Rip-off by fraudulent website - tech-center.eu

Gumby_2

Hi All,

A month ago had a quiet Friday afternoon and decided I would look for new SatNav. I had been recommended a Garmin Nuvi and a quick google search bought up an offer at £70 (Halfords was £149 for the same model) at tech-center.eu. I couldn't resist, so completed the order process.

Alarm bells should have run at this point because I had to pay using PayPoint (ie part with CASH at a supermarket and get a 19 digit ID, which I then had to type into their website. They get the cash with NO audit trail.

I have tried to contact them but the address and phone numbers do not exist and the only email I have had back say that the delivery company (FedEx) damaged the product and they are now resending it.

Does anyone have an experience of this web site? Even the UKash website now has a warning about them (dated 22/06).

Do I have any options or is this just my bad luck and I will have to write it off?

I feel very stupid for falling into this trap.

Paul

4743hudsonj

http://www.avforums.com/forums/projectors/1269488-tech-center-eu-anybody-used-them.html

Says it all really, few people confirming they are not clients of UKash or any of the "unavailable" methods and others have had issues.

I cant get on to the site (several of my security systems are flagging it and diverting me to open dns (just stregthens the fact that theyre scammers) so i cant provide more details of them.

unholyangel

4743hudsonj wrote: »

I cant get on to the sight (several of my security systems are flagging it and diverting me to open dns (just stregthens the fact that theyre scammers) so i cant provide more details of them.

oooooh so tempted to point it out. But i shall refrain and be a good girl, especially seeing as i did something similar earlier. I suspect you're still half asleep

4743hudsonj

unholyangel wrote: »

oooooh so tempted to point it out. But i shall refrain and be a good girl, especially seeing as i did something similar earlier. I suspect you're still half asleep

oops:)

I am indeed half asleep, ran out of coffee!

Gumby_2

I realise I was a fool (but a bit of free time and a couple of lunchtime beers affected my judgement), but have learned something!

Does anyone know if I have any way of getting back at them? Or am I best just drawing attention to the scam so others don't get caught.

Embarrassed Paul

unholyangel

Gumby wrote: »

I realise I was a fool (but a bit of free time and a couple of lunchtime beers affected my judgement), but have learned something!

Does anyone know if I have any way of getting back at them? Or am I best just drawing attention to the scam so others don't get caught.

Embarrassed Paul

Have you tried to do a WHOIS on the domain to see who it is registered to?

4743hudsonj

unholyangel wrote: »

Have you tried to do a WHOIS on the domain to see who it is registered to?

Domain: tech-center

Registrant:
NOT DISCLOSED!
Visit https://www.eurid.eu for webbased whois.

Registrar Technical Contacts:
Name: Domain Manager
Organisation: PublicDomainRegistry.com
Language: en
Phone: +1.2013775952
Fax: +1.3202105146
Email:

Registrar:
Name: Directi Internet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com
Website: https://www.publicdomainregistry.com

Nameservers:
xo.mars.orderbox-dns.com
xo.mercury.orderbox-dns.com
xo.venus.orderbox-dns.com
xo.earth.orderbox-dns.com

Keys:

Please visit https://www.eurid.eu for more info.

This screams avoid!

OP you could always try chasing it up but they sound like full on scammers and if it were me, i wouldnt invest too much time or effort into it as it looks to be very hard to reclaim anything. Even if you took it to court and won they wouldnt pay in all likelihood and you would have to invest more money to get the bailiffs in.

unholyangel

the full web address is actually: http://www.tech-center.eu.l.shopindex.net.tc/

which the domain seach comes up with the registrant being in greece but the billing being in germany (free site from smartdots apparently) which matches up with the page source info from the website.

that being said, is that the right site? I couldnt find a site tech-center.eu just on its own

Gumby_2

Yes, the site name does seem to resolve to ...tech-center.eu.l.shopindex.net.tc
I think you are right - not worth investing any more time on this as it is obviously a scam - just wanted to warn anyone else who is attracted by the very low prices.
Paul