I’m writing this hoping other people will come forward with similar stories. (Don’t forget to read the important updates at the end of this post. Additionally, I’ve written out a strategy that will likely help track these scammers down faster.) On 9/16/2014, Josh, a former agent at the “customer service company” at the center of this scam responded.
Yesterday, 8/13/2014, I logged in and checked my credit card statement like I do routinely. I noticed an odd authorization for $49.95 from 888-368-0967.com. This was suspicious because I did not recently buy anything for $49.95 and had never heard of that company.
Visiting the site did not help either. It appears to be a third party site that provides the customer service and, apparently, billing for other websites online.
So I called the number and ended up speaking to two different customer service representatives, who were both very friendly. After explaining the charge appearing out of nowhere on my credit card I was asked to provide a few digits from my credit card number. I did that and my name was verified by them. Kind of weird that my real name was associated with that number in their database but whatever.
I was told that yes, a $49.95 charge was placed on that card on 8/10/2014. (It must have taken a few days to transfer over to my credit card company.) They told me that the Raspberry Ketone Strength vitamins would be arriving shortly.
Woah! Hold on there. Raspberry ketones? I even had to have the rep spell it out for me because he had a slight accent and that’s something you don’t hear in everyday conversation. What the heck are those? I have never even heard of them, let alone buy them!
I then asked him to give me the shipping address. I was planning on giving this information to the credit card fraud department to hopefully catch the criminal. Weirdly enough the agent proceeded to give me my own address! What craziness is this? Why would someone order these weight-loss “vitamins” in my name, using my credit card number, and then ship it to my actual address?
It doesn’t make any sense. If my card number was auto-generated and then used for this purchase, why would my real name and address be used? Wouldn’t the thief want the product shipped to his own address or at least a PO Box that he could secretly pick it up at? Seems like a lot of work just to pick up a 2-month supply of this stuff.
The first customer service representative I spoke with told me that he’d cancel the order. He offered no explanation of how or why this charge happened in the first place since “[they] are only a third-party.” I told him that regardless of canceling the order I still would be talking to my credit card company to dispute the charge.
Next, I did call my credit card company and reported what I described above. Their agent said that she saw the charge and noted that it was allowed to go through because the name and shipping address matched what they had on record for me. She said that my call was documented and that I could dispute the charge if the billing company did not cancel it themselves.
Then I realized that maybe the criminal used a different email address so that he could watch the shipment tracking and possibly intercept the package when it arrived at my door. I called the billing company back and spoke with a second customer service representative.
This new guy told me that they only had my name and address (and credit card number) on record but that there was no associated email address. Dang, there goes that theory! He then said that my product would be arriving in only a few days.
What? I thought the last guy canceled it! Turns out my auto-renewing account was canceled but that the product was still on the way! That was not what I wanted. The rep then told me that when I received the package and did not want it I could send it back with the RMA number he was about to give me. I was not going to do that. I told him that I’d be refusing the package and would dispute the charge with my credit card company regardless. I did not want to deal with an RMA number.
He then talked to his supervisor who did authorize a refund of the $49.95 charge. Supposedly that could take up to 5-10 business days. I also received a cancellation number. Seems fairly legit. I’ll closely be watching my credit card statement for that refund and will be updating this post with any new development.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
I’m at loss for an explanation. The Raspberry Ketone Strength website and terms and conditions isn’t helpful. There’s no contact information other than the number for the third party billing company. The only company name is listed as “Puerto Quellon LP.”
A quick Google search of that name does, in fact, bring up something similar. There’s a single recent mention of an entry on Ripoff Report describing a company trying to charge someone a monthly $49.95 to his bank card, which is directly connected to his checking account. (At least in my situation it goes through my credit card, which has better fraud/dispute resolution.)
This guy feels that the Puerto Quellon LP company must have gotten his details from his Amazon account.
I have bought a number of things recently from third party sellers (which were managed through Amazon). Everyone of them has good reviews and the products arrived correctly and in good condition.
The only thing that I can think of is that this Raspberry Ketone Strength company aka Puerto Quellon LP has fraudulently charged my credit card themselves. Not as many people go to the extreme that I have in tracking them down. Scamming the credit card companies out of a little money here and there might be their business model. Maybe the $49.95 charge is too small for the credit card companies to spend the time and money to pursue? This is all just entirely speculation, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Update (8/17/2014): Just checked my credit card statement and the billing company I called did keep their word. The $49.95 charge has been credited back to the account. I’ll be watching my credit statement even closer for the next few months because this does still seem kind of fishy.
Update (8/28/2014): I did a Google search and found another website discussing the exact same thing.
Also, an article from none other than the Cosmopolitan UK describes how people in the UK are finding it very difficult to cancel their trial of the product once they order it. There was an email address listed at the end of the article for victims to email in order to stay apprised of any potential court proceedings. I’ll post updates here if I hear back.
Update (9/2/2014): Andrew suggested that the scheme involves setting up a fake merchant account using stolen credit card information. What happens is that the relatively small charge is cleared by your bank because the name and address are correctly provided. Then, if you happen to notice the charge and call to cancel, the money is refunded. This sounds okay, but this actually allows the scam to keep going. What should be done instead is to keep the charge on the account, dispute it and get the chargeback, allowing the bank’s fraud department to track it down. Once more people do this, then the appropriate authorities will shut them down. Thanks, Andrew!
Update (9/11/2014): Thanks to everyone that has commented so far. Hopefully this blog and comments have been helpful in clarifying this scam and, if nothing else, letting other people know that they are not alone in this. In the comments Patricia has posted a good email that she is using to alert her friends. People have also been contacting various news agencies. Paul suggested contacting the Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov).
I’d also like to suggest a new strategy:
Many of us have actually, believe it or not, had success in calling the 888 number (the “third party” billing company) and asking for a refund. Now that I have read through the advice of commenters who deal with this kind of stuff in their professions, I think the strategy should be to not ask for a refund. As Andrew said (see 9/2/2014 update above), this only legitimizes them and allows them to keep the scam going. Instead, we should cancel the card and dispute the charge with our credit card company or bank. That way the big banks and their fraud departments will be the ones scrambling to find these scammers. As soon as we dispute the charge the $49.95 will be deposited back into our account since we have zero liability.
Update (9/16/2014): Please see the comment by Josh. He is a former employee of this “customer service company” and describes how the scam works. Very interesting and informative comment. He sounds like a great resource! Thanks for the message, Josh!
Patricia: You’re welcome. If there’s something else that I can help you, let me know.
Scott: Would you mind providing me an email address to contact you and explain to you what I know about it?
I never thought I’d consider taking this added precautionary measure. To deter anyone (who could possibly steal more than just my name and address) from accessing my credit reports (to open new accounts, etc.), I have invested $19.95/month in Equifax’s “Complete Premier Plan.” Enrolling in this plan (which can be cancelled at any time) automatically placed a 90-Day Fraud Alert and Lock on my account. Other perks include: privacy monitoring and protection; daily credit file monitoring and alerts of key changes to all three credit files; viewing credit scores and profile once every 12 months; tracking your Equifax Credit /Score; setting up wireless and financial alerts (credit cards & bank accounts); auto fraud alerts encourage lenders to take steps to verify your identity before authorizing new or additional credit; the ability to lock and unlock your Equifax Credit Report; the ability to become informed if your PII (SSN or credit card info) is being used on the Internet through the WebDetect feature; up to $1MM Identity Theft Protection; access to an identity theft specialist should you become a victim of identity theft; and lost wallet protection—one stop assistance in canceling and reissuing credit/debit cards, driver’s licenses, social passports and traveler’s checks when a wallet is lost or stolen. My budget is already stretched, but considering the escalation of scams and identity theft, in the long run, the $20 extra spent each month may someday prove to be invaluable.
same story as everyone above.
– 3 charges during last billing statement for $49.95 each for a “subscription” from raspberryketonestrength.com
– same “fix” from customersupportcenter.com (miami, fla) – the polite “customer service rep” provided refund numbers, cancellation numbers, 7-10 business days, etc….too easy.
– i will also 1) dispute the charge, 2) cancel the credit card, 3) put another 90-day fraud alert at the reporting agencies.
this is getting tiresome.
I too have been hit with this scam. I called the phone number showing on my bank statement 888-368-0967. Yes, the Customer Service rep was polite, cancelled my subscription, which, I also had to have him spell. When I asked him how to get in touch with the company, he told me to Google them. He had the process down, like he is a c/s rep for all of us. Well, I’m glad I did, because it brought me to all of you. I didn’t ask for a refund, and he didn’t offer. But I will be disputing this thru my bank, and as suggested, have them do the research.
I hope everyone they have tried to scam, catch it like we did…
Thanks everyone for all this information. I now have another credit card with two charges for $49.95. This one was where all my auto-pays were handled, so it is going to be a hassle to get this transferred to a new card. My bank Capital One called the call center with me this morning. What was interesting is that they said my account was already closed, yet I got new charges on a different credit card. @Patricia and others, I hope that all your efforts helps get these crooks.
UPDATE: I just filed an online complaint with the following additional agency:
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Division of Consumer Services
Telephone: (850) 410-3800
Toll-free within FL: (800) 435-7352
Website: http://www.800helpfla.com/
Same thing happened to me, real name, number, address, and everything. I was astonished while talking with the 1-800 customer service company as well.
What I did find odd and differing from your situation, is this 1-800 number seemed to be involved in the scam, or at least the employee was. They said they would continuously ship me this ‘Raspberry Ketone’ every month till I canceled and my first order was already shipped and should be arriving shortly (which is never did). I told them it was fake and to cancel the order kindly. The woman on the other end was happy to help after I provided the last 4 digits of my credit card. She then verified my real address, name, zip code, city, and state. I was astonished and asked for additional info, she could only tell me it was an online order and that there was no information on what website the payment was made, IP addresses, referrers or anything. Just a swath of info on me.
Now while I asked her to cancel it, she said “we would be happy to ship you the latest Raspberry Ketone or a fatburner loss vitamin for this inconvenience? It is free and will be on behalf of the company.” I said no and hung up. I contacted my bank and they had no information other than the 1-800 you listed.
I got a new credit card number and tried doing some investigating. Nothing turned up.
The card that was frauded is a card I use very rarely and carefully. Never once have I used it online, and only a handful of times have I used it in a public place. Its kept in a verified and working RFID scanless wallet. It had to be taken from a Point-of-Sale malware heist. I still have yet to find where, but am still investigating. I have kept up to date on these breaches and none of the recently listed are where I have used my card.
The fraud happened at the end of August, but nothing has turned up. Krebs recent wrote this which is very interesting http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/09/whos-behind-the-bogus-49-95-charges/
I haven’t seen any comments here of the likelihood that malware is residing on a bank account-accessed device being or not being involved, especially in such a case as a replacement card being charged for this Rasp*Ket*. Online banking?
Some people have said that It’s better not to request the refund with the customer support and instead of that call the bank immediately, but basically what the bank does is to cancel the card and later call the call center to dispute the money. No bank will prevent this scam continues. I know it, I used to receive lots of calls from different banks on behalf of customers who wanted their money back. We applied the refund and that was all.
What most people do is just to dispute the refund and that’s it however I think if you guys really want to stop these crooks, you must report it and complain with the institutions in charge but as they aren’t located in Florida, I guess complaining with an agency in Florida won’t work at all.
And just to let you know, the fraudulent charges weren’t only with Raspberry Ketone. There were other products like Garcinia Cambogia, Alpha Female Series, Alpha Male Series and many others. All their phone numbers reached the same call center and any phone number on the card statement as well.
I have notified our local news organization. These crooks are praying on those that don’t review their credit card statements thoroughly. The word needs to get out to warn people to watch their statements. This story is getting pitched at the news meeting tomorrow to determine if it will go on the air. I am not too keen on being interviewed and being on TV, but if this saves others from losing money, I guess I will do it.
Pingback: Who’s Behind the Bogus $49.95 Charges? | e-Shielder Security
Sue, if the media opens a door for you, go for it! Do not hesitate and do not be apprehensive! Be bold and speak out against this scam/crime because the public needs to know!
Thank you, @Private, for the link to the Krebs article, which was the most informative I have read to date. And I’d like to specifically quote a couple of sentences from it for the benefit of anyone who didn’t read the whole thing:
“All of the banks I spoke with in researching this story said customers told them that the support staff answering the phones at the 888- and 866- numbers tied to the herbal pill sites were more than happy to reverse the fraudulent charges. The last thing these affiliate programs want is a bunch of chargebacks: Too many chargebacks can cause the merchant to lose access to Visa and MasterCard’s processing networks, and can bring steep fines.”
It has been said here before and bears repeating: DON’T call the 800 number and request a refund. Call your bank immediately, get your card cancelled or replaced with a new number, and instruct the bank to do a chargeback, which will be more damaging to the fake company.
I have similar experience with charges of 49.95. These charges have shown up since 07/14 on my credit card, but we are just now discovering them. We called the 888 number and talked with Frank who was a customer service rep only, he says. He gave me a cancellation # and said the charges would not show up again. I did not ask for a refund because we have already reported to credit card company. These charges show up under different numbers, and some with a foreign .50 charge. I have never ordered anything even remotely related and I have not received any shipments, but nevertheless, my credit card was charged and the bill was paid. My bad for not checking every transaction more closely. I have also reported to Attorney General’s office and Better Business Bureau. Thanks for the suggestion of not asking for refund. I have cancelled credit card so they cannot charge it again next month. How they got my info I do not know. The rep Frank asked for my info to confirm I wanted to cancel, but I told him, he obviously had all the info he needed and I would not give him anything. Surely, there has to be some way to combat this fraud
Patricia: The transaction numbers of the fraudulent charges on my credit card, and not all of them are Raspberry Ketone: IEPTCS #8666118469 GB 49.95 plus a foreign .50 transaction fee; Raspberry Keytone #888-302-6938 FL 49,95; Garcinia Diet #8556560409 KR 49.95 plus a foreign .50 transaction fee; Slimdown #8442050874 FL $39.84 and a foreign .50 transaction fee (even though this is FL).
I am also a victim of this blasted scam !I just got off the phone with my C.C.Co. and cancelled my card. The number I have for the company is: 866-732-8213 KR. I called three times to try to get a name of the company and a number to call them .However the person told me that they just represent thousands of on-line businesses and had no information regarding the company that charged me 49.95 ! I am so furious I was shaking while speaking to my credit card rep. They are investigating the company for fraud and are sending me a new card . I will definitely NOT be using any credit card online ever again!!! My husband always warns me about these scams but it has never happened to me before and I have shopped online for over a decade!!! Thank you all for your knowledge and experience. Most of all thank you for sharing it with us all! I could never have gotten through this without you all posting and just being here. Scott you are awesome for starting this blog ! You must be sooooooo busy in your schooling and profession yet you take time out to help us all with this you must be an angel ! Thanks again. Sincerely, Peggie Staples
Patricia: in further checking I have discovered more fraudulent charges to my credit card account. FITASX Midway City, CA — #8772516879 CA — 74.86; and Slimdown — #8889786806 KR — 49.95 plus .50 foreign transaction fee.
The 8442050874 # I listed for 39.84 charges in my previous listing does not belong to Slimdown, but I’m still working on tracking who that number belongs to, I just know it’s not my charges.
@Betty Dooley, it isn’t Florida, they just claim to be in Florida. If you go back and find the post here by “Josh”, they are actually in Costa Rica, but he as a CSR was told to say they were in Miami. As a Florida resident, however, I’m still in favor of everyone filing complaints with the Florida Atty General and Consumer Affairs departments, as they will correctly know who in the federal government the complaints should be passed on to, plus these clowns are giving Florida a bad name, so everyone should officially complain about them!
Interestingly though, not all of us were charged a foreign transaction fee. I wasn’t.
@Patricia.
So far the fox news media in Dallas has not chosen to broadcast this. But I am now working with another reporter so keep your fingers crossed. I am going to file my report with the internet crime division this evening. BTW I am sending a link to this blog to the local fox affiliate in Dallas.
Sue, the important thing is that we each do what we can to get the word out. Law enforcement agencies can’t begin to solve this scam/crime without the clues that we provide in our complaints and testimonials.
@Matthew
I went ahead and did just that after hanging up. My bank told me to call them, and I didn’t want to as I assumed I would be on a spam line. I called in regardless, to check as I was astonished.
Either way, card canceled, refund granted, etc.
I am just shocked at how it happened. This card is rarely used, and I have been a reader of krebs for a long time. I just believe that employee had to be in on it, its really unreal.
Gonna stay on Krebs and see if anything turns up. Very odd!
Matthew, the reason, I guess, that my card shows foreign transaction fee is that some of my charges reflect they were in GB and KR but the same fraudulent chain of companies as listed in FL and CA. I have called the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division here in Oklahoma and they are sending me a form to fill out. I have reported all known hits on my credit card to my banking institution. My credit card has been cancelled but I was informed today of another hit on my card which will go on next month’s bill. My bank has reported my information to my credit card company.
The call centers associated with the fraud charges are being registered near the same month/year. The call centers associated with the same fraud > some registered the same day; all registered in 2014 (fly-for-a-few-months scam call center) > same fraud > associated to run on one of two hosting networks > associated with the same two registrars > all call centers with hidden records of the registrar.
888-380-0179.com; Registered On:June 30, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
888-368-0967.com 8/13/14; Registered On:June 30, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
888-490-4497.com; Registered On:July 07, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
hcincsupport.com (866-992-6535) 6/16/14; Registered On:January 24, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
888-302-5224.com 8/5/14; Registered On:June 10, 2014
192.64.119.0/24 > AS22612 > Namecheap, Inc.
888-302-7639.com 8/5/14; Registered On:June 10, 2014
192.64.119.0/24 > AS22612 > Namecheap, Inc
888-408-1062.com – no longer
888-404-9930.com 9/2/14 – no longer
866-992-6535.com – no longer
888-302-6553.com 8/5/14 – no longer
More:
888-459-0685.com 8/22/14 – $49.95 charge; Registered On:July 3, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
888-422-1493.com 8/13/14 – $49.95 charge; Registered On:July 3, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
877-307-1117.com 8/24/14 – $49.95 charge; Registered On:June 10, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
888-302-6467.com 8/24/14 – $49.95 charge; Registered On:June 10, 2014
216.201.80.0/20 > AS22384 > NationalNet, Inc.
888-303-4852.com – associated $49.95 charge; Registered On:June 10, 2014
192.64.119.0/24 > AS22612 > Namecheap, Inc.
888-719-8898.com 8/25/14 – associated but $49.98 charge – no longer
AV, did you simply link to the Domain name and the web service that registered them?
Guessing the scammer just tended to use the domain name registry service and hosting sites.
I’d love to see where to tell who registered an actual phone number.
GregFromCos, there are many websites where you can do a reverse phone number look-up for “listed” numbers (I usually use Whitepages.com) but I have never been able to identify company names behind 800 numbers even for regular telemarketers let alone these guys. (800 numbers for legitimate businesses and corporations are generally listed because obviously they WANT you to know their 800 number.) I suspect that there must be some kind of privacy service you can sign up for when you get an 800 number, just as you can do for domain names, so that people can’t figure out who is behind the calls.
GregFromCos, the results are from “breadcrumbing” back, technically: In this case using online Whois (domain name registration lookup), web searching for the domains–much of the fraud comments were found at phone number lookup locations like http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx and http://www.whatsthatcharge.com, and looking up the number address (IP address) the domains reside on, along with the hosting company.
GregFromCos and Matthew, as is commonly used by fraudsters, these particular call ‘fraud’ centers have their domain name info hidden (‘proxied’) by the domain registrars (Enom and NameCheap in this case) that offer this service. Law enforcement/courts etc would have to get the non-hidden records from the registrars. Example: http://who.is/whois/888-368-0967.com (there are many whois lookup sites, some better than others)
As for NationalNet, Inc. being listed as a Netblock owner, there’s also
Arrow Tip Marketing, LTD (another name listed at the street is Plymouth Associates Ltd), Heywood House South Hill AI (Country:Anguilla)
Example: http://bgp.he.net/dns/hcincsupport.com#_ipinfo
HCincSupport.com hosted by NationalNet, running on address 216.201.84.250
HCincSupport.com residing on network address 216.201.84.250 is also shown as being run by network host Arrow Tip Marketing http://bgp.he.net/ip/216.201.84.250#_whois
Arrow Tip Marketing Ltd / Plymouth Associates Ltd / Heywood House South Hill AI (Country:Anguilla)
http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/agents/p/plymouth_assoc.pdf Courtesy of Gov: “Heywood House South Hill AI (Country:Anguilla) / Plymouth Associates Ltd CAUTION: At least one of the AKA web addresses is potentially malware malicious. I didn’t check most of the other websites at this time
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=hcincsupport.com Note the current “netblock owner”: Arrow Tip Marketing, LTD / Heywood House South Hill AI aka Plymouth Associates Ltd / Heywood House South Hill AI (Country:Anguilla) .
Matt, you’ll want to read again, because it’s about the website, not the actual phone number, unless they happened to register a website with the same name as the phone number used. Unfortunately I’m not sure how it’d be useful since anyone can register with any company in the world.
Still seems like the only way to truly get at these guys would be to:
1) file a law suit so you can subpoena your credit/debit card to get the actual bank information that the payments were to be paid out to.
2) then subpoena that bank to get the owner there. This might end up being a long list which ultimately will likely lead you offshore where you’d not be able to go any further.
3) Might be able to subpoena phone company to get closer to owner, but it’s much easier to register a phone to no one.
Hello everyone! I just read on a website that a former employee of CRI Online Sales S.A. gave his/her testimony (It wasn’t me)
Here I link the website and anyway paste what this ex-employee wrote!! EVERYTHING said is completely true. http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/CRI-Online-Sales-SA/nationwide/CRI-Online-Sales-SA-aka-customer-support-customer-support-corporation-or-customer-sup-1177417
CRI Online Ex employee testimony
AUTHOR: Sapo1990 – ()
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Im an Ex-employee.
The place is located in San Jose, Paseo Colon, behind The Scotiabank, Maria Luiza Building. The bussiness is being runned in second, third and fourth floor of the building. There are two guards on second floor.
Top manager or “full” manager name: Natasha Picado.
HR manager name: Eloisa Angulo
Another manager: Ericka.
These 3 woman run the place, those are the only 3 managers of the place. IT guy name si Josué, known as “Chombo” (he is kinda of important). A few supervisors name are Melvin, Eduardo and Manuel (Manuel is Nicaraguan)
Its a call center that has been “growing” recently, hiring like 200 employees in the last month. But the place got over staffed and now they are fireing people at the same rate they were hiring, all in a month.
From 1st day training they explain that “bosses” buys this lists of customers in black market if im not wrong, from Amazon or other companys (that what she said). So they just charge their cards with $49.95 for a dietary supplement, making cust think someone else did it or got her card hacked, but it lets you lie trough the call (as employee) since the company provide you with billing address, customer’s name and card number, so you can keep with the lie on the phone since you have sensitive card information.
They call those ones as fake accounts. And there are actual real accounts, from people that fill up the form in the website and purchase the supplement. Because thats how they are running the deal, they actually sell these products, if someone asks for the product ( on a fake account you never get shipped with prod, only thiefed) on a fake account you can ship the product, the bottle of pills (that dont work, for sure, the product dont matter, what matters is the money theft) so it lets them scamming people. Even when the bank calls you, the company tells you, if a bank angent calls do whatever they say, cancel accounts, refund charges. Another importnt detail is that ALWAYS, if a customer requests for refund on a fake account, you give back the money, we can always give it back, since money is being theft, they actually let you givwe back money in case cust gets too angry, so they can keep scamming.
Also if you cancel a subscription, it can get re activated “magically”.
You get calls from charges that happens daily, or even 5 minutes ago. From the amount of calls and people working, I calculate that they can scam about AT LEAST 1 million dollar per day. With new charges on cards. You get like 35 calls per day… calculate that between 300 employees going around in a 24h schedules (they place open 24hs, they offer morning, part time, evenening and graveyard schedule)
I dont know where money is going, or wheres deposited. When you are going to issue a refund, you say “let me go check with billing dp”. There’s no billing Dp, you just place Cx in hold. Also sometimes the refund Fails, you you had to send an email reporting it, but it was kind of weird. you notice how from the 5 charges during this month, it only let you refund 3, and the other 2 wont go, like if it was configured to absolutelly not let you refund some of the money “You cant loose all the money” or ” we cant allow you get all your money back”
They use Voice over IP for the phone system, using a software named Kayako.
For the billing system, they use “CGS”, thats the name of the software. and for punching out breaks, you use “My Staff”, another software.
You get paid in dollars, paying $4.25 per hour for new employees. They pay you one part (the first $400) in a check or deposited on a bank account, and the remaining money always in cash, dollars.
Once there was “popular story” at work) I was working that day so it was true, about a problem that happend between managers., when Natasha called police because there was a girl that didnt want to leave after she got fired (they didnt want to pay her salary). So police came inside and took the girl away. Then later the HR manager, Eloisa, was screaming to Natasha in her office that “How are you so stupid to call police in here.” What I mean or the point of the story is, that just if police shows up there and check some quick information, or make a few questios, the place will be fucked up. It will be easy to fuck them up, Easy. You could ask few questions to other employees, you will notice clearly what KIND OF BUSSINESS THEY RUNNING THERE.
From my experience there, the real deal is like this…
They charge people like 5 times. one in january, another one in may, and if you dont ‘realize’ of this charges, then charges you monthly, may, june, july. By the moment you call, maybe you realize about last two charges, and you got thiefed with all the older ones. They provide customer support to an actual company or website that sells dietary supplements, an actually product that can be shipped if needed. but what you do is scam and scam on every call. All cust support is based in Costa Rica, on this call center. all of it. When they ask you where are we located, we are located in Miami Florida, but since we are only “a third party company that provide cust service to these websites”, we dont have the money, we dont give you our address because is the website the one have the money, theres no address because you dont need it, we only provide with cust serv, and website dont have address, we dont provide it for “company policy”. They let you use any fake name on the phone, even if you want to call yourself “Barack Obama” or , “Hi my name is Iphone Six Reloaded”
I worked there like for 22 days. Apologize for everyone.
Puerto Rico is just west of Anguilla too:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Anguilla_-_Location_Map_%282013%29_-_AIA_-_UNOCHA.svg/768px-Anguilla_-_Location_Map_%282013%29_-_AIA_-_UNOCHA.svg.png (Puerto Rico in small box, Anguilla seems to be the red box).
If the proxied registrant records were subpoena from the registrars (and are legit) I assume they’ll point to this region if everything jives up.
Josh and Everyone: To clarify, that ex-employee’s testimonial was posted in response to the complaint report that I published on Ripoff Report.com.
Just talked with my Creditcard company and the most recent charge came through ultimately from Korea.
Thanks everyone for your research and reporting on this scam. My Visa credit card through Bank of America has been cancelled and the bank is attempting to recover the fraudulent $49.95 charges and transaction fees.
The fact that the thieves have our addresses would suggest they skimmed our information when we made internet purchases. To test this theory, would it be helpful to compile a list of internet purchases we have made in an effort to determine if there are common denominators? The three legitimate internet charges I did make were to: Vetsource, Yearbooks, and PETA, all purchased in April, 2014. Did anyone else make purchases with one of those vendors?
FYI – Following are the bogus charges to my credit card:
8/18 888-302-6553.com 888-302-6553 FL 49.95
8/26 Garciniadiet 8556560409 Korea 49.95
8/26 Foreign Transaction Fee 1.49
9/4 888 408 1062.com 888-408-1062 FL 49.95
9/11 HCINCsupport.com 866-992-6535 Korea 49.95
9/11 Foreign Transaction Fee 1.49
9/17 Pureclean 866-732-8213 Korea 49.95
9/17 Foreign Transaction Fee 1.49
Many thanks, Lita in Seattle
I made a purchase with Vetsource as well.
As I mentioned before, my card that was scammed was primarily used for local purchases. Going back to the beginning of 2014 through the date last month when I was scammed, the card was only used online 7 times, as follows:
Each of the following only once:
iprintfromhome.com (photo printing website)
Fine Art America (online seller of art reproductions)
Orange County (FL) Toll Authority
Gaithersburg, MD, Toll Authority (both of these to pay tolls online)
Virgin Mobile (phone company)
MyDomain.com (registrar)
Monthly:
Act Blue (processing agency for donations to my congressman)
and that’s it. All other purchases were made in local businesses including restaurants and the post office.
Of the online sites listed above, only Act Blue was given the new CC number after the old one was cancelled, and one transaction has already gone through on the new number with no new scamming, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
@Matthew, of those companies the only common one for me is MyDomain.com. I use them as my registrar as well. My address is linked on there as well…
Hi everyone, i hope you guys being doing great, I want to tell you all, that josh told me about this, and I want to confirm that what he said its true, I was a coworker of him at the place, the names of the managers are right, the exact location is: Costa Rica, San Jose, Paseo Colón, from the pizza hut corner, 250 meters north, maria luisa building ( it is a corner building ans the color is drak gray).. third and fourth floor.., this people handles part of the business, I dont think that rhey created it o invented, what I bealive is that in costa rica is the place where they placed the call center, but the brain of this scam I think is running on the states, I bealive someone from visa is stealing credit cards and customers information and is givng this info to the people who processes the scams, they have special softwares that are programed to monthly, process fake sales, then, the chathe appears on the customer’s bill and what shows up is a number to call, we were trained to say stupids things to the people who gets charged, they even charge the old people who dont have enough money to pay the rent or to buy food, they dont even care, if some of you guys is reading this, please report it, your american people ia suffering this scam everyday, and this is affect the economy of your country, I dont even know if this is made by the credit cards companies, just to create electrnic transactions and by the way refund the money, or, to convince people of buying the security that they sell for the cards, because we used to get a lot of calls from the banks and bealive me, they are veru known about this scam, and seemed to do nothing about, they just used tocall to get the refund, i really dont know who is the head on this, or from where in the freacking hell this charges come from, but what i am very sure is that this is a big organization that has their tentacles everywhere and have all of this very planned, the ip software that gets the calls its being automatically programs to change the ip location every 5 minutes to different places around the world, sometimes we appeared to be located in china, sometimes in UK, and sometimes on the states, even Costa Rica, that system was prepared for doing that i think, to avoid the police to track our location, there are more details that I would like to discuss about, but please, do something about
Gosh it never even occurred to me before, but Richard is right — from the perspective of the companies that sell computer security software and identity theft protection, it actually helps them that these types of scams not only continue, but even get worse, as it creates a greater market for their product. Yet another thing to feel paranoid about!
I had 2 of these fraudulent $49.95 charges on my VISA card on Aug. 11 and Aug. 29. Each with a different different web address and telephone number. Actually the web address” was the telephone number with a .com attached. No company name noted.
I called both numbers and checked both web sites. Investigation turned up:
Although each looked like a separate company they are, in fact, the same company. This phony company has many phone numbers as noted in above posts. Each has a web site associated with it and each web site has a separate company name, address, and person’s name listed at the bottom. All in different cities in southeast Florida.
I got the Peurto Quellon LP name from on of the “Customer Support” folks. That “company” has a web site with an Aberdeen Scotland address.
Now “josh” tells us that the boiler room is actually located in Costa Rico.
This scheme is totally phony. There probably isn’t any “Raspberry Ketone Strength”.
Nothing that anyone connected with/contacted about this so called product can be considered to be the truth.
I did get a refund for the Aug. 29 charge. I’m still working on the Aug. 8 charge. Although I have a “Refund Confirmation” number the “Customer Support” people say a “problem” with my bank has prevented them from making the refund. Probably because I have cancelled the card. My bank (actually a small local Credit Union without a large fraud squad) called the “company” who told them the product had been shipped so no refund would be made. I don’t seem to be able to make the CU understand that this whole thing a a fraud, there is no product, everything these people say is a lie. So round and round I go.
Richard, I want to commend and thank you for confirming what we have already learned from others about the inside operation of the fraudulent call center in Central America. No detail, clue and lead is insignificant and I share everything new that I learn with the various investigative agencies that I have filed a complaint with, hoping that new developments and information will assist them.
Problem is, @Patricia, that the banks are probably only interested in their customers getting their refunds so that they (the banks) are not out of pocket, and the governmental agencies probably can’t do much if the core of the business is in another country. And I suspect that Costa Rica was probably chosen because of lax local enforcement there even if all the facts are provided to them. Or possibly — I don’t know much about Costa Rica — even that the regulators are in the pocket of the scammers and deliberately looking the other way.
(Cynic even before this experience… sorry!)
Just had the same thing for the same product come on my CC statement. Call the CC company and they gave me the cust. serv. number. Called them and they want to send me 3 bottles of something I didn’t order or want. What the @@@!!!
Just got off the phone with these people again and they told me they could not refund the money but are making the vendor send me 3 bottles of this stuff for free (didn’t want it to start with) and my account has been canceled and gave me a confirmation number and said that if this charge ever appears on my card again to call them and the CC comp and report fraud charges. So I am guessing cust. serv. is somewhat on the up and up. The guy I talked to said they have had many complaints about this and are trying to get it stopped!!! We Shall See!!!
Monty, call your CC company and report it as Fraud. You will just get charged again next month at a different merchant since your card has been compromised.
FYI the raspberryketonestrength.com and puertoquellonlp.com websites have apparently been shut down. Those with telephonenumber.com addresses are still mostly up.
I just got charged for Raspberry Ketone Strength on my credit card and what a mess. I called the number listed on my credit card and spoke to some one with a bad accent ,could hardly understand him, and he could not give me the name of the company , all he kept saying that Raspberry Keytone Strenght, he even spelled it out , and I still did not understand. So I told him that if he did not remove this from my credit card I was getting my lawyer involved, then he put me thru to another person and they gave me a I D number that will show that I was refunded.(?) But I called my credit card company anyway and reported this and they canceled my credit card and said that my card had been compromised. That they had other reports of this scam. They will remove the charge. BUT, This is a big hassle !
Yelling on the phone, high blood pressure, a charge I did not make, all the phone calls it takes to get this resolved, it’s just crappy.
Wilfred, nearly everyone on here has been through the same hassle more than once, so we empathize with you. We encourage you to follow suit by alerting the public of this scam/crime, using every media avenue possible (email, Facebook, filing online complaints, making calls, etc) … to get the word out and to put pressure on the perpetrators. I have filed a complaint with the FBI (via The Internet Crime Complaint Center); the Florida BBB; my State Attorney General’s office, etc. I’ve also filed a complaint with Ripoff Report. I’ve sent email and Facebook alerts to co-workers, family and friends. I’ve sent emails to my “affected” banking institutions and to local television news stations and to FOX News. If you haven’t already done so, take the following additional security measures: report this fraudulent charge to your banking institution(s); have your compromised credit card(s) deactivated; do not use any replacement card for online purchases (to see if the charges stop); monitor your compromised bank account several times/day; request an initial 90-Day Fraud Alert with Equifax, invest in one of their excellent monitoring plans, and request a freeze on your credit report. Since your PII (Personally Identifiable Information) has been compromised, it is important that you take steps to ensure these thieves can’t do more damage in other ways.
Partially related:
Partially related:
Chase: Contact information, including name, address, phone number and e-mail address, as well as internal JPMorgan Chase information about the users was compromised on half of US Households and 7 million businesses:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/02/jp-morgan-security-breach/16590689