Ever Been Ripped-Off On The Web?

Other than serial refunders, not really. And those get chopped off at the knees real quick.

However, in the offline world, yes I have been ripped off, not paid, chiseled. I have actually sat myself squarely in a customer's living room until the cheap b$%#&% finally paid up.

All in all, my online purchasing and doing business has a far better record than my offline did.

Same as in the offline world. Some times you don't get what you paid for and sometimes you do. Many sellers on the net were OK, with refunds and support etc. So - its not ALL bad

My worse experience was when I bought a forum about the World of Warcraft in Dec 2004 for $800 on eBay, the domain was registered with Registerfly. I agreed to pay the seller $150 a month to add new content. However, I knew that I was dealing with a dishonest person why he demanded that I pay $150 to make the site work in Linux instead, and also another $150 for it to work in Godaddy. Anyway, a nightmare quickly ensued.

1. I gave him root access to my server to install the site. Following installationg, he quickly logged into root access and proceeded to delete everything on my server. Although I had backups, it took me several days to restore all the sites fully and I lost more than $1000 in sales during the downtime. We knew he was the hacker because my webhoster had record of his ip. and the matter was reported to the FBI. However, I don't think anything was done about it.

2. I then told him that I suspected him of hacking and refused to pay the $150 monthly charge. He then "turned off" the site. It seems that he had installed a backdoor in the Vbulletin so that he could turn off the site at will. I sorted this out by asking Vbulletin to fix it.

3. Then incredibly, the doman was transferred out of my account? It seems that he had given me a subaccount with Registerfly. I contacted Registerfly and they ignored me.

4. But this is not all, it transpired that the seller did not own the site! He had previously sold it to IGE who had a similar agreement with him to update the content for a monthly fee. I contacted IGE about it and they confirmed that they were scammed but were not interested in doing anything futher about it.

After this, I took much greater precautions in buying sites and basically treated every seller as a potential scammer.


Derek

Yes, many times, and there are two things I did.

First, I said "well, that's what I get" and tried to make lemonade out of my lemons. When I bought a product that turned out to be crap, I looked at the sales page again. Then I looked at the product, and identified everything that didn't meet my expectations. I examined why it didn't meet my expectations. I considered whether it might technically meet the letter of what was written on the sales page. I considered how it might have been written in a way that would have altered my expectations, so they would have been met. I looked for hidden value and benefit in the product that could have been better highlighted in the sales page.

Second, I resolved that I would never do what that vendor did. Having examined what he did, what he could have done, and what he should have done... I had a pretty good list of what I ought to be doing (and avoiding) as a vendor myself. I don't want people thinking I ripped them off - and I don't want to spend a lot of time explaining how I didn't really rip them off because I said X and not Y, or because I had this disclaimer in tiny print down here where they didn't look.

I did not ask for a refund. Neither did I swear never to buy another product from that vendor. Indeed, I've bought disappointing products from some vendors that proved to be such an excellent education in how not to market a product, I went back and bought more of their products to futher that education.

Usually I can spot a smelly fish from far away. Google their name, Google the product, Google it "+ support", make sure it has VALID testimonials and that people are recommending it. These are all criteria for me to even buy, and i have to be VERY interested in it, such as a service to help increase something, or do something faster and easier.

Also, it has to have solid valid proof (income VIDEO), and things such as "SEO screenshots" and not where it's showing "how to make your gold fish do backflips" and say you are ranking #4 for that... but like, "auto insurance quotes" or its equivilent, lol.

I love people who use "I'm ranking #2 in Google for X on my YouTube video, I'm awesome"...then you go click the video and it has like 122 views... Watch out for the volume!

- Chris

I was ripped off (or they tried to rip me off) by a well known "reputable" internet marketer. I paid $1,197 for a product which was supposed to be delivered within one to two weeks. After about 4 months and no reply to my emails I filed complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center as well as the BBB in their home town.

I got back $900, after I filed these complaints. They gave some stupid excuse for keeping $300. I am still trying to get the $300 back.

I find that the quality of products these days has actually turned into quantity! There are far too many products prpudcing some 'magic' or 'unheard ' method to making money online.

I have also been ripped off by few of these 'reputable marketers'...one of the vendors still have not issued a refund...all those money back guarantees!

I've def gotten ripped off... but nothing software related.... but hey, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.... well you get the idea

Since making money online is possible, a lot of people take advantage of it through scams. Be careful with credit card transactions, and most scams seem too good to be true. Don't fall for them right away.

Wast of time....

You are always going to get the short end of the stick in life if that is what you forces on.

Roll with the pinches do not lean into them.

Hope this helps It is just how I feel//

Clint S.

I've been ripped off a couple times buying websites. The seller shows a few months of traffic history, and says it's organic. It turns out that much of it was purchased traffic, that magically disappears after I own the site! Oh well, I know better now. Like Clint says, roll with the punches.

I've also been ripped off by people that buy, then claim refunds. At least I think they bought with the intention of getting the product and claiming the refund. There are a certain number of people out there that do this, and all of us run into it from time to time.

Hey Tony, great question. I have purchased many products online and have not had any problems obtaining a refund. For the most part I stick with products which use Paypal or Clickbank for processing their orders. If I purchase a product and it does not live up to it's claims I can easily contact the processor and request a refund.

There was one instance where I purchase a product right here on this forum and was unable to get a hold of the vendor with his contact info. I went to his site and filled out forms etc. to no avail.

Well, I thought how do I get my money back? Then it came to me post a message where I found his ad stating how I could not get a refund. Guess what I had my refund the same day. Other than that my online purchasing has been OK.

I was ripped off my a big name internet marketer who refused to refund a $1500 product, even though I asked for it within the 30 days required. Turns out his product was just a collection lesser products he'd bundled up together. Turned out it sucked.

To be fair, I didn't deal with him directly - his assistant stonewalled at every corner and finally I just gave up. Probably should have talked to him directly - I would think he'd care about his business a bit more than his lackey.

I've been tricked by false and misleading advertising but never really ripped off or cheated. I was led to believe that I would be able to get paid ( up to several dollars) an ad for viewing pay per click ads and two dollars for every referral who upgraded to a premium account, if I paid ten bucks and upgraded to a premium account myself. Instead all I got was alot more one and two cent ads and many of the same ads over and over again. It sure has taken me a long time simply to get back the ten dollars that I invested.

You'd think at least I could make the money back on referrals but noone ever upgrades so the most I make is ten cents a referral.

Thanks for sharing...i bought an e-book on IM one year ago but it is crap so i asked for refund but not entertained..during that time i have no idea where to complain...

Hi Tony, I purchase many things on the net and I got scammed twice. The first time was when I canceled my internet service providers account. their up time was lousy and their service worse. After my cancellation they charged my PayPal account for 1 year subscription. When I called them they told me that I am no longer their customer and they don't have any records of me. I contact PayPAl and put a dispute on the charge but they told me that PayPal doesn't probide any kind of protection for services or any non phisical products.

The second time I purchase a IM program for about $47 when I downloaded the program it was pure crap. At the end of the program the author suggested joining another program (I think was in the $2K range) of his when you could make real money. It was some kind of timeshare deal.

Well live and learn.

Armando

Looks like I'm getting ripped off on a WSO! Paid the guy for writing, and his promised due date was the 23rd. He's strangely not answering PM's now. He's still pimping WSO's though. Time for a chargeback! Still selling, not delivering.

I've been on the other side of the table - ripped off as the provider. I got taken twice to the tune of about $70,000 total by repeat customers. One was in Canada and the other disappeared and was very good at covering their tracks. The authorities in California were after them for years. Don't know if they ever caught the perps who ran the shell company. The Canadian company was really brazen about it. Their marketing guy flat-out told me if I didn't like it I could try to come after them. I even recorded him saying that, and when I told him it was recorded he laughed at me. I never got a penny from either one. Haven't thought about it in years. Used to keep my up nights. LOL

Happened to me yesterday. I bought a website for $700 (not a huge amount, but not insignificant regardless) and, after I had realized that the guy lied in his listing, I asked for a refund (the domain has not been transferred to me yet). He refused to give me one, and I am still in the process of retrieving my funds. He's from Romania, so it's harder for any sort of legal charges to be done.

I bought a $197 product in 2005 and was REALLY pissed off for a while.

It was ProcessAtHome that bogus rebate processing offer? It was in the CPA networks forever but, I think it may have finally got shut down.

But, I didn't get so much as an email telling me where to login.

I tried calling the company many times only to be greeted by robots. I was so pissed and couldn't get my money back.

Charged it to the game.

Mark

Thought I was ripped off a time or two but really wasn't in the long run .

I purchased several products that were not all they promised to be but honestly don't think I have ever purchased anything I didn't learn something from. Most bad products have a little something to gleam.

In the worst case scenario You can always study the sales page and process. I mean if it was good enough to hook you then there is something of value on it .

The only times I have really not got value was when producers didn't pay my affiliate commissions . I mean I did the work and didn't get paid . Even this had a lesson attached ... Unless you are selling for someone with a proven track record don't go to extremes promoting until you receive a payment .

All in all a lot of people could avoid the " I got scammed " aspect by reading the sales page and understanding that too good to be true is just that. Sometimes we scam ourselves by letting greed over ride better judgment .

Great, Thanks for the links they may come in handy.

Hi guys

yes ive also been ripped off even though not for some time and thats why i always make sure that when i pay online i use my visa. I never use my paypal balance for example as we all know that under many circumstances we are not covered by paypal and it makes me feel so much better.

The rip off that bugged me the most was back in 2005 and i had purchased a niche ready made site on ebay they never delivered by transferring it over and i had paid extra for hosting too. I paid by paypal with my balance and later found out that i wasnt covered at all so had to take it to the small claims court and won. A shame it had to go that far.

kind regards


sam
X

I have been ripped of several times. I'm afraid I do take it personally when something doesn't work and emails aren't answered and the guarantee is worthless.

Each time I have devoted huge time and effort to make sure my page reporting the scam has topped there's in Google.

Sometimes I find someone else's page saying how they were scammed so I don't need to write my own, so I just link the hell out of it.

Always get even, it keeps you sane

I was ripped off several years ago when I am desperate to exchange my paypal funds to e-gold. After that I never got ripped off again because now I realize you cant trust anyone on the internet.

Yes I have:

Here is my letter I just sent today:

Will see what that gives