I am writing this email out of sheer desperation. I have contacted many different authorities and unfortunately, nothing can be done about it. And hence, I'm turning to you, for your help in spreading the word and making the public aware of a new form of internet scam.
It's X-mas time during a horrible economy. Many people have lost their jobs and are still spending their hard earned savings on purchasing gifts for their loved ones. People are vulnerable right now, more so than ever which makes them easy victims to financial crimes.
My best friend Paul Stuessy is a Deaf, Social worker. He doesn't make a lot of money and whatever free time he has, unpaid, he is still out doing community service, taking care of the elderly, participating in community needs and simply being an amazing human being. Since Paul is deaf, he relies on text messaging through his blackberry and Instant Messaging through his lap-top for his primary source of communications with the world around us. He does not have the luxury of simply walking over to a person and talking to them, or picking up the telephone and making a call. He relies heavily on his lap-top for staying connected. Paul does not have any family in California, and he doesn't have any rich family members anywhere. A few months ago, Paul's four year old laptop finally died. It is very difficult for someone with Paul's income to save up money to buy himself a new one. So I decided to save up my money and buy him one for X-mas.
I did some research on the internet. Yahoo, recommended one of their "trusted verified merchants" called Zack-Electronics (www.zack-eletronics.com) as having the best deals. I had never heard of this company before, but I trusted Yahoo. After all, Yahoo posted 3000 PLUS positive feedbacks on this company. Yahoo RECOMMENDED this company to me. It was one of their trusted merchants! I trusted Yahoo and decided to go ahead and place an order through this company. Moreover, zack-electronics had a California location, a New York Location, a UK location and a billing department in Italy! I looked up the California, Duarte location on Google maps and saw a building that looked like it very easily could have been a place of business. It looked legitimate to me! So I went ahead and place an order with them on December 15th.
Soon after placing the order on www.zack-electronics.com, I received an email from them saying that I had send them a western union transfer to a certain agent called "Scott Porter", in Rome, Italy. Obviously, I thought this was a bit odd, so I went into the company's FAQ's to find out some more information. The company stated on their website that over the last few months, they had undergone over 25,000 dollars worth of losses because of people placing orders with stolen credit cards and that they had to return the money to all the honest owners of the credit cards. Hence they don't use credit cards anymore, and that they apologize about the inconvenience. Once again I trusted Yahoo. And I got caught up in the moment of wishing Paul's laptop arrived in time for x-mas. I went had and western unioned the money to my contact in Italy on December 16h. I sent them a total of $598.85 USD)
Within minutes, I had received an email confirmation from Zack-electronics stating they would send me the tracking number within 24 hours. Well, three days went by and nothing. I finally contacted Yahoo and they wrote back within 24 hours to let me know "Sorry about the inconvenience, but the merchant took off their web-store from Yahoo". That is ALL they had to say!!! I have written several letters to Yahoo since then, but I keep getting generic responses back from them. No solid or detailed explanations. Nothing. I have called Western Union and they cannot do anything, the money was already picked up on December 17th. I called the police station, they said that because the crime did not occur in California, (It occurred on the internet), they could not even let me file a report! They advised I call the FBI and gave me the number. I called the Feds and they said because I only lost $598.85, it is not worth their time to investigate) I even sent an email to the Carabinieri in Italy, and although they couldn't do anything, they were actually nice enough to spend a little time in responding to my email!
So, I have accepted the fact that I have lost my money. Lesson learned. But the problem is... The company's website IS STILL UP!!! It has not been shut down yet. People are being scammed RIGHT NOW as I write this email to you. Something needs to be done. Yahoo, after promoting them has stopped responding to my emails. They are taking NO accountability at all. People need to be warned. This story needs to be told.
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