Legit company?

pogofish

Pleut wrote: »

Strange that most of the people in this thread are brand new members >.<

Not really - A thread like this getting stooged-up is more or less the icing on the cake when it comes to proving that its a shonky operator.

Happens time and time again on here!

puntod

bought windows 7 in May, collected product key and all seemed fine, until Saturday last. Desktop background became black and windows not genuine message appeared. The product key has been blocked by Microsoft.


I have gone back to them (Mr Hightech) and asked what is going on, not too confident of a happy outcome!

crazeeshopper

Hi everyone. Last week I bought 5 Microsoft licences which came to a lot of money from Mr High Tech because on google shopping they were the first to come up and have the highest number of reviews. I didn't see this Forum before ordering last week and I still haven't received my product keys. After reading that they're a scam, I've called my bank and applied to Visa to refund me but the payment had already gone through so I'm not sure what the result of that will be - in any case I won't hear back for 10 working days about Visa's decision.

Is there anything else I can do? Also how can I contact google to report them? Having them first on google shopping lists means more people are going to get scammed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

shakey55

Hello,
Just wanted to share my experience. I honestly haven't had any problems with this company. I used them quite a while now and I am really honest to you guys... my credit card is fine, the products I bought are perfectly fine too. I think some people lie for some reasons... competitors I believe

Thanks and have a wonderful day ahead!

cajef

shakey55 wrote: »

Hello,
I think some people lie for some reasons... competitors I believe

Thanks and have a wonderful day ahead!

A first post by a newbie full of praise and accusing people of lying and being competitors, wonder why it smells and tastes of spam by a company.

MCHTY1

Wish that I had looked at this forum before I paid up! Invoiced in sterling for £81.60, charged US$ 143.10 by ceramicjewelry.com(?) - no VAT number on the invoice etc. I have had about 6 different product codes for Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, most of which have been for Developer versions (i.e. not for retail sale), the last one worked for a while before Microsoft began notifying me that it was not genuine. No answer from emails or telephone number. Address seems to be Mailboxes etc. in Belfast?

ams001

Yes, I am a first time poster too, but only because I came across this website as well with offers too good to be true and did the research and came across this thread also. Having been scammed almost 10 years ago and having managed to get my money back and close the website and company down, I thought why not. I hate scammers more than spammers...

Just goes to show how easy it is nowadays for anyone to set up a company, buy a domain, buy a trusted certificate, set up a web shop and rip people off.

I placed an order to do some research on this out of interest and hate for scammers. It is not easy doing anything against scammers as a plain citizen unless you have been ripped off, so time to get ripped off. :-) I ordered some cheapie item on offer that is too good to be true (for which I would not care too much if I never got the money back). Order placed by VISA which have always refunded me.

Everything was as described in previous posts of this thread (orders in US$, dodgy looking payment site for Credit Cards). The invalid VAT receipt arrived via email. I even got a call back (caller ID gave 01613532276) and entered a pin number to authenticate the account. Also sneaky wording like "call back within 24 business hours" (i.e. 3 days) started to appear. Typical delay tactics and excuses. The site certainly reeks of scam, Hollywood style . If MRHIGHTECH was a legit business, surely they should be worried about external appearances?

PayPal is no longer a payment option if you try and buy. In my experience PayPal are normally pretty quick to take action to close down bogus accounts, surprisingly. Harder to get your money back though (I used PayPal last time - "PayPal Verified" means nothing BTW, as I only got 70% of my money back from them when I was 1st scammed). No wonder they went to 95epay.com. Or should I say 95epay.cn? Anyone speak chinese?

The 95epay.com site also reeks of scam with wording like "Please do not dispute this charge" followed by "please contact us at [EMAIL="csreason&#64;95epay.com"]csreason@95epay.com[/EMAIL]" (i.e. so we can give you the run-around - been there before). If you check out that site

I did get a response from MrHighTech validating the order which included the wording "PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR BANK WILL NOT REVERSE THE TRANSACTION", and was asked to reply to the email to confirm the order, which I did using a top-post. The email also said "If you have any doubts or concerns please contact us.". I do love that. What else would a scammer attempt to do other than address your concerns and doubts to take you in further? By now enough those alarm bells should be deafening for anyone. Anyway, no response to any followups. I am still waiting for my order to be fulfilled...

This scammer has certainly taken a lot of trouble to appear legit. The site looks legit with a currently valid GeoTrust certificate issued 21 Jan 2015. These certificates normally require passport ID and other authentication so even GeoTrust have been sucked in. It is also a registered company. The domain is registered via GoDaddy by a "David Peterson". However, the basic payment system should ring alarm bells to everyone but the gullible.

FWIW I paid my £1 to get the Certificate of Incorporation, General Company Details, Statements Of Officers, Capital & Shareholdings (A supposed £1000) and Memorandum Of Association from companies house. All template apart from company officers details, but those are likely bogus as well. I suspect I cannot repost details here (not that there is much) because of privacy laws. The only thing that is publicly accessible is the name "David Peterson". If you Google that you get more bogus details in the USA (Address: 10311 SHERWOOD CIR VILLA PARK CA 92861 US, Phone: +1.7149064905 Fax: +1.5555555555). Any more alarm bells?

A quick call to my credit card company cancelled the rarely used company card and new card sent out. The transaction had already gone through, no surprises, but is now in dispute so I should be issued with a refund. Also the card is cancelled so no more illicit transactions. Online paperwork filled in and submitted at least.

Anyone disputing my post are welcome to query and do the math themselves. Look at the number of goods they sell and look at their address. This site does not take urls, but if you got to Google Maps, enter the address given by other posts and go to Street View you will find them between a Cab company and FancyDress store at MailBoxesEtc. That is their registered company address. No warehouse etc, so where do they get their goods from? The more observant will see a (C) 2014 Google in the photo above the cab firsm. Never noticed those before :-/

Last time I someone tried to rip me off I was given the "My mother recently passed away you *******, why do you keep hassling me for your goods? Have you no sympathy?" More like "Have they no shame?".

Of course the real question is how long will the relevant authorities (TM) let this rip-off company continue trading...

FlipperTheDolphin

In the early hours of this morning I purchased a copy of Windows 8.1 Pro from MrHighTech, seduced by the cheap price.

Ignoring my nagging doubts about the site's legitimacy, I paid via debit card and completed their suspicious-looking account verification procedure. I also responded to their email request to confirm my order.

Then I looked on this site and the alarm bells grew deafening.

I checked my bank account online and saw that a transaction of roughly the right amount is currently being processed.

I phoned my bank to see if they could cancel the transaction. Unfortunately because I used a debit card, the transaction cannot be cancelled.

However, I have cancelled my card just to be on the safe side - I don't want to risk any future fraudulent transactions. Should get a new card in 3 working days.

My bank advised me that when the Windows license key is emailed to me by the seller, I should contact Microsoft to verify if it is genuine. If it isn't then I can ask my bank to raise a dispute with the seller. If the key doesn't arrive within a few weeks then I can also raise a dispute.

Fingers crossed I can get my money back here!

I'll post updates if/when I receive the license key and let you know what Microsoft say.

FlipperTheDolphin

I've received the Windows 8.1 Pro license key and it has activated fine.

However, from looking on the Microsoft website, they say they never sell product keys without a key card. So it seems I've bought a fake and it might well end up getting blocked at some point

ams001

When Microsoft finally do cotton on and block your key, you can always get another from MrHighTech as many other appear to have done judging by threads on other sites.

However, the site is definitely a scam so if they are eventually closed down you will not get your next key and so be far down the road will have to fork out again on a legal key and have no chance of recovering your funds.

I reported them to ActionFraud (actionfraud dot police dot uk) as well as the credit card company (Barclaycard Visa) and have had confirmation that police are onto them. I also have have had a refund from my credit card company, although the transaction has been marked as being in dispute so they can still query the claim. I also have had email from MrHighTech a week later advising me to log onto their website and download the license key (whatever happened to email ;-). However, after contacting Action Fraud again from their followup, I have been sensibly advised not respond or attempt to communicate with them nor to download the key. Oddly Action Fraud have also advised me to report each contact with them as a new crime - a real PITA as the Action Fraud process is unfortunately not quick - but if you want to get your money back, a necessary pain.

Update: I have been advised that when the police eventually do catch up with them and close them down, the police will likely inform Microsoft of the "alleged invalid use" of the license keys (apparently developer network keys) who in turn will disable them. So if your key works, it's lifetime is likely limited.

So my advice is, report to Action Fraud and file a claim with your credit card company and hope for the best. The earlier you do it the better.