized while "State" is not.
<<but this is needed to to protect ourselves as well as our customers. >>
etc.
Just to explain, I don't mean to sound like a dork, and I really don't care about proper spelling or grammar, I was only pointing out these issues to determine whether or not it's a scam.
I did not know the name of the CEO before I read this, but even if I did, I would immediately assume someone has gotten a fake ID for that name and is trying to collect Western Union payments.

Second, it's amazing Brent uses his name and actually collects these payments. Brent (if you are still here), you are a CEO of a huge company! I can't believe you really go into Western Union and collect these $25 payments???

If gatorbrent solve your problem then it will be nice, Indian people can accept the money by WesternUnion but can't send the money!!!

never heard of hostgator asking for money to confirm identification...like the other said, go directly to the hostgator website...how did you get on the intial site to begin with?

Hostgator are absolutely paranoid about who they allow to host sites with. Way over the top.

Shifted all my sites to SITE5, will be using HostGator hatchling plans for micro-niche sites (need variety in IPs).

Use a hosting from Bigrock.in , if you are from india. They have a good service..

Its better to go to hostgator and chat with them.. Or else you can try bluehost!!

Or else, let me know I will host your sites. I have Indian servers lol!!