An Indian with an American accent first phoned me on 16 April saying she represented Microsoft and they could see I was having a lot of problems with my laptop. This was true and they did fix them. After 2-3 hours of talking with at least 4 people I was finally convinced to part with $419.00 for "service for life". They have worked on my laptop a number of times and they certainly did improve its function.
On 16 July another Indian (they were all Indians with a South African accent) called Rakesh Shaw phoned and did some work on my laptop, for which I didn't contact them. I happened to mention that I had bought another laptop and I stupidly parted with another $199.00 for work on that in the future. He said I would be refunded that amount "once the accounts section had elevated me to level 2". I didn't feel comfortable with that and should have listened to my instincts but they had cleverly built up a level of trust and confidence in me since I originally signed up. On 6th August Kushal Shaw phoned to "check on the work" they did on 16th July. After allowing him to get on my computer via Team Viewer I asked him when I could expect the $199.00 refund. He said he would do it immediately if I logged on to PayPal, which I did. Then he said that the company wasn't ready to refund me and he immediately started working on my computer so I didn't have a chance to log off from PayPal which made me very nervous. He said he would call me back once he'd finished the work. Unfortunately I was unable to stay at my computer to watch what he was doing. When I downloaded my emails that evening I found one from "John Parker" ([email protected]) saying, in extremely poor English, that my account had been debited with $50.00, that I would be refunded the $199.00 and the original payment of $419 and that it would be posted to me (they don't have my postal address) and it was signed from "Paypal Accounts Mgr." I knew then that I had been scammed as Pay Pal would never send me such an email and I reported it to my credit card company and Pay Pal. Hopefully the last 2 payments will be recovered. Obviously it is the last time I will fall for that!
0 comments