duped by a fake escrow site

[Anonymous]

I have been foolishly stung!

A couple of weeks after I wired money to the states for a transaction to buy a pc, today I learned from a website that the escrow service I used is in fact a fake service.

I already filed a complaint to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center but, bearing in mind that I am here (Japan) and the "seller" and "escrow service" are over there (in the US), can anyone suggest measures I could take towards getting my hard-earned dough back?

thanks in advance.

[Jackebear]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Thousands of people have found out the hard way that when buying on the internet, you still can't trust anyone. There have been numerous stories on the MSN homepage about these escrow services that are exact copies of the real sites. Plus, just recently there were thousands of perfect copies of Ebay questionares e-mailed to unsuspecting people stating there was a problem or they were housecleaning their database and could you please re-enter your credit card info.

One story on MSN, warning about these escrow services was written by a doctor who lost $55 000 US$ trying to by a BMW M5. He sent the money and never saw the car. He never got his money back. People have lost millions and unfortunately, I think you could be sh#t out of luck.

So you might have to chalk it down to experience. You might as well tell us where you 'bought" this PC, so you can warn others. Was it Ebay? If so, you can get at least $200 back (after months of hassle) and up to $750, if the seller was rated as a premium seller or something like that.

Also, did you call these people? I always call and try to get a feeling about them on the phone and I try to find out about other buyers and mail them or phone them. Now, I never buy anything unless they take VISA or MC. So I have at least the safety line of the big company and the 99.9% chance of getting my money back. If I buy something from an auction and they refuse my card, I just say forget about it. It's just business, nothing personal I tell them and if they want the money they will usually end up allowing my card to be used.

I've been scammed a few times and I know how you feel, but it certainly makes you a wiser, smarter business person in the future. So give us the details of this company or person who screwed you. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, find a homepage like MSN or Yahoo or whatever, that has news and business stories right there where you can see them everyday.

Take care, J

[Anonymous]

i thought if you paid by credit card and tell the card company you are usually ok in these situations?

[EW]

I don't undestand why people have so many problems with online shopping. I have bought thousands of dollars worth of merchandise online and have never had any problems with people running of with money.

I mostly deal with large companies - well known names, but the occassional small outfit as well. No problems.

But jackebear has said it. Chalk it down as experience. You'll waste more time and money trying to get it back so unless you want to dedicate yourself to doing the "right thing" just to do the right thing, I'd let the feds do their job and forget about it. If they can get your money back then think of it as a bonus.