Saturday, February 03, 2007
xbstore.com, the new look of internet piracy?
A little off-topic, but this is an interesting phenomenon I ran into this weekend:
There is a new scam on the internet may be an interesting story. Some foreign sites are setting themselves up on price grabbing sites such as Google's Froogle, MySimon and BizRate with prices for consumer electronics at 20% less than what the lowest competitor charges. The low price moves them up in the price grabber rankings and makes them more visibile to technophiles that are looking for a good deal on electronics and probably have a good amount of money to spend. The sites look legitimate, but when a customer tries to purchase an item they learn they have to place a minimum order of $650-$700 dollars and the sites do not accept creidt cards. The sites require payment by check, money order or wire transfer. The sites are setting themselves up in a fly by night fashion, with a simple template, they go up, lure money out of consumers worldwide and shutdown within a couple of months. A perfect example of this problem is a site called xbstore.com, the site is hosted by ixwebhosting.com in Kentucky, but the business is really run out of Spain. xbstore.com has only been up since mid-January, the unscruipulous owner picked it up from an expired domain list in November. I believe this is the same people that ran another rogue site called MercadoMall.com also from Spain that was shut down in December and Elmpoint.com which was shut down in the fall. The chain of deception continues not only from this business, but to other businesses. Some shoppers are skeptical of the practices at sites like xbstore.com, but then use the prices they find published there to get price matching from other sites and brick and mortar stores that will match any advertised price. I was recently shopping for a replacement stereo faceplate for my current system when I stumbled on the xbstore.com site from a Froogle search. After looking closer at the policies and newsgroups that were starting to report on xbstore, I then contacted ixnethosting and the Federal Trade Commission regarding this site in hopes of getting it shut down. I think this would be an interesting investigative article for consumers and business owners alike. Telling people what to watch for when shopping online couple be useful as well, a good source is http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/payments.htm. This new scam is in it's infancy and will grow without public education and regulator involvement.
***UPDATE***
On March 8, 2007, ixnethosting suspended xbstore.com's website. I don't know if my complaints to them or the Federal Trade Commission shut them down, but I am pleased that the site no longer shows up and froogle listing associated to them no longer exists. While these scammers may have lost this site, I am sure another is in the works if not already running. Caveat Emptor!
There is a new scam on the internet may be an interesting story. Some foreign sites are setting themselves up on price grabbing sites such as Google's Froogle, MySimon and BizRate with prices for consumer electronics at 20% less than what the lowest competitor charges. The low price moves them up in the price grabber rankings and makes them more visibile to technophiles that are looking for a good deal on electronics and probably have a good amount of money to spend. The sites look legitimate, but when a customer tries to purchase an item they learn they have to place a minimum order of $650-$700 dollars and the sites do not accept creidt cards. The sites require payment by check, money order or wire transfer. The sites are setting themselves up in a fly by night fashion, with a simple template, they go up, lure money out of consumers worldwide and shutdown within a couple of months. A perfect example of this problem is a site called xbstore.com, the site is hosted by ixwebhosting.com in Kentucky, but the business is really run out of Spain. xbstore.com has only been up since mid-January, the unscruipulous owner picked it up from an expired domain list in November. I believe this is the same people that ran another rogue site called MercadoMall.com also from Spain that was shut down in December and Elmpoint.com which was shut down in the fall. The chain of deception continues not only from this business, but to other businesses. Some shoppers are skeptical of the practices at sites like xbstore.com, but then use the prices they find published there to get price matching from other sites and brick and mortar stores that will match any advertised price. I was recently shopping for a replacement stereo faceplate for my current system when I stumbled on the xbstore.com site from a Froogle search. After looking closer at the policies and newsgroups that were starting to report on xbstore, I then contacted ixnethosting and the Federal Trade Commission regarding this site in hopes of getting it shut down. I think this would be an interesting investigative article for consumers and business owners alike. Telling people what to watch for when shopping online couple be useful as well, a good source is http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/payments.htm. This new scam is in it's infancy and will grow without public education and regulator involvement.
***UPDATE***
On March 8, 2007, ixnethosting suspended xbstore.com's website. I don't know if my complaints to them or the Federal Trade Commission shut them down, but I am pleased that the site no longer shows up and froogle listing associated to them no longer exists. While these scammers may have lost this site, I am sure another is in the works if not already running. Caveat Emptor!
