TV Question: Has anyone bought from Bargain Universe?

manyamuckle

I'm looking at buying a new TV and the one I like (a Samsung Smart TV) I've managed to find on a website, claiming to be for a firm in Manchester, for an amazing price - between £400/£500 cheaper than anywhere else.

That in itself, although appearing to be a bargain, makes me nervous.

The site is uber basic but it's got a mailing address, phone number, contact details etc and when I go to 'check out' it goes to an https secure site but I'm still nervous. Even is I used a credit card to buy it so I had some protection.

Anyone got any suggestions? I'd rather pay more and not get ripped off than try to be a saver and get totally burned!

Thanks

torbrex

I have not used them but I have seen warnings on here about people being ripped off by them.

This thread

steve1980

Have you checked out Richer Sounds?

Looking a bit deeper into this company......

The Who.Is brings up the following:

domain: bargain-universe.com
created: 19-Aug-2011 ****Alarm bells ringing****
last-changed: 19-Aug-2011
registration-expiration: 19-Aug-2012

nserver: ns67.1and1.co.uk
nserver: ns68.1and1.co.uk

status: CLIENT-TRANSFER-PROHIBITED

registrant-firstname: Patrick
registrant-lastname: Remseck
registrant-street1: 21 Lower Park Road
registrant-street2: New Southgate Industrial Estate
registrant-pcode: N11 1QD
registrant-city: London
registrant-ccode: GB
registrant-phone: +44.2083615591
registrant-email: @hotmail.com ****alarm bells ringing****

admin-c-firstname: Patrick
admin-c-lastname: Remseck
admin-c-street1: 21 Lower Park Road
admin-c-street2: New Southgate Industrial Estate
admin-c-pcode: N11 1QD
admin-c-city: London
admin-c-ccode: GB
admin-c-phone: +44.2083615591
admin-c-email: @hotmail.com

tech-c-firstname: Patrick
tech-c-lastname: Remseck
tech-c-street1: 21 Lower Park Road
tech-c-street2: New Southgate Industrial Estate
tech-c-pcode: N11 1QD
tech-c-city: London
tech-c-ccode: GB
tech-c-phone: +44.2083615591
tech-c-email: @hotmail.com

bill-c-firstname: Patrick
bill-c-lastname: Remseck
bill-c-street1: 21 Lower Park Road
bill-c-street2: New Southgate Industrial Estate
bill-c-pcode: N11 1QD
bill-c-city: London
bill-c-ccode: GB
bill-c-phone: +44.2083615591
bill-c-email: @hotmail.com

Yet the company based at the address of the above are......

Plangenius Design & Print
21 Lower Park Road, Southgate Industrial Estate, Enfield, London N11 1QD

And the phone number is registered to:

Fashion General Services
4 Munro Drive
London
N11 2LZ

Screams dodgy company. Buy at your own risk.

manyamuckle

Superb. Thanks. I'll think I'll walk on by past these guys...

Proof once again that if it's too good to be true... it probably is.

bluejonny

Yep, I fell for it - I have to say it is one of the best fake websites I have ever seen and looks perfectly legit. The prices are not overly low as to create suspicion and everyone conforms as it should - secure site when entering card details. But yes I did fall for it. Money is tight and any way to save a few pounds in my book has to be done.

So let's look at this a bit more.

What Happens:

The site is now appearing in Google Shopping searches so therefore a potential shopper WOULD trust this and be lead to the site.

Once there they have a very convincing site - full marks for presentation. You can order your goods - and they will get you to set up an account. You enter your card details and confirm your delivery address (all this is secure by the way with an HTTPS display and a padlock) and then you go through to confirm.

You get two emails - a welcome and an order receipt. However the order says "not yet authorised" which got me a little concerned. An hour or so later, we got another email saying "the card could not be authorised - to ensure your goods are delivered please make a bank transfer using the following details" and then presented bank account information.

So in my ignorance, I cancelled that order, and checked with my second credit card (sorry Martin) and re-ordered.

An hour later, the same message. Now I was really suspicious so immediately cancelled my cards.

I tried to phone - no reply and a full Voicemail box.

I then emailed after reading some others experiences of this site and told them they were scammers and to cancel orders and remove my details. I got two emails saying orders were cancelled and then the website disappeared!! (Just was not there!)

Just checked again tonight and it has reappeared.

Actions:

So what have I done? I wanted to prevent people from losing their hard earned cash to these b*******s so firstly I put in an email to Manchester Trading Standards. The response was actually extremely rude - (thanks Pete at Manchester TS) basically saying tough - speak to the police.

Next I rated the site with McAfee site advisor - that will take a while to filter.

Next reported to Crimestoppers - can't see much happening there.

Tried to get in contact with the met police Online crimes unit - no number or email??

So basically, this site continues to operate, contrinues to fleece people and continues to flout the law. It seems when it comes to online, no-one really cares unless the fraud figures end with 000,000.

I am quite happy to pursue the perpetrators - but it's just me on my own. Fat lot of good that will do.

Can anyone advise me on how to do a Denial of Service attack on their site?

Thanks

Jon

Elle7

I'm not sure it would be legal to do so. Also, unless you undergo this type of thing often, you probably won't have what is needed to do it successfully.

Google Shopper shows up anything which is registered as an online shop - don't take it as a recommendation, it isn't. It'll just suggest products.

As for what you can do...I fear the problem is that you transferred money to a random bank account. You give away all protection when that occurs...all of it. Did you at least get your first card payment back?

bluejonny

No money has changed hands fortunately - I have the additional credit card protection in place where I need to authorize the transaction if it is online. That additional protection is employed to stop these scammers from getting your cash - so it may be a bit inconvenient, but it has prevented £500 leaving my account. :beer:

Just checked the credit card companies too and no transactions have been made.

RosieBee_2

Hello,

Seems a bit shifty from having looked at some forums threads. Have a look at this one: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056394209

Hope this helps

b19dom

Mmmm I fell for this site hook line and sinker, I googled 47" LG Tv and this site was one of the sites that came up in the search engine under shopping results, I ordered the Tv I wanted and went through there online pay system, I then got a message stating that my order was awaiting payment, it was around a hour later when I received another message saying that the payment had been declined, I then recieved this message from the "scammer" i mean seller

Dear Dominic,

We were unable to verify the credit/debit card information for your order #26463.
Your order has been declined and your card was not charged. Rest assured that Bargains Shop Limited is committed to preserving the security of your information and providing a safe online shopping experience.
If you still want to go ahead with the purchase of 1 x LG 47LV550 47" LED Full HD 1080p TV, you can make the payment by bank transfer.
Our bank information is as follows:
Account Name: Bargains Shop
Bank Name: HSBC Bank
Acc Number: 11611607
Sort Code: 40-04-06
IBAN: GB 73 MIDL 4004 0611 6116 07
BIC/SWIFT : MIDLGB2141E
Transfer Reference ( Transfer Description ): 26463
Amount to be sent: £344.99

Send us an email at #sales@bargain********** as soon as the bank transfer is complete.
Additional bank fees that may apply are the sole responsibility of the customer.
The Transfer Reference number must be transmitted to us with the wire transfer in order to ensure the proper application of funds to the transaction.
Your order will be shipped as soon as we received your payment.
Shipping Method: Royal Mail Special Delivery™ Next Day
Thank you for shopping at Bargain-Universe.com
© Bargains Shop Limited
Corporation Road, Audenshaw, M34 5LR
Manchester, United Kingdom

so like a silly !!!!!! I did send the bank transfer and messaged them stating that I had made the transfer, a hour had passed and I decided to check my order status but unfortunetly for me the site was down, so I googled Bargains Universe and stumbled across this website, wham bam I felt sick and realised I had been scammed, I cantacted my bank straight away and explained everything to them, they said that they would look into it and try and reverse the transaction, the following day a recieved a text from my bank saying there enquiries where complete so gave them a ring only to be told that the banks fruad team wouldn't investigate it further because I was the willing party that sent the bank transfer so it was my own fault, I then phoned the scammers bank HSBC and explained the situation to them they said the account was held at the Kingwood branch in london but all other information about the account was data protected obviously, they then informed me to contact my local police about the situation and to ring them(HSBC) back once i had a crime reference number they would then look into the said account for any fruadulant actions, the police on the other hand where very helpful and stated that the banks fraud team had acted incompitently and asked for my bank reference number and a direct phone number to the Bank Fraud team which I gave them and hey presto my money is back in my account safe and sound thank god, the police then rang me this morning and asked me to go to action fraud website and report this incident to them as the police no longer deal with fraud since action fraud as been set up.

Something seriously needs to be done about this site and people need to be aware of this

dogmaryxx

How-To Geek today

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

The 'Why are our prices so low?' section is lifted straight from an American site and is full of American terms and spelling.