Bait and switch scam from Actio Pte. Ltd.

[jkberry]

A company going by the names "[Removed]." and "awesome-print.com" among others is perpetuating a scam as follows.  I am a customer of this scam and Paypal has been ineffective in protecting the victim.

• Scammer advertises one product online and ships a different, inferior, and worthless product to customer.  In my case, the advertised product was a periodic table with real elements attached for a total of $65.98 but the shipped product was a small piece of worthless plastic.

• When the customer files the inevitable dispute, the scammer will first offer a small refund.  This was $19.80 in my case, which if accepted would result in a $46.18 loss for the customer and at least $30 in profit for the scammer considering shipping costs and the negligible cost of goods sold.

• When the customer inevitably declines the small refund offer, the scammer will offer a full refund contingent on the return of the worthless product.  The scammer provides a fictitious international address so that receipt of the return will never be acknowledged so the scammer will never have to pay the refund.

• Additionally, an attempt to return the worthless product by the customer would cost so much that they are disincentivised to even bother, resulting in even more profit for the scammer.

Paypal's dispute process is flawed and does not support the scammed customer. Simple validation of the return address would help, but even with a valid return address, the scammer still profits and the customer incurs a loss.

I have a dispute open with Paypal but I have no hope that they will address this.

[Kellysfriend]

I have given up on buying things online other than Amazon and eBay. 

[Mustang16]

That shipping address came up in some parking lot. FedEx should never deliver to a gd parking lot.

[maryloo1968]

Hi there,

I had a very different time with "this" company - well, the company that I thought I bought a couple of wooden carvings from.... a company that reported to be in the US (one that is still advertising on FB by the way). When I went back to them saying that the promised gift box that should have come with the items didn't, they instantly gave me a 30% refund which I got. But the charges to my Paypal account were from Actio Pte. Ltd......who were definitely not mentioned during the purchasing process as I recall.

So now I am a bit confused....who are Actio Pte. Ltd. because the company I had dealings with were great? But about a month later, another payment looked like it went through Paypal but the money didn't leave my account....did they try and take the money again and Paypal rejected it???

Thanks for the heads up though....I won't be buying from the company in the States again just in case.

[Kellysfriend]

I have no idea who Actio Pte. Ltd was until I looked at who charged my PayPal account. That was not the company I thought I was buying from and I thought they were in the US.