While there is no way to guarantee that you are dealing with a legit site, there are "red flags" to look for in a fake sites.
1) Payment options, do they include Western Union, moneygram, paypal and bank transfer? Some scam sites will accept credit cards but most prefer those 4 options which are anonymous for the scammer to pick up the cash and disappear.
Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.
Paypal can only get your money back if there is money left in the scammer's paypal-linked bank account. Scammers know this and will immediately withdrawal your money and disappear. No money in the scammer's paypal-linked bank account means absolutely no possibility of refund for you.
Your bank can only get your money back if there is money left in the scammer's bank account. Scammers know this and will immediately withdrawal the money you transferred. No money in the account means absolutely no possibility of you getting your hard-earned money back.
2) Contact options, is it a free email address such as gmail, hotmail or yahoo? Is it a chat box? Scam sites will rarely list a phone number or street address.
Scammers love to create free email addresses and rarely will use a paid server. Email is easy to ignore and block and free email addresses are easy to open and close completely anonymously. Chat requests are easy to block via ip address.
3) Shipping options, do you actually get to choose the option at check out? Fake sites will frequently say "free shipping" and "tracking numbers emailed" but, if they ship anything at all, will use the post office, cheap, slow and no account number needed.
Fake sites will frequently show icons for UPS, FedEx, DHL and TNT but then at check out will "ship" via EMS, the Chinese post office. If they send a "tracking number" good luck getting it to work on the EMS website. You will need even more luck trying to contact EMS when your tracking stops and your "package" is lost somewhere.
4) The icons at the bottom of the page, are they just copy/pasted pictures or links to actual sites?
Fake sites will often have icons for Verisign, McAfee, Paypal and other companies at the bottom of the home page. Those should be live links to that company's website. Fake sites can't risk linking to real sites so they just use badly copied pictures instead.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even partial sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
There are scam busting sites with online lists of the names scammers use, their email addresses, stock copy/paste emails, paid-for-in-cash cell phone numbers, stolen pictures and fake websites they use. You could start your search at one of those sites.
Do not buy from this company I placed an order on 12/13 - there is no telephone number to contact them, have to do all via email. It is 1/8/2014 and still no package. I did check tracking it states it is finally in NY lucky me almost a month later. Oh but wait they didn't take a month to charge my credit card that was done on day 1. Their return policy doesnt look customer friendly either. I will never purchase from this company again.
P.S. I also think they are out of the country, because the USPS # they give you doesnt even start tracking until it hits the US.
its definitely a scam... I kept looking into it (btw I got this message too) and found that many people have had strange things happen to their Youtube account afterward, I'm not sure about anything too serious, and for specific examples just look for other results in a Google search, and plus the message is meant to make you believe it was sent specifically to you... Yet when I scroll down it says Sent To: and then like 50 other names... so... you be the judge.
A paid survey is a kind of survey that allows you to share your thoughts and viewpoints about brands and their products in exchange for an incentive, such as a benefit or money.
I would NOT trust PJW Apparel at this time. You're asking for pjwapperal [dot] com, but I think you mean pjwapparel [dot] com. I was just about to buy something from this website, but refrained myself after a second thought and a more objective look at the website.
There are several reasons for that assessment that are valid as of the date of this response, Feb. of 2014, and are numbered below:
1. They show NO physical address in their website. What would you do if you have a grievance against PJW Apparel and, after trying to unsuccessfully resolve your dispute directly with them, you wanted to escalate the complaint to an authority: where do you file it? is it under U.S. jurisdiction? if so, what State? Where would you send back wrong items? Without a physical address is just more difficult.
2. They do NOT make a phone number available. The only way to comunicate with PJW Apparel is through e-mail, and who know if or when they read it... and then when they reply back to you.
3. They do NOT have an internet security firm's seal of approval or other financial institution seal. Here I'm saying something along the lines of VeriSign Secured Seal, or TrustWave Trusted Commerce seal, Verified By Visa seal, or a MasterCard SecureCode seal or a Better business Bureau seal. There is simply no third-party seal of approval, none. Even a search on the Better Business Bureau comes back empty. Bear in mind that a company does not need a seal of approval with BBB to show in the history of complaints, and if they were screened by the BBB they would not even need to have a complain filed against them to appear in the BBB website.
4. Even the website registration seems cryptic. Interestingly, as of February of 2014, the registration of their website name, pjwapparel.com, is listed by a privacy protection service (that's actually the name of another website) that registers web names to hide the true owner of a domain name. By the way, this pravacy service displays a P.O. Box number in the address field for the website owner. Please note that the P.O. box is for the pravacy protection service. Of course, this is to keep the real owner's identity private (read: is to hide who is the real owner of the website, in other words, to protect the 'privacy' of the true owners of the website name)
5. They show no names of persons in charge. Forget about the CEO, or CFO, they don't tell you about their personel, who is in charge of sales, returns, or any other task. To be fair here, most companies don't show much here either, other than physicians, dentist, lawyers and similar websites for professional services.
6. No business hours are displayed. If they ever show a contact number, when could you find them? between what times can you find them on the phone or stop by their offices/warehouse?
I wanted so badly to place my order with pjwapparel, since they do state they have the item I'm interested in available, and very few places do have it. And they state the
he item is licensed. Should PJW Apparel be trusted? The information they display about themselves in the website is simply nonexistent, and is not conducing to trustworthiness, at least for now. They give the impresion to hide behind a web veil.
Hope they build a more transparent and trustworhty business in the future by revealing where are they based, where they have physical location, shippping points, telephone numbers, business hours and seals of approval from reputable companies/organizations.
But that's just me, you are free to order from them. They might even be legit...
Comments
While there is no way to guarantee that you are dealing with a legit site, there are "red flags" to look for in a fake sites.
1) Payment options, do they include Western Union, moneygram, paypal and bank transfer? Some scam sites will accept credit cards but most prefer those 4 options which are anonymous for the scammer to pick up the cash and disappear.
Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.
Paypal can only get your money back if there is money left in the scammer's paypal-linked bank account. Scammers know this and will immediately withdrawal your money and disappear. No money in the scammer's paypal-linked bank account means absolutely no possibility of refund for you.
Your bank can only get your money back if there is money left in the scammer's bank account. Scammers know this and will immediately withdrawal the money you transferred. No money in the account means absolutely no possibility of you getting your hard-earned money back.
2) Contact options, is it a free email address such as gmail, hotmail or yahoo? Is it a chat box? Scam sites will rarely list a phone number or street address.
Scammers love to create free email addresses and rarely will use a paid server. Email is easy to ignore and block and free email addresses are easy to open and close completely anonymously. Chat requests are easy to block via ip address.
3) Shipping options, do you actually get to choose the option at check out? Fake sites will frequently say "free shipping" and "tracking numbers emailed" but, if they ship anything at all, will use the post office, cheap, slow and no account number needed.
Fake sites will frequently show icons for UPS, FedEx, DHL and TNT but then at check out will "ship" via EMS, the Chinese post office. If they send a "tracking number" good luck getting it to work on the EMS website. You will need even more luck trying to contact EMS when your tracking stops and your "package" is lost somewhere.
4) The icons at the bottom of the page, are they just copy/pasted pictures or links to actual sites?
Fake sites will often have icons for Verisign, McAfee, Paypal and other companies at the bottom of the home page. Those should be live links to that company's website. Fake sites can't risk linking to real sites so they just use badly copied pictures instead.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even partial sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
There are scam busting sites with online lists of the names scammers use, their email addresses, stock copy/paste emails, paid-for-in-cash cell phone numbers, stolen pictures and fake websites they use. You could start your search at one of those sites.
Do not buy from this company I placed an order on 12/13 - there is no telephone number to contact them, have to do all via email. It is 1/8/2014 and still no package. I did check tracking it states it is finally in NY lucky me almost a month later. Oh but wait they didn't take a month to charge my credit card that was done on day 1. Their return policy doesnt look customer friendly either. I will never purchase from this company again.
P.S. I also think they are out of the country, because the USPS # they give you doesnt even start tracking until it hits the US.
its definitely a scam... I kept looking into it (btw I got this message too) and found that many people have had strange things happen to their Youtube account afterward, I'm not sure about anything too serious, and for specific examples just look for other results in a Google search, and plus the message is meant to make you believe it was sent specifically to you... Yet when I scroll down it says Sent To: and then like 50 other names... so... you be the judge.
A paid survey is a kind of survey that allows you to share your thoughts and viewpoints about brands and their products in exchange for an incentive, such as a benefit or money.
very confusing stuff do a search on to google and yahoo that could actually help
I would NOT trust PJW Apparel at this time. You're asking for pjwapperal [dot] com, but I think you mean pjwapparel [dot] com. I was just about to buy something from this website, but refrained myself after a second thought and a more objective look at the website.
There are several reasons for that assessment that are valid as of the date of this response, Feb. of 2014, and are numbered below:
1. They show NO physical address in their website. What would you do if you have a grievance against PJW Apparel and, after trying to unsuccessfully resolve your dispute directly with them, you wanted to escalate the complaint to an authority: where do you file it? is it under U.S. jurisdiction? if so, what State? Where would you send back wrong items? Without a physical address is just more difficult.
2. They do NOT make a phone number available. The only way to comunicate with PJW Apparel is through e-mail, and who know if or when they read it... and then when they reply back to you.
3. They do NOT have an internet security firm's seal of approval or other financial institution seal. Here I'm saying something along the lines of VeriSign Secured Seal, or TrustWave Trusted Commerce seal, Verified By Visa seal, or a MasterCard SecureCode seal or a Better business Bureau seal. There is simply no third-party seal of approval, none. Even a search on the Better Business Bureau comes back empty. Bear in mind that a company does not need a seal of approval with BBB to show in the history of complaints, and if they were screened by the BBB they would not even need to have a complain filed against them to appear in the BBB website.
4. Even the website registration seems cryptic. Interestingly, as of February of 2014, the registration of their website name, pjwapparel.com, is listed by a privacy protection service (that's actually the name of another website) that registers web names to hide the true owner of a domain name. By the way, this pravacy service displays a P.O. Box number in the address field for the website owner. Please note that the P.O. box is for the pravacy protection service. Of course, this is to keep the real owner's identity private (read: is to hide who is the real owner of the website, in other words, to protect the 'privacy' of the true owners of the website name)
5. They show no names of persons in charge. Forget about the CEO, or CFO, they don't tell you about their personel, who is in charge of sales, returns, or any other task. To be fair here, most companies don't show much here either, other than physicians, dentist, lawyers and similar websites for professional services.
6. No business hours are displayed. If they ever show a contact number, when could you find them? between what times can you find them on the phone or stop by their offices/warehouse?
I wanted so badly to place my order with pjwapparel, since they do state they have the item I'm interested in available, and very few places do have it. And they state the
he item is licensed. Should PJW Apparel be trusted? The information they display about themselves in the website is simply nonexistent, and is not conducing to trustworthiness, at least for now. They give the impresion to hide behind a web veil.
Hope they build a more transparent and trustworhty business in the future by revealing where are they based, where they have physical location, shippping points, telephone numbers, business hours and seals of approval from reputable companies/organizations.
But that's just me, you are free to order from them. They might even be legit...