Jump to content


Photo

Been scammed, what to do?


  • Please log in to reply
22 replies to this topic

#1 Ben

Ben

    P2L Jedi Master

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,366 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:VIC, Australia

Posted 07 January 2007 - 05:24 AM

Well, I'll start from the begining. I was on msn, and some guy I didn't really know offered me so web hosting for a real cheap price. He said he was starting out a web hosting business. Well, I was very skeptical at first, but I was still considering buying. I did a lot of research on his site and I couldn't decide whether this was a scam or not. Finally I came to a conclusion and decided to buy. I sent the 20 bucks over and he signed off. I thought that he had scammed me, but half an hour later he signed on again. He said msn had failed. So he started to set up my account. By the end of the night he still didn't have it on, and he said he would finish it tomorrow. I thought for sure this time he had scammed me. A couple of days passed with few msn convo's, all screenshotted and saved, when he finally set up my account. The specs weren't exactly what he said, but I was just happy that he hadn't scammed me. Then, another couple of days passed with no problems with the host. Then he offered domains. Feeling that it was OK to trust him again I sent him over another 20 bucks for 2 domains. He knew I was a good designer, and asked if he could get something done. I said no problem, since he had been so nice to me. I had almost finished about a week after I last spoke (yeah I know, I'm lazy :() so I decided to speak again. I asked him if my domains had been set up. He said they will only get set up once the graphic is done, which, as far as I'm concerned, was not the deal. I was getting fed up with his slow service, so I said some things. He started typing shit like "lol", and "haha". He then signed off, and as much as I know, blocked me. He hasn't been online with that email since; I did keep him added (but blocked) just incase.

This guy runs a site called PenguHost.com, so if you ever come accross him, punch him in the face or something for me.

Now I was pissed off at this guy so much, even though he only had 40 bucks of mine, that didn't matter because its the principle of the matter. It made me madder since he made me trust him. I resorted to hacking, and from a friend I had learnt to hack websites (not that I have ever done it). Except he was using a different system to what people normally use, and I couldn't do anything.

Now the payment was over paypal, so I'm pretty much screwed there. I don't think I'll ever have enough proof with these guys. Problem is, I really want to get this guy back. Or atleast get my money back. If anyone could help me (which I doubt could) that would be the greatest.

Just thought I'd share this with you,
Ben.

#2 Bug

Bug

    P2L Staff

  • P2L Staff
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 3,611 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Perth, Australia

Posted 07 January 2007 - 05:51 AM

Which is why, my dear friends, you should always agree to CONTRACT WORK ONLY!!

Not much else I can say here but, you just got PWNED :( You can only learn by your mistakes :P

Oh, question: How did you end up getting the guy on MSN in the first place?

Edited by Bug, 07 January 2007 - 05:52 AM.


#3 Mark

Mark

    Young Padawan

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 113 posts

Posted 07 January 2007 - 06:38 AM

Odds are you won't be seeing that again. That is why, in all honesty, it is best not to do favors for people. You end up getting screwed and people end up getting mad.

You can contact Paypal, but as far as they can tell, he didn't do anything wrong. Most likely anyway.

Considering from his site, however, I wouldn't trust him either. No contact or TOS page? Sketchy, baby, sketchy.

#4 funkysoul

funkysoul

    The Funky Stuff

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 2,307 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Zurich, Switzerland
  • Interests:Music: HIM, HIM, HIM, Cafe del Mar, Linkin Park, Fort Minor, Coldplay, Eric Jordan<br />Sports: Snowboarding, KiteSurfing, Extreme Sports<br />Computer: Flash, After Effects, Actionscript

Posted 07 January 2007 - 06:54 AM

that site looks a lot like some guy learning how to design sites from tutorials :(

#5 Ben

Ben

    P2L Jedi Master

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,366 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:VIC, Australia

Posted 07 January 2007 - 07:56 AM

I did have a very long talk with him the first time. And since he said he was only starting out I didn't think too much of it. But I did get more and more... confused, on some of the things, and I thought, well, it didn't really matter because I had paid him. So I could only hope. Funny thing is, I actually got the host, and I can still access it. It hasn't even been suspended.

Oh and as for the msn... I honestly have no idea, though it's no surprise since I have nearly 200 contacts, all of them who have added me. I've done A LOT of different things over the 4 years I've had my msn, and I pretty much only have msn's for people that want favours from me.

And yeah I have to admit I did get "pwned", which is hard to admit. I was debating over myself on whether I should post this topic or not for about 2 days :(. I felt like I knew this guy, he was a friend of a friend. He used to be in FSO's, and so did my friend.

Ben.

Edited by d4rkst0n3, 07 January 2007 - 07:59 AM.


#6 knedl

knedl

    Young Padawan

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 243 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Slovenia
  • Interests:Designing and programing

Posted 07 January 2007 - 02:04 PM

Well yeah there's not much that you can do about the scam, but if he is a friend of a friend maybe try finding out who he is if it's possible and run him over with a car or something ;) but seriously I don't think there's much to do especialy getting the money back, maybe doing it by a legal way and report him to a company who usualy deals with this kind of scams, I don't know about your country but in mine there is a company or better said an organisation that protects it's users from internet fraud.

I hope you get back at him and wish you good luck in that :D Give'em hell! :D

#7 Donna

Donna

    Retired P2L Queen!

  • P2L Staff
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 12,330 posts
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:B.C Canada

Posted 07 January 2007 - 02:18 PM

Well, I'll start from the begining. I was on msn, and some guy I didn't really know offered me so web hosting for a real cheap price.


lol that's all I needed to read.

Pop over to http://webhostingtalk.com/ and leave some feedback on your experience.

run a whois you can get all the info you need on PenguHost.com and also report it via Paypal

#8 Mark

Mark

    Young Padawan

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 113 posts

Posted 07 January 2007 - 05:45 PM

http://whois.net/who...enguhosting.com

Now everyone can enjoy knowing who :nea: you over!

Edited by dEcade, 07 January 2007 - 06:04 PM.
Censored swear, please keep it clean.


#9 Ben

Ben

    P2L Jedi Master

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,366 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:VIC, Australia

Posted 07 January 2007 - 06:58 PM

Odds are you won't be seeing that again. That is why, in all honesty, it is best not to do favors for people. You end up getting screwed and people end up getting mad.

Yeah and it's actually not the first time I've been used. Some guy asked me to design him this website, I finished it and sent it, then found out he was getting paid for it.

-----

Yeah I ran a WHOIS on him right at the start, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. I would've reported him to paypal, but I couldn't find the report button :nea:

I'll post this on that forum you suggested Donna :)

Thanks for all the help guys!
Ben.

Edited by d4rkst0n3, 07 January 2007 - 07:04 PM.


#10 Stu

Stu

    Retired P2L Staff

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,761 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 08 January 2007 - 03:23 AM

if he has the 20usd for your domains which you never recieved and you paid over paypal, and you put in the description on paypal 'for 2 domain names', to which he accepted it... open a paypal dispute asap. from the experience i have had in paypal disputes, they always tend to favour the buyer. ive been scammed three times whilst paying with paypal and have always received 75-100% of my money back.

#11 Ben

Ben

    P2L Jedi Master

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,366 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:VIC, Australia

Posted 08 January 2007 - 04:19 AM

Luckily I did write that in. I usually don't write a description when sending my money, but I did that time. So, how do I actually report it to paypal?

EDIT: Nevermind I figured it out

Ben.

Edited by d4rkst0n3, 08 January 2007 - 04:32 AM.


#12 Daniel D

Daniel D

    Young Padawan

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 115 posts

Posted 09 January 2007 - 12:54 PM

I lost $820 USD over a paypal transaction, because it was an item over the internet they couldn't give me the money, since it had no shipping number.

I will never use paypal and I really wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

#13 evertonian7uk

evertonian7uk

    Young Padawan

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 249 posts

Posted 09 January 2007 - 01:32 PM

go over to www.namepros.com and you'll find your pengu hosting guy selling his services there!

you should go there and warn others against this cowboy ASAP!

he also scammed a few people on www.apexwebgaming.com


the best way to protect yourself in future is to deal with the reputable people here ive hired 4 / 5 guys here and had no issues at all :biggrin:

#14 Ben

Ben

    P2L Jedi Master

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,366 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:VIC, Australia

Posted 09 January 2007 - 06:55 PM

Thanks for that. I posted in his topic.

I lost $820 USD over a paypal transaction, because it was an item over the internet they couldn't give me the money, since it had no shipping number.

I will never use paypal and I really wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

Wow thats harsh... I don't think I'd ever spend that much money through paypal. Still, I know a lot of people hate paypal, but what alternative is there?

Ben.

Edited by d4rkst0n3, 09 January 2007 - 08:10 PM.


#15 Hayden

Hayden

    P2L Jedi

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 717 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Texas

Posted 09 January 2007 - 11:33 PM

http://whois.net/who...enguhosting.com

Now everyone can enjoy knowing who -_- you over!


Domain Name: PENGUHOSTING.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Name Server: PLEASEDROPTHISHOST15823.JLHOSTS1.BIZ
Name Server: PLEASEDROPTHISHOST15824.JLHOSTS1.BIZ


Interesting nameservers. :(

#16 Ben

Ben

    P2L Jedi Master

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,366 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:VIC, Australia

Posted 10 January 2007 - 12:11 AM

It's actually PenguHost.com, not PenguHosting.

Ben.

Edited by d4rkst0n3, 10 January 2007 - 12:14 AM.


#17 Donna

Donna

    Retired P2L Queen!

  • P2L Staff
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 12,330 posts
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:B.C Canada

Posted 10 January 2007 - 12:18 AM

I lost $820 USD over a paypal transaction, because it was an item over the internet they couldn't give me the money, since it had no shipping number.

I will never use paypal and I really wouldn't recommend them to anyone.


I find that a little odd I've used Paypal for years and never had any problems if I dispute something I always use transaction id's. Paypal also has phone numbers you can phone, you seem rather calm for someone that's lost $820 if I was you I'd look more into it.

#18 Daniel D

Daniel D

    Young Padawan

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 115 posts

Posted 10 January 2007 - 04:11 AM

It was almost a year ago so it's well done and over with, but what had happened was the guy paid the money, it was there but since I was relitavely new to PayPal I assumed that was it transaction complete, he was a verified user and all so I sent him over this "Virtual Item" and about 6 hours later I get an e-mail saying that fraudulent activity may be going on and that the user put a hold on the payment and canceled it saying that he never received what I was supposed to give.

I spent over a month calling PayPal and trying to find every method I could possibly find to get this money or item back, and the final wording was that they could not do anything about it because there was no shipping number and they have no way to prove what really happened. I e-mailed the guy several times and being the coward he was he ignored every single one.

I then lost out on the money and the "Virtual Item" that was worth about $900 dollars. I didn't lose cash out of my pocket, just something that I had spent money, time and effort on.

#19 Davey

Davey

    P2L Jedi

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 620 posts
  • Location:Perth, Scotland
  • Interests:Creativity, Adrenaline, Etc

Posted 10 January 2007 - 04:14 AM

It was almost a year ago so it's well done and over with, but what had happened was the guy paid the money, it was there but since I was relitavely new to PayPal I assumed that was it transaction complete, he was a verified user and all so I sent him over this "Virtual Item" and about 6 hours later I get an e-mail saying that fraudulent activity may be going on and that the user put a hold on the payment and canceled it saying that he never received what I was supposed to give.

I spent over a month calling PayPal and trying to find every method I could possibly find to get this money or item back, and the final wording was that they could not do anything about it because there was no shipping number and they have no way to prove what really happened. I e-mailed the guy several times and being the coward he was he ignored every single one.

I then lost out on the money and the "Virtual Item" that was worth about $900 dollars. I didn't lose cash out of my pocket, just something that I had spent money, time and effort on.



i hope u werent selling the item cos u were needing the money for somethin in particular... that would be really harsh lol

#20 Ben

Ben

    P2L Jedi Master

  • Publishing Betazoids
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,366 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:VIC, Australia

Posted 10 January 2007 - 04:38 AM

It was almost a year ago so it's well done and over with, but what had happened was the guy paid the money, it was there but since I was relitavely new to PayPal I assumed that was it transaction complete, he was a verified user and all so I sent him over this "Virtual Item" and about 6 hours later I get an e-mail saying that fraudulent activity may be going on and that the user put a hold on the payment and canceled it saying that he never received what I was supposed to give.

I spent over a month calling PayPal and trying to find every method I could possibly find to get this money or item back, and the final wording was that they could not do anything about it because there was no shipping number and they have no way to prove what really happened. I e-mailed the guy several times and being the coward he was he ignored every single one.

I then lost out on the money and the "Virtual Item" that was worth about $900 dollars. I didn't lose cash out of my pocket, just something that I had spent money, time and effort on.

That really sucks. I heard about this guy who lost 15 grand when moving accounts or something... I don't know if it has been fixed yet, but this was a while ago, so I don't know.

Ben.




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users