Possible Scam on Purchase

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by tru504187211, Dec 23, 2006.

  1. #1
    Hello all,

    I recently purchased a site through a member of the forum here and used escrow as the payment system. I did not purchase the site through a thread and I do not wish for the URL or the seller to be mentioned.

    Here is the issue...it is a dropshipping site...and I went through the logs and it seems that all but one of the members that signed up and purchased products had free accounts, hotmail, yahoo, etc. Also, in virtuemart, I scoured the database and in the orders table, there are only two IP's listed for alllll of the orders placed. I double checked over at the virtuemart forum and they said that the IP is the IP of the order taker. Both of the IP's listed in this table are from the same european country. Should this make me suspicious? All of the orders seem to have their status updated, (pending, shipped,
    etc) all within seconds of each other...

    Also, since I have had the site, not ONE of the previous members have made a purchase since, when in the past within the 3 week period that ALLLL the orders were placed, the members had pretty large orders $200+ orders.

    Yahoo were placed on the site and he claimed that he was making ~$100 per month off the ads...I replaced those ads with Adsense and exactly zero clicks thus far. Probably my fault on this part because I never asked to see proof of the YPN clicks or revenue.

    The site itself...was claimed by the seller to be a very customized site...but it took me 2 days max to get the site to the point that it was on his server...fishy...

    What seems worse is that I paid a good amount for this site...do I have any recourse? Last point is, now the seller is banned from this forum as of recently...

    Thanks!
     
    tru504187211, Dec 23, 2006 IP
  2. cianuro

    cianuro Peon

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    #2
    I think you know exactly the situation yourself. Did you release the escrow funds? Why did you do this without checking first? Isn't that the point?
     
    cianuro, Dec 23, 2006 IP
  3. isti

    isti Banned

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    #3
    hmmm i think first we need a look at the site...
     
    isti, Dec 23, 2006 IP
  4. Tearabite

    Tearabite Prominent Member

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    #4
    Oh Geeze; my worst nightmare (well, 2nd worst..)..

    The big question is why didnt you check these things before releasing the funds in escrow, just like Cinauro asked.

    Seller is now banned from DP.. not good - and you mentioned he's in a different country? Even worse because now legal action would probably be next to impossible (or at least very expensive).

    Are you talking about a LOT of money that you paid for the site? $500, $1,000, $10,000 ??
     
    Tearabite, Dec 23, 2006 IP
  5. tru504187211

    tru504187211 Peon

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    #5
    Well, the whois shows him in Florida, but he is obviously Eastern European...name, IP of order purchaser, text pattern etc. I checked out the orders in the db before I released funds, but basically, its my first big site (~$1,000 purchase, so it was ignorance on my part of not knowing everything to check on the db before purchase.

    Did I bury myself already??
     
    tru504187211, Dec 23, 2006 IP
  6. JEET

    JEET Notable Member

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    #6
    Looks pretty much like that to me, unless someone more experienced in buying sites would have a suggestion for you, although I am not very sure if there are too many options left in hand for you...
    Feel so sorry for you___
     
    JEET, Dec 23, 2006 IP