Microsoft points possible scam?

b1gdeano

Wow! I have just been scammed too! Really wish I had googled them before I made my purchase!

Gutted with myself to be fair, normally really good at spotting fake sites etc, never been done before!

Now need to wait till monday to call a number for Visa my bank gave me to look at getting a chargeback done....

Dazzle1965

Dazzle1965 wrote: »

My youngest son pestered me for some points from this site on Saturday. As I was about to leave the house, I didn't check up on the site, as I would usually have done.
I have had very similar results from this company, ie. email confirmation of the payment, but no code forthcoming. The instagames site now seems to be inaccessible, so at least no-one else can be fooled by them

UPDATE

As I had paid by debit card I thought that I had to kiss my money goodbye. However, I reported the problem via my online banking, in order to make them aware that this company was scamming people & that all banks ought to be aware of them.

Yesterday I received a phone call from my bank saying that they were aware of the company, but the best news was that the bank had credited my payment back to my account. It may be worth it for others to do the same, sooner rather than later.

Rusty7

Site checked out on Norton, “purchased” 1 year Xbox Gold and distinct lack of the “Instant Delivery via email”. Just notified Norton, it’s the first time I’ve been scammed. Clearly my error for not doing more research first as I normally would.
Having just made 3 purchases with different vendors including these people, I received an automated response call from Barclaycard Fraud asking me to confirm I had made them. Answered yes but alarm bells rang when the company address for this lot was Panama. I have already asked for InstaGamePoints.com to cancel the transaction and expect nothing back, but will dispute the transaction when it comes through to my credit card.
Interesting point is that I thought it was worth ringing BC Fraud back to tell them these people were scammers and BC should investigate to stop other getting ripped off (internet would be a start) they were completely uninterested. They will monitor my card for fraudulent transactions, but despite pointing out to them that as we were speaking other people were probably also putting transactions through which should be stopped, no interest. I pointed out that PayPal no longer deal with them and retaining them as a client brings BC into disrepute – no interest. Bit of an eye opener.

bubblegum-31

I too have been scammed by this site. I wish I had done homework on this site before I purchased 2100 ms points for my son on Saturday. After several email, tickets and phonecalls to a silly answering machine I am still no further forward. I used my debit card to make the payment so I have contacted my bank to get some advice. STAY AWAY from this site people. I can't see me getting my money back but surely this site can be closed down so that this doesn't happen to other people :mad:

Rusty7

Update - Norton is currently rating this site 4.2 out of 5 with 4 "rave reviews" following my single bad one. I have commented on each and added a warning, but urge anyone with a Norton account to go on and add their honest review and comment on the good reviews (copy and paste should work). The current rating will be encouraging more people to think the site is fine. This is nauseating.

Layline

Same story here. I purchased Xbox points on Friday. The code didn't arrive. Tried to contact the site Saturday via raising ticket and phone. Tried again Sunday when the Xbox points code was meant to be given as a birthday gift (I had to write an IOU instead). And tried using the contact us form today. Never had any emails or replies. However, I did screen shot my account information (showing order details on the site, etc). I'd paid by visa debit and noticed the Verified by Visa screen. So... I contacted them. Verified by Visa said the merchant bank account must be logged with them, which is why they are appearing on the site. They said my bank could probably liaise with that bank to get the bank account shut down. If the people who run the business are blacklisted with the banks, they won't be able to take transactions. I've raised it with Nationwide Building Society (my bank), as I'm not sure who the website bank with. They are refunding me and carrying out an investigation. They said they'll keep me informed of what they find.

Also got a crime number via Action Fraud. Worth raising an incident with them.
Raised an incident with Trading Standards via Advice Guide.
Contacted their (old?) domain host eNom.com to raise abuse claim and (new?) domain host Piradius.net.

Also logged at canyoutrustthem.com (which allows you to copy in Watchdog and Rip Off Britain) and scambook.com.

The terms and conditions of InstaGamePoints.com state they are only bound by the laws and jurisdiction of Panama. However, they are breaking terms of e-commerce, which has additional rights/conditions attached. Hopefully we can get their bank account shut down so the site can't take payments.

Needless to say, the 'review' I tried to leave on the site was not posted. But it's worth contacting Action Fraud, etc to raise awareness. Also, if you are with a bank which won't refund you or investigate, leave them now. They obviously don't care about their customers.

V.Lucky

To report these crooks to their WebHost, email

[EMAIL="abuse@piradius.net"]abuse@piradius.net[/EMAIL]

I have also been in touch with GeoTrust, who emailed back almost immediately advising they advised:

I do apologize but we do not control what
companies do.

What is the point of them then?

My son has lost £15.86 to this Company. Just waiting to see if the transaction will debit his account before we can proceed with a chargeback.

I would advise everyone to get their cards cancelled just in case this company are harvesting them and selling them on.

Fashonion

I have logged scam reports on seveal sites I. Am trying to now stop people using it by monitoring the questions online and I stopped one person using them thankfully. Just post it everywhere, Scamadviser now have the site at 0 rating thanks to our true reviews, Facebook, twitter forums everywhere even tweet banks so people can see.

CaramelSauce

Ordered xbox live 12 month subscription for £27.77 on Sunday. Two emails: Thank you for registering and another with an order no. and nothing else. Raised two 'tickets' but when you try to check their status it asks for a ticket no. No surprises then that I haven't got them either! Phoned credit card company who have now cancelled my card because I registered with Instagamepoints for a 12 month sub, CC company reckon they may try to take money off my account next year. Have a 60 day wait to see if I'll get re-emibursed by CC company.
So very angry...at myself for not checking more thoroughly and THEM for getting away with this!! How are they still able to do this?? This forum goes back to January and so wish I had checked this out first

jonny123ob

i too unfortunatley got ripped off for a 12m live xbox, ive tried to research as much as i can to see if there are any sister companys that may provide a contact, i think they are part of DigiGoods, inc as there were some goole copywright infringments against various sites stating that it was a scam and posting their logo (the cheek) if anybody can find an actual email address for the company it would be amazing