When I went to sign up for an Apple iTunes music store account to purchase music, this website (http://www.iTunesNet.com) appeared at the very top of the Google search results for "iTunes." The title for this Google search result is "iTunes 2009 - Download." Not immediately realizing that this wasn't an official Apple site, I clicked through when it offered a "3 year Unlimited VIP Membership and 1 Extra Feature" for $ 49.96. At this time I was unaware that the Apple iTunes music store doesn't charge membership fees.
I went ahead and clicked, charging $ 49.96 to my PayPal account. But after doing this, the only thing that appeared was a click box to download the Apple iTunes music player software. At this point I began to suspect that I had been ripped off, since I already knew that the Apple Tunes software itself is free.
I immediately filed a dispute with PayPal. I am now awaiting a response from either "Advance Telecom Inc." or from the PayPal dispute resolution department. From reading other complaints about 'Advance Telecom Inc." it appears that they sometimes offer refunds when PayPal users complain about them. I will follow-up with an update to this complaint if I do receive a refund.
What amazes me is that two of the largest companies on the Internet, Google and PayPal, both seem to be totally comfortable supporting these rip-off artists.
The Google link (http://www.iTunesNet.com) is in fact a "sponsored link" but one would think that Google would have SOME standards for who they deal with as customers. I have attempted to find a way to complain to Google about this, but have not succeeded yet.
PS, there is another "Google sponsored link" for iTunes that also comes back to this same "Advanced Telecom Inc." company (http://www.iTunesNo.com). The headline is "Tunes 7.7 - Downloads" and again appears as a "Google sponsored link"
I suspect that this company frequently changes their URL and/or advertising to keep ahead of any attempts to suspend them from the Internet.
My advice is to ONLY visit iTunes sites which are actually run by Apple computer themselves. FYI, the "real" iTunes site is "http://apple.com/itunes." However, thanks to the way Google arranges their search results, this site will be the second or third item down from the top on the Google search results for "iTunes"
-Greg
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