The Day I Got Scammed

My wife found this really attractive deal to buy Canada Goose jackets on Facebook with more than 80% discounts, she wanted to buy this jacket but was hesitating, so to make her happy I decided to buy the jacket she was looking into. In my hastiness I didn’t do the usual paranoid checks on security and went ahead and just bought the jacket.

The comments have only now begin to pop up and warn people of this scam but for me unfortunately the first clue to my stupidity came to light when I got the email after the payment from an unrelated email domain: service@forshoppingtime.com

If there’s any question about  the ship date,order quality,cancellations,etc. we suggest you can send inquiries to our after-sales customer service directly to save your time(there is always an email address/”contact us” button on the website), If you couldn’t get a reply from them in time, kindly feel free to contact us  based on THIS email,it is easier for our action.

With no detail of the product I purchased and any way to track the product or information on delivery and return, as all of this was already out of my comfort area I started to read the terms and conditions of return, and unlike usual shops there was no refund policy, this made me more suspicious so I looked up the link on http://www.scamadviser.com/ and the reliability rating was low, with the sites owner based in china and new sites popping up with similar details:

Website: cgswe.com
Title: Welcome to Web Store!
Description: : – Safety Sunglasses Polarized Sunglasses Goggles Sunglasses Active Sports Sunglasses Me
Type: fashion,Sports,Shoes,sunglasses,sunglasses
Domain Age: 15 Days
Website Speed: Average
Organisation: xu xiao dong
Owner: xu xiao dong
Owner Address: xia zhuang zhen yi min cun 473 hao
Owner City: gao mi shi
Owner Postcode: 261500
Phone Number: +86.015807741236 
Phone Type: generic:
Email: gua84467124@163.com 
Owner Country : China 
Website Location  : France 

So I mailed back to the email I had received on completion of the order and got another email from a gmail address of a Mr. Woolf Watt shop7x24onlineservice@gmail.com in essence telling to not ask for a refund:

Thanks for your order firstly. If you want to cancel the order, it may need 1-3 months for the different international bank to handle the refund, so we do not suggest you to do so. Please check again your final decision and then reply us soon. Hope your understanding. Thanks for your time and patience.

Accompanied by a series of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors, and mention of “international banks” it was obvious I had been duped.

I am still quite sure that if I let the order through I would get A Jacket but instead of goose down it would be filled with chicken feather, instead of coyote fur it would have dog fur and instead of being made by the hard working Canadian folk it would be made in a sweat shop in China.

I’m not angry at the online shop that is running this scam, I am angry at myself for not picking up on the series of red flags along the way. I cancelled my credit cards and ordered new ones as my paranoid self was back in action. My lapse in judgement motivated by the love for my wife only tells me that the most paranoid of us can become victims of scams in those moments we let our guard down.

This also reaffirms my belief that Facebook is polluted by scams, ads and all that nasty crap that appears after analyzing your browsing trends, targeting unsuspecting and possibly unsophisticated users (like my mother and your mother) preying on the simplicity of common folk. These fake operation use the warmth and security of the Facebook community to make you let your guard down and become a victim of internet fraud.

Update:

You will receive a jacket.. but beware the customs duties and the fact that there is no way to return it.. and well I have shopped in China during my travels there and this is possibly the lowest level of fakes out there.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the fur on the hood is fake or the tail of a dog.

Here is what you’ll look like, when you wear this polyester filled monstrosity.. size M for women..