Caught out by DazzleWhite

sooperb

Well, cautious optimism here. I copied CompetionCafe's :T post into a message to my bank and asked if they would consider challenging the original sum taken. They emailed that they could only do that if I hadn't had the product. I responded to say that I hadn't ever received it, so they emailed back that they would chargeback. Today, the £89.77 was in my account. I understand that I still have to wait 60 days for them to respond, but, as they haven't challenged the other chargebacks I am hopeful that that will be all the money taken back in my account. If this worked for me, it may work for you.

I am very surprised that there is such a random response from all the different banks and card companies. Given that it is such a widespread scam now with all the other products (acai berries and e-cigs to name but 2) involved, wouldn't you think that the banks would have a unified strategy? I am pleased with your success, it's heartening to know that a few of us are winning against these despicable people.

Jasmine, your card may be a debit card, but I expect like mine it has an issuer, in my case Barclays Visa. Prior to that, First Direct used Mastercard.

competitionscafe

Warning - Just Think Media scam artists have changed the product name and address of their teeth whitening rip-off yet again. The latest version is called Vibrant Smile Kit ( vibrantsmilekit.com ) with the address:
Colesdale Ltd
11 Stormont Street, North Shields,
Tyne & Wear NE29 0EY, UK

http://www.ukdata.com/creditreports/viewCompanyDetails.do?companyId=06898252
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/2aec494047e7d847d8e5b98455da3308/compdetails

This company name and address is also now being used by several other of their product scams:

acaiforcemax (acai force max )
ultracleanseplus (ultra cleanse plus )
premiumwhitepro (premium white pro )
and others...
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=Ma6&q=%2211+Stormont+Street%22%2C+North+Shields%2C+Tyne+%26+Wear+NE29+0EY%2C&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Perhaps this is due to Visa and Mastercard shutting down their merchant accounts under previous names and therefore the scammers have simply opened up new ones??

The charges have also changed to " Fourteen days after the date you order, you will be charged One Hundred Twenty Six Dollars and Forty-Two cents ($126.42) non-refundable for joining our one year our Member program. " - [that's about £80].

But according to these websites people claim they were charged the $126.42 within 3 days of ordering and obviously before they received any product:
http://scam.com/showpost.php?p=868093&postcount=14
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/vibrant-smile-kit-a-scam-c300762.html
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/vibrant-smile-or-any-teeth-whitening-product-c302099.html

Clearly they are breaking several of the Distance Selling Regulations:

If you sell goods or services to consumers by:

• the internet
• digital television
• mail order, including catalogue shopping
• phone
• fax

then you need to know about the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.
The key features of the regulations are:

• you must give consumers clear information including details of the goods or services offered, delivery arrangements and payment, the supplier's details and the consumer's cancellation right before they buy (known as prior information)
• you must also provide this information in writing
• the consumer has a cooling-off period of seven working days.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/


The nearest trading standards to that Colesdale Limited, North Shields, Tyne & Wear address is listed here:
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/southtyneside/consumers/linksc.htm

sooperb

My husband sent me a link to an "E-newspaper" which tells the usual story about the tooth-whiteners, featuring as always a young mum who is able to shine her teeth using only the free samples, grrrr. What I don't understand is how they get away with using bogus endorsements from the likes of MSN, CNN and even BBC news! This is the latest "consumer-tips-weekly.co.uk/getwhiteteeth" preceded by the usual html links. It's nothing short of theft really isn't it!

sooperb

For those of you interested, this is the whois entry for that website:

Domain name:
consumer-tips-weekly.co.uk

Registrant:
consumer-tips-weekly.co.uk

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 09-Nov-2009
Renewal date: 09-Nov-2011
Last updated: 10-Nov-2009

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers:
ns2067.hostgator.com
ns2068.hostgator.com

Toe-Jam

White teeth for £1.50....you should have seen it coming :-) a bloody filling cost me £40 the other day.

jaybee2151

Yes, I thought I was pretty savvy as well, but I got "done" They managed to take 4 amounts of around £54 off my credit card. I sent the second package of the product back to them, recorded delivery (or equivalent) and wrote to the bank explaing everything. They cancelled my card and issued a new one, and very quickly did a chargeback on my credit card. The problem is that they keep changing their name, so its difficult to keep a track of them.

Please also see my posting on "WOW smile" Another con.

mart4

i have also fallen for this scam, how do i get on the live chat to cancel my order.

mart4

sooperb

Which company scammed you? If you look in their terms and conditions there should be a phone number for you to call. Dazzlesmile! used to have a live online chat but they have gone so I doubt it's them. If you got a confirmation email you could try replying to that saying you don't wish to proceed. Whatever you do, you need to get on to it as soon as you can.

competitionscafe

mart4 wrote: »

i have also fallen for this scam, how do i get on the live chat to cancel my order.

mart4

Dazzlesmile have changed name yet again (as this scam keeps doing in order to lure new victims) but it's the same company of course. Current names include EasyWhite (Easywhite scam) and Clean Whites:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=ebE&q=easy+white+scam&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=obE&q=clean+whites+scam&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=1&oq=clean+wh

Both use UK addresses as follows:

Rivington House, 82 Great Eastern Street, London, EC2A 3JF, UK

LB CyberNet Entertainment Ltd, Suite G7, West Wing, Prospect Business Park, Leadgate, Consett, County Durham, DH8 7PW, UK

(That company name and address is assocated with several scam websites: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=LB+CyberNet+Entertainment+Ltd&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a )

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/244214-tooth-whitening-product-lb.html

So I would suggest a complaint to the relevant trading standards by letter, email or telephone ie:

[FONT=Arial, Chicago]Durham County Council
Trading Standards Service
County Hall Annexe Building
Durham
DH1 5UB

Telephone: 0845 3303313
Fax: 0191 3834234
Email: [EMAIL="tradingstandards@durham.gov.uk"]tradingstandards (AT) durham.gov.uk[/EMAIL] [/FONT]
(Change (AT) to @ and remove spaces)
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/northumberland/linksc.htm

Address for member of parliament for that postcode:
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/constituencies/north-west-durham

With a copy to:

Trading Standards and Licensing, City of London, PO Box 270, Guildhall, London, EC2P 2EJ
Tel +44 (0)20 7332 3406
Fax +44 (0)20 7332 3536
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Advice_and_benefits/Trading_standards/

Member of Parliament for the London address:
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/constituencies/hackney-south-and-shoreditch

These are the websites used by the scammers:

Easywhite scam

Clean Whites scam

The scams can also be reported online at www.econsumer.gov which will alert the FTC (US) OFT (UK) etc.

A whois lookup on the 2 domains abve used by the scams shows an address in Brazil:
http://whois.domaintools.com/effective-teeth-cleaner.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/intense-teeth-cleanser.com

owner-organization: Beautyhealth services
owner-name: Beautyhealth Services
owner-street: P.O. Box 68912
owner-city: Rio de Janeiro, RJ
owner-state:
owner-zip: 21944
owner-country: BR
owner-phone: +35.924917452

Also contact your bank and request chargebacks on all unauthorised charges - refer them to links above and this thread showing the number of complaints about fraudulent charges and breaches of distance trading regulations relating to these scams.

More info/background at:

http://www.webcops.net/just_think_media_spam_scams_8001.html

http://www.bbb.org/edmonton/business-reviews/health-and-medical-products-scientifically-unproven/1021018-alberta-ltd-in-sherwood-park-ab-153474

http://www.killphishing.com/MegaScam.htm

competitionscafe

Here is the address of the UK office of one of the ad networks which is accepting and running ads for these teeth whitening scams (fastclick.net / valueclickmedia)

United Kingdom
Oxford House
182 Upper Richmond Road
Putney, London SW15 2SH
United Kingdom
t: +44 (0)20 8785 5800
f: +44 (0)20 8789 6510
www.valueclickmedia.co.uk
http://www.valueclickmedia.co.uk/contact.shtml