A deal too good to be true
It seemed that there were a lot of good deals there and they were selling at really cheap prices. An iphone usually costs $1200-1400 without contract and they are offering to sell it at $300-$450… including shipping, one year warranty, fully unlocked and sealed totally straight from factory. Sounded like a deal that is too good to be true but greed and curiosity got better of us and we emailed them for more info.
Trying to gain our trust and confidence
After we emailed them, they gave us an msn address and started a conversation with us online. Just to make us feel comfortable, they told us that their sales agent is also a Singaporean who just visited Singapore. They also kept saying they are from a established reputable company that has been around for many years and is under stringent monitoring of the UK government. They even called hubby up on his mobile phone to talk to him on the phone.When we sent them an email and asked them to verify their credentials and here is the email that they replied (I have changed hubby’s name and email to protect his privacy):
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Subject: Your order: Price List and full company details
From: singmobiles@insing.com
To: abc@hotmail.com
Hello Max,
I contacted you on your mobile phone some minutes ago.
You have requested for the price list of our mobile phones, company details, discount and promotional offers and they have been listed as below.
Below are the List of mobile phones we have available now in stock and the prices are as below.
Apple iphone 3GS 16gb $320SGD
Apple iphone 3GS 32gb $420SGD
Apple iphone 3G 16gb $400SGD
Apple iphone 3G 8gb $280SGD
Samsung i8910 Omnia HD $500SGD
Samsung i900 Omnia $350SGD
Nokia N97 32gb $400SGD
Nokia N96 16gb $320SGD
Nokia 8800 Sirocco $600SGD
Sony Ericsson Idou $300SGD
HTC Diamond 2 $420SGD
You can get the full specification of these phones by visiting our website at http://www.insing.co.cc/. Due to website upgrade, some of these mobiles have not been included in our website.
Below is our full company details.
Company name: Electrostore Group Ltd
Company Registration number: 04372378
Company address: Beechwood House, Falkland Close, Coventry, West Midlands, CV4 8HQ
Company contact phone number: +447035991818
Website: http://www.insing.co.cc/
Our company is celebrating its 30th year anniversary so we are offering a 50% off price bonanza and you have requested for an extention of this bonanza for 2-3 weeks and it has been approved just for your order. Please note that if any of your friends want to order, they have to order through You to get this bonanza extansion.
We also offer free Apple itouch 32GB if you are buying 2 Units of Apple iphone and if you are buying other phone models, this free itouch is not Applicable but we also offer 10% discount off price if you are buying 2 or more units and 20% discount if you are buying 10 or more units.
All shipping and Tax charges has been covered and you don't need to pay any more fee other than that of the mobile phone
Regards
Aaron Jing Yang
Sales Manager
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Cannot be verified
Now the thing is that if you checked online, there really is a Electrostore company. But they dun seem to be dealing with a mobile biz. When asked about it, they just said that they are a subsidiary/division of the company.
Then I was told tat for iphones, only Singtel can help to service the phones if anything went wrong. When asked about their one year warranty, they said they actually had an agreement with Singtel to service the phones but when asked for the agreement, they just changed topic and continued to fuel our greed.
Fuel Your Greed
They would keep reminding us that if we bought two phones, we would get a discount PLUS a freebie. And if we bought more they are going to give bigger discounts and more freebies, plus we were entitled to take part in some lucky draw where the grand prize is a car. And they even told us that they have already sold a number of sets to Singaporeans. A company has purchased 45 sets from them.
Then they said this is a limited time only offer because their company is celebrating their 30th anniversary. That is why the low prices because they are selling at 40% off or something.
And then they started calling us and following up with calls after calls to encourage to quickly send the money over so that they can quickly sent our order over.
Never Transact Overseas via Western Union
Just to support their claim that they are from UK, they got us to send money over via Western Union to London to a certain Tom Robert.
Once the money was sent over, we started asking them when our package will arrive and they started all these delay tactics by saying that we sent them the info too late and so they sent out their package late and so we can only collect it on the day after next (on a Friday).
Asking you to send more money
Come Friday, however, they dropped us another email and said that our good are with the international customs and we had to send more money over.
Here is how their email looked like:
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Hello Max,
We are glad to inform you that your package is almost now available in Singapore and once it arrives singapore, you will be informed. But there is a little details which you need to take note of.
The Customs for shipment has seized the package and they have refused to release the package until the international tax and customs fee is paid. We at Electrostore Group Ltd paid the tax and customs fee for the shipment in UK but we never intended that the international customs will seize the package. This has never happened before and Electrostore Group does not cover the cost for that. We have gone for a meting with the customs and they have agreed that they will not bill us for this again and we have signed a contract with them but they say that this particular one has to be paid.
Now it has been stated and agreed that the fees be paid by the customer (YOU).
The Total fee for the Customs and Tax fee was billed in US dollars and is a total of $140 USD which when converted to SGD is $202.
Now the customs has insisted that this fee be paid to them before they release your package and continue the shipment. We advice that for safety of your order that you make your payment early to prevent loss of your package or incuring more cost.
PLEASE Note, the payment for the customs is to be made to them through V-PAY but this service is not available in Singapore so the ceo of the company has decided that the fee be paid to our branch in Nigeria and it will then be transfered to the customs through V-PAY.
Below is our company branch payment details for you to transfer the $140usd or $202SGD
Receivers name: Samuel Ezennaya
Receivers address: 12 Awka road
State: Anambra
Country: Nigeria
Zipcode: 23404
Amount: $140USD or $202SGD
Secret text question: My name
Text Answer: Max
Note : you are to include a secret text question and answer for this new transfer to Nigeria.
Thank you for your interest in Electrostore Group Ltd, we value your business and support. Our goal is to continue bringing you quality products. Feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have or visit us at http://www.insing.co.cc/
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That made me a little uncomfortable but for the fear of loss of losing ‘our phones’ made us send out the money again. (Something which I now know is not true since parcels usually cannot
Our phones never came. No matter how we emailed them to ask them about our phones, they just never replied.
My hubby emailed Electrostore and they have replied that they do not have such a department that sells mobiles phones and this is not the first time that the good name of their company has already been used to scam phones.
Verify again
I couldn’t really accept then that I had been scammed and in my heart, I was still hoping that I would eventually receive the phones. Just to verify if they are really a scam though finally, I decided to go online and talk to them and pretend to be a new customer.
This time round, they made mostly the same pitch but only, they told me they are from a different company.
By then, I knew in my heart it was a scam and so for the purpose of this blog (which I had already decided to start to educate people about scams), I continued on to see what other tricks they could have up their sleeves.
For a twist, I pretended to be so keen to get so many phones tat I called everyone I knew who wanted to buy phones and tat one of my friends, Max, said he knew them and ordered from them but did not receive his phones.
They seem a little shocked and recovered in a short while by saying that there was a problem with this package and kept urging me to ask Max to come online.
They asked for more money! $1800 to be exact!
And true enough, out of nowhere, we received an email from them asking for MORE MONEY!
The assured us that our package is already in Singapore with Fedex but there is a situation. Their packing department, instead of packing only the phones we ordered also packed in a whole lot of other phones and so they have to hold those phones on hold. They will release it if we pay another $1800 and we could just get the phone package and sell off the excess phones.
I called Fedex and explained my situation and found out that:
- You never need to pay customs any money. Usually if a package does not go over, it is due to documentation problems. If it is an issue with taxation or custom fees, usually fedex will contact the recipient direct instead of the company.
- There was never any package sent to my address at all in the whole of the past one week. Even if you did not have the airway bill number, you can call Fedex and they can check if there is really such a delivery being made.
Here is the MSN message that took place:
Jessica says:
Hello, are you here now?
Angel says:
hi
are you there?
or did i miss you again
Jessica says:
Yes i am here
you sent us an email about our mobile phones for sale
we would like to know if you are still interested in buying
Angel says:
of cos
Jessica says:
Ok
i believe it is the Apple iphone 3GS
Angel says:
;)
Jessica says:
Ok
so which particular model
the 16gb or the 32gb?
Angel says:
actually one of each
Jessica says:
Ok since you are buying 2 units, you are entitled to win a free Apple itouch
Angel says:
and?
Jessica says:
well no other
but if you are buying 3 uits, you will get 1 free unit and 10% discount
Angel says:
wah, i tot you ran away again
Jessica says:
No im still here
Angel says:
can you transact face to face?
Jessica says:
we are located in England, UK and we can only ship to Singapore
or Costarice
where are you located?
Angel says:
sgp
Jessica says:
Ok the phone will be shipped to you and it will only take 24-36 hours to get to your addres
Angel says:
but how would i know you are genuine if you cannot transact face to face....
Jessica says:
so how many units do you need
2 or 3 units?
we are a registered company and all our activities are moniored by the UK government to prevent fraud
Angel says:
so wat sort of modes of payments do you use if you do not transact face to face
Jessica says:
so you are 100% assured of receivig your package
Angel says:
What is the name of your company
Jessica says:
we accept payment through Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram
Our company name is Multi-store Ltd
Angel says:
they sell wardrobes my dear
Jessica says:
we are in another sector that deals on sales of mobile phones
Angel says:
so how come there is nothing on the web to indicate tat
wat a strange diversion to a totally unrelated industry...
Actually you know, I am very keen to get at least two phones
but how can you prove y ou are from multi store?
Jessica says:
we can have the 2 phones delivered to you
Angel says:
you mean you can deliver to me first before i pay?
Jessica says:
since you are buying 2 units, you only need to pay 50% ad when you get your order, you complete the fee within 1-3 days
Angel says:
I dun want to be scammed and lose my money..
if you were to be a scam, i would still lose the 50% rite?
Jessica says:
we are a legit company
we are not trying to scam you and we assure you that you will get your order
Angel says:
how can you prove it?
talk is cheap these days you know
Jessica says:
Ok so how do you want me to proove it to you?
Angel says:
do you have a representative in sgp?
i noticed your ads are all based in sgp and there is this aaron person who filled in a local hp number
Jessica says:
Yes Aaron was in Singapore when he placed the advert but ihe is back in UK now
we only have customers in Singapore only
Angel says:
well, maybe i can wait for when he next comes to sgp
Jessica says:
that will be next year
Angel says:
oh, tat's bad luck
is your pricing inclusive of shipping, custom fees, taxes, etc?
Jessica says:
Yes they are inclusive of those
Angel says:
Actually as we are talking, I have one more fren who is interested in the offer.. just tat we are all wary cos we cant see you
Jessica says:
Ohhh
well thats why i gave you the offer of making half payment
we assure you that this deal is simple
and you will get the order once the payment is one within 1-2 days
you dont have anything to worry abiout this deal
Angel says:
haha.. tat's easy for you to say
it's not your money
and it is MY money.. and you are at the receiving end haha...
I dun know for sure if i will get the phones after i pay
Jessica says:
I understand you
but you can trust us and we assure you of a safe deal
Angel says:
I would trust you if you could pass me the phone while i pass you the money face to face
according to my fren, iphones in singapore can only be serviced in singtel.. if i buy the phones from you.. where will my phones be serviced if they are spoilt?
is there any warranty?
Jessica says:
thats not psible because it is fEDeX that will do the delivery
and you cannot pay to them
yes it comes with 12 months warranty
and it can be serviced anywhere
Angel says:
where exactly are you talking about when you say "ANYWHERE"
cos in sgp, epicentres from Apple do not service iphones at all
Jessica says:
You cans service it in Singtel because they recognise our company. ll you need do is show them our company invoice which we will send to you when you want to order and also the warranty card
and they will repair it
and even if they do not, you ca send it to us and we do it and we will be the one to cover the courier cost
Angel says:
are you sure they will?
you have an agreement with them or an agreement with apple?
Also, how is it possible tat your iphones are going at such a low price and you can still include freebies, shipping and everything else?
Jessica says:
yes
well our compay is celebrating its 30th year anniversary so we are offering 50% off price bonanz and this offer will end next week
Angel says:
then wat do you earn?
and how come you only selling in sgp?
shipping from UK should be quite costly rite?
Jessica says:
the shipment fee is not that costly because we ship all the time to SGP so FedEx cut the cost for us
Angel says:
I must say your price is very attractive cos as we chat, I just offhandedly mention it to other pple I am chatting to and everyone says it is a good deal
so there are a few more interested parties now
so are there any taxation or hidden costs?
Jessica says:
thats good
No there are no hiden cost
Angel says:
so it is a one time only payment?
Jessica says:
yes just the fee for the phones
Angel says:
So if i buy more than 5, wat is the pricing?
Jessica says:
if you are buying 5 or more units, you will be given 20% duiscount plus 1 free set
Angel says:
okie.. wait...
hey, it's a small world, i just called one of my frens who wanted to buy iphone and he says he has ordered from you.... but the phones have not arrived.....
wat is tat abt?
Jessica says:
and who is your friend?
Max right?
who is your friend?
Angel says:
Yeah, it's Max. I dun like wat I hear from him though.... he says he ordered since fri but today still havent received it....
tat is definitely more than 2-3 days
Jessica says:
can you tell him to come online
we have sent him series of emails
but he did not respond
Angel says:
wat sort of emails
Jessica says:
can you inform him to come online so that we cn talk?
Angel says:
Okie.. i will let him know...
so all the things you promised me just now is not true?
how come max hasnt recieved his phones when he ordered on friday?
Jessica says:
It is true
there was a situation with his rder
his order was mixed up
he was mistakenly sent many items
instead of his order
Angel says:
tat's not wat he told me
he said he ordered two phones and they just havent arrived yet and he is waiting for you to tell him the status of the phone
Jessica says:
please inform him to come online
we have waiting for him to come online and clear his order
Angel says:
you call him yourself lah...
Jessica says:
but he has nt come online ever since
Angel says:
wat do you mean clear his order?
if you sent wrong items to him, just send him the right ones lah.. why do you need him to come online
Jessica says:
so that we can talk and clarify thngs
Angel says:
Well, you have to settle with him
Jessica says:
i tried caling him now and his phone number is not going through
Angel says:
if not i have no confidence about sending you even $1!
Jessica says:
tell him to come online
ok
Angel says:
you sure? I just called him leh...
Jessica says:
ok whats his phone number?
Angel says:
well, you should hav his number if he ordered from you
Jessica says:
thi is the number he gave to us
can you give us his number please?
Angel says:
i dun think i should give out my fren's number without his permission rite?
if he ordered from you, you hsould have his number
Jessica says:
Ohh ok he has come online
Angel is thinking: (BULLSHIT, he is my ‘fren’ remember? Wouldn’t I know if he comes online?????)
Jessica says:
we gave him all his details
but he did not inform us if he has picked it up
Angel says:
pick up wat
I thought you send via fedex and fedex should deliver to the doorstep?
you better go settle with him first....
Jessica says:
yes FedEx is supposed to deliver ut because if the situation, we asked him to go to FedEx and just pick up his own phones
Angel says:
i think this is very confusing to me
cos he is saying tat you havent delivered to him
and you are saying he didnt go pick it up
Jessica says:
then who are you talking abut
because there is max here which we gave all the deails to pick his item up
which other max are you talking about?
what your name?
Angel says:
are there many max's who ordered from you?
Jessica says:
yes
Angel says:
I am not interested in how many maxes ordered from you
only thing i can tell you for sure though is tat my fren max did not receive his package... so unless he gets his package, i dun think I want to take the risk first
you better go sort out with your many maxes
it does seem scary if there are alot of such cases
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