Hi. A Google Shopping search led me to an online merchant with a perfectly legitimate-looking website ( http://expert-zones.com ) with very low prices, and I made a purchase a few days ago. The site is presumably UK-based, but the prices are noted in US$ and offers free shipping to the US. Here is the gist of what followed:
(a) When I picked PayPal as payment method, the site simply acknowledged the purchase and instructed me to send a PayPal payment at an individual's Yahoo email address;
(b) I also got a "thank you for your order" email, directing me to send my payment to the same Yahoo address--and, on a side note, the email seems to have been composed by somebody with somewhat limited English skills; and
(c) It seemed suspicious, so I didn't follow up.
This is all confusing to me. While it seems suspicious, I thought Google screened these merchants and provided buyer protection (in addition to the protection PayPal offers), in which case I'd imagine merchants are unlikely to actually profit from engaging in such fraudulent practice. I Googled the website and the Yahoo email address, but nothing concrete (e.g., fraud report) came up. So, maybe this is legitimate after all...
Then, just this morning, I got a suspicious activities notice from PayPal, prompting me to change my login credentials due to suspicious activities. This may merely be a coincidence, but the merchant DOES have my email address, so who knows...
Thoughts??? Any input you may be able to give would be much appreciated.
