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How To Get Your Money Back After Being Scammed Online.

2015-06-15 | 5394 Print PDF

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HOW TO GET YOUR MONEY BACK FROM AN ONLINE SCAM WEBSITES

Have you been recently scammed online via a website? Did you fall victim to that sales pitch from the individual you had online chat with or called you on your phone line? Well I have some certain questions for you that will need your honest answers if you want to get back your money from an online scam websites.

QUESTIONS

1. Which payment medium was your money transferred to the scammer?
2. Does the scammer have a website?
3. Who contacted who first?
4. Do you have invoice or documents to backup your claim?
5. What medium of communication was used?
6. Which country do you think the scammer is from?
7. How many times have you paid the scammer?
8. What kind of scam is it?

In respect of how the questions are being arranged, most scam victims are always asked some of this questions, when being interrogated by sympathizers. 

This topic is no stranger to most people that surf the web for items to buy online, now and then one do fall victims to scrupulous online shops or e-commerce sites that are designed to fleece money from their unsuspected victims in return for a rip-off product/service or nothing in some cases.

I for one have been a victim of such online scam artist, and today I will be sharing on this post how I successfully retrieved back all my money refunded 100% after couple of months of thug of war with this scam artist entity. It cost me zero penny to get my money refunded and am sure if you are done with this post you will learn a few things on how to handle such situations, even better than I did.

It all started like any other day would, but only difference was that I had an online project I wanted to develop and required to hire a freelancer, so I did made a project post on people per hour freelancer platform aka PPH. On 30^th January 2014 I had a message from a freelancer who had interest in executing my project and requested I had an online chat with him via their company chat box on their website ebrandingexperts.com (no longer functioning but now using ebrandingexperts.co.uk and ebrandingexperts.us but with a new webdesign).

We had our conversation to the point we even had a skype chat and call, to even persuade me further they called me all the way from the Wilmington Delaware USA to assure me that they are for real and up to the task.

I gave them a full document on the project they were to develop and they sent me their price tag of 5600USD which we arguably settled for 4600USD on 1^st of February 2014 then subsequently settled for 4000USD as our final and agreed sum with the company’s sales executive Brian Peterson (if that was even his real name).

Prior payment of 25% of this total sum, I requested to have two types of agreements sent to me, a non-disclosure agreement and an agreement that describe how to pay and what was to be delivered for each phase of payment. Moreover, most importantly I requested to know how payment will be done, when he (Brian Peterson) mentioned to me they facilitated payment via 2 checkout and other means I optioned to go with 2CO for sentimental reasons, due to the fact that am also a 2CO merchant.

On 12 and 13 of February these documents were sent to me and signed by me, I made payment on the 24^th for them to spin off on an uncompleted area of the project that was done by another developer. Since Brian Peterson insisted that I make a 50% deposition, so to test their skill I offered to pay 25% and gave 2 weeks to complete the half-baked test project.

Now as familiar as this may sound, what I got from this so-called software developing company in USA was to go to codecanyon and purchase a coding script that is of low standard (ready made script) that does not even meet up with my job description for that particular project phase click here to see the script. I was utterly devastated has have not only lost time (project milestone) but also peradventure I might lose my 1000USD deposit. I had no more money to spend or lose to incur so I decided to take on this scammers head on, the following points below were actions I considered taking to get my money back and their response to my actions.

 

1. First thing I did was to contact the rip-off website and stated my claim about the low standard work provided and how highly disappointed I was with what they have submitted to me as my work.
2. Immediately I shot an email to them stating I needed to cancel the project as am no longer interested in their services, I also made it clear to them what they have done and that the current situation only solidify my believes that they are not capable to execute my entire project.

 

1. The scammers sent me an email stating that I have to give them almost 2 weeks to investigate the issue and then decide if my claims are genuine, as they have stated they have done as I asked and delivered my project on my server (totally rip off low standard product). After more delays I even had to get a skype friend to pose as an online crime investigator to note their actions towards my refund. Please carefully read the conversation and the email feed backs.

1. After another 2 weeks I got no conclusive feedback from these online scammers, I then decided to contact the e-payment gateway they used to secure payment from me.

 

1. The e-payment gateway, which was 2Check out requested me to try to contact the merchant first and try to resolve the issue rather than them providing support on such fraudulent merchant case.

1. Now this went on for another week, before it hit me to actually go to my bank and report this case as a dispute, since what was described as the project is not what I got.
2. My bank advised me on what to do, so I settle in for a chargeback in which case will enforce the e-payment facilitating bank to forcefully refund money back to my own bank. This case is only between my bank and 2checkout bank, since the case as now escalated to the level where a case file as to be drawn via the card medium used for payment, in my case MASTER CARD. It was master cards communication platform my bank instigated handling this situation, in which if the culprit involve was found guilty they will be asked to pay a fine ( either 2checkout or my bank), which they will now charge the complainants (either me or the merchant). This is why when you execute a charge back the e-payment gateway will charge the merchant and if it is your bank they will charge you same…so best bet is that you have all the required documents to support your claims.
3. Now a charge back can be executed within 60 days of purchase of a product online, and the charge back duration takes up to 40days before you get a conclusion.
4. I got all my documents, email transcripts that transpire between the merchant, our skype chat records, and me and even pointed out that they provided a guarantee that the company itself does not follow.
5. After presenting all facts, I was still being told by 2checkout to still communicate with the merchant and try to resolve this issue amicably.
6. I tried, but the online scammers and rip-off company barred me from chatting with them on skype and on their chat box via their website, and will no longer respond to emails.
7. I decided to list their company on all rip-off site I can get on Google and also complain boards, review sites they are listed on and not listed on, their city police department complain board, online security complain board etc.
8. I worked on negative SEO for their brand name “E-BRANDING EXPERTS” since I am an online marketer myself and it did be bad publicity for them. Located their fan page on Face book and curate my issues and cases on their wall (which in no time they deleted them or hide them).
9. I was so determined that I actually turned the online publicity fight to 2checkout as I begin research on the company and its bad merchant chargeback cases on refunds, their Facebook wall had numerous sting from me and I kept on filing complains at them.

 

To cut the long story short the online scammers eventually started feeling the heat wave of my strike, first whenever you do a search for ebranding experts on Google.com my complaint got top five on the search engine and it was beginning to pass the message to whoever searched for this company brand name.

With consistent nuisance to both 2checkout and their scam merchant, I was able to get my full refund as I applied for MASTER CARD intervention due to 2checkout slow cooperation (the chargeback duration was exhausted).

 

The scam merchant decided to contact me to pull down the bad publicity have created freely for them, but I declined (of which I could not has it has now become one with the internet). They tried to threaten me by telling me they will cancel the chargeback again, but at this time, it does not faze me because the matter already is in 2checkout hands to finally release the money to my bank via their own facilitating bank.

This was how I could recover my 1000usd after within 3 months from a very bad job and a possible online merchant scammer. Thanks to 2CO and my credit card facilitator (My bank and Master Card protection on refunds and charge backs) I won this fight!.

The only update I can give currently on ebrandingexperts.com is that they no longer exist on that domain name and have several country domain name they operate on now eg ebrandingexperts.us, ebrandingexperts.co.uk

 Please when you do business with online e-commerce site or merchant site always make sure they are using a familiar payment gateway, make sure that what they describe is what you are getting. Do check their refund policies, and online reviews, I was lucky with my case as they are over 10,000miles away from me and do not have the law to help me fight this case. You can never tell sometimes if you are about to be scammed or rip-off by a merchant site/e-commerce site.

A charge back is your last resort and best option, as long as you have all the proofs and necessary documents to back up your claims.

I hope you find this post enlightening and you can pick up some points and corrections about the way I handled my case scenario and apply yours with caution.

DON'T BE SCAMMED BY SUCH ONLINE BUSINESS THAT ENTICE YOU WITH SILLY OFFERS AND VIDEOS; THEY MAJORLY OUTSOURCE MOST OF THE WORK AND ARE TOTALLY NOT THE RIGHT CHOICE I WILL ADVISE ANYONE TO PATRONIZE. PLEASE NOTE THAT THEIR DOMAIN NAME IN THIS VIDEO IS NO LONGER FUNCTIONING, BUT IF YOU GOOGLE IT YOU WILL GET THEIR NEW URL THEY NOW OPERATE ON http://ebrandingexperts.co.uk/ I MIGHT HAVE LOST MY MILESTONE, ENERGY ON THAT PROJECT BUT AT LEAST I GOT MY MONEY BACK AND GAVE THE ONLINE SCAMMERS A FIGHT FOR MY MONEY (BAD REP TOO).

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