4/1/2013 10:11 AM (PST)
The "scamming" is neither legal, nor legitimate, but that doesn't mean the company can't get away with it for a while. Money orders, cash and checks for items bought long distance are a bad idea. Any time a remote company holds your money without reasonable financial recourse (vs. credit card charges that can be reversed, or local businesses that can be shut down by court order/sheriff, etc.) they're in charge. If there isn't a lot of money involved it is often too time consuming and expensive to sue them in court - even small claims court - because the venue will likely be far from you. If there are many consumers bilked then a class action suit may be pursued - but these are even more expensive and lengthy and most of the money tends to go to the law firms. A number of mail order businesses are set up to take advantage of this reality, and some of them are quite successful at it. (Girls Gone Wild was a notable example that was shut down after many $millions of claims; a number of "work at home" and "make millions on the internet" schemes still survive). The prudent courses are to transact with local and/or highly reputable companies; to use credit cards for remote transactions; and to seek out the reviews of other consumers before dealing with someone new.
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1/1/2014 10:12 PM (PST)
Good post....scamming is illegal...and one can easily find out whether a business is legal or not using a basic search in http://www.trustlink.org
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