Avoiding scams on the Internet

During my quest for an inexpensive mobile phone, I stumbled on a post advertising a Samsung Nexus S phone for $300.  As this phone is currently available for $530 at Best Buy in the USA, I immediately suspected the post and the listed price.

I decided to investigate further and emailed the person in question at

♫

jamie.gadgets@gmail.com.  I received a quick reply saying that the current price is $300 plus $50 for shipping.  They can mail me the package as soon as I send them a payment through Western Union.  ALARM BELLS immediately went off.  NEVER, EVER send money to people on the Internet through Western Union.  It is not traceable and you cannot get the money back if anything goes wrong.

I emailed him back asking him for a phone number just so that I can inquire about a few product details.  The email that I received back looked like this:

OK SIR.

+447529070035 or you probably give us your number so that we can call you

We will await your call sir

Regards

That email sounded very suspect, as no English speaker would send you an email like that. I decided to investigate this Jamie character further.  Few Google searches later, I discovered that Jamie operates under multiple email aliases: jamiegadgets01@hotmail.com, jamie.gadgets@consultant.com.  He has posts all over the Internet advertising various expensive mobile phones.  

Soon enough I found a web site where he is supposedly selling these phones from http://www.jamiegadgets.com.  The web site even sells IPads, for $210 nonetheless! This is when I thought to myself, "If it is too good to be true, it probably is not true."

The last thing I decided to check was the registration details for jamiegadgets.com.  I used a domain lookup web site to find who is really behind the web site and this is what I've found:

FERNANDO DEFEO ()
   0000000000
   Fax:
   rua cardeal stepinac, num 490, APto 401, Residence
   None
   belo horizonte, None 31170-220
   BR

So, we have a guy from Brazil, using a web site in the USA, and multiple email addresses on gmail and hotmail, to peddle high priced electronic devices.  There are no reviews of his site on the Internet, but you can find plenty of postings listing his ads on various suspect sites.  This type of advertising is often used by spammers and scammers.

The final piece of information that sealed my decision that this site is most likely a scam is the registration date of the web site.  The web site was registered in December of 2010.  If you go to the web site and click on the AboutUs link, you will find text saying that he has been in business since 2001.  What took him so long to put up a web site?

It looks like I'll have to do my phone shopping on Ebay.  I have been able to find some good deals there but you have to watch out for scams even there.  Maybe I should write a post about safe shopping on Ebay.  First, must find an Android phone!