Scam?

Villain

I take it this web-site has to be a scam. I mean the price of the laptops are so cheap it is had to be plus the site shows a pic of a huge warehouse then says "We are afraid we cannot offer Support over the phone at current as we do not have the facilities to do so, although we can be contacted via. email, post or by coming into out depot personally."

Anyone know anything about them??

StickyMcGinty

well, your paying "L HILL" which sounds like a fake person instead of a company, and the laptops are wayyy to cheap

worldwide delivery of a laptop or PC for 4.95!!! my arse

"We DO NOT accept cash on delivery, all items are to be paid in full before delivery is made."

---

SCAM

my conclusion - not with a 50ft bargepole would i touch these

bigmouth

fracture of the price here online?

I think they mean fraction...... is it a scam?

bigmouth

Actually, just had a look at the prices there! :eek: Way too good to be true.

StickyMcGinty

and theyre not listed as a company on the www.companieshouse.gov.uk website.....

thats the same as our CRO so if they aint registered they aint a company at all!!

deffo a scam, or possibly, scam-ola

StickyMcGinty

more info on the registrars whois server:

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: FreeWebs Domains
Domain Name: PUBLIC-WHOLESALE.COM
Created on: 12-Aug-05
Expires on: 13-Aug-07
Last Updated on: 12-Aug-05

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration PUBLIC-WHOLESALE.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration PUBLIC-WHOLESALE.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.FREEWEBS.COM
NS2.FREEWEBS.COM


Registry Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK

okidoki987

If they take payment by Credit Card and the goods don't turn up or are not as described, then the CC company will get or give you a refund.
That's the beauty of a Credit Card, they are jointly liable so if you don't get your money or goods off the shop, the CC company has to step in.

bucks73

They have the Nokia 8800 for £180. Its about €900 on expansys. Seems waaaaaay too cheap.

themole

okidoki987 wrote:

If they take payment by Credit Card and the goods don't turn up or are not as described, then the CC company will get or give you a refund.
That's the beauty of a Credit Card, they are jointly liable so if you don't get your money or goods off the shop, the CC company has to step in.

thats true. you can get the money back from your bank

the prob would be that once they have your details they can order stuff from other companies. its a lot harder to prove you didn't order stuff. and i dunno how you are covered in that case

frodi

Another way to do it is to just collect the credit card numbers and not charge anything. Nobody complains to the credit card co as they have not been charged for cheap goods that they did not get. In the mean time the scammer has a nice collection of cc numbers.
Another thing I noticed if you click the buy now VISA/Mastercard button you are brought to your PAyPal a/c. I wonder how PayPal feels about being tied up with this?

Neuro

Hmmm. Their domain provider Domains By Proxy states "Display your domain name - not your personal information". Why would a legitimate company be concerned about keeping such details private?

Their PayPal account was set up on the same day as their domain name; the 13th of August.

For the amount of money you'd save on their laptops, you could easily afford a Ryanair flight to the UK to check out their premises at

L-Hill Wholesale
Units 19 & 20
Foxhill Industrial Estate
Scunthorpe

which would probably turn out to be empty.

Where did the OP hear about this 'company'?

petes

Toshiba Quosmio G20-105 Laptop

Specification:

2 GHZ Intel Pentium 4 Processor, 1024MB DDR Ram, 160GB Hardrive, 8 Speed DVD-RW Drive, 17" Widescreen Display, 128MB Nvidia Geforce Graphics, Windows XP Media Centre Edition, Built In TV Card to access over 200 digital channels.

Comes Compltete with TV Remote (for TV Card), Mains Charger and Restore Disks.

RRP: £1849

Our Price: £260


Yeah right

DjDangerousDave

Welcome to Scam City! I'd love to go and visit that address though. Anyone near there?

whizzbang

why not string them along, place a big order (€5,000 say) and say you only live a little bit away, can you come and pick it up?

see what they say!

Zapho

frodi wrote:

Another way to do it is to just collect the credit card numbers and not charge anything. Nobody complains to the credit card co as they have not been charged for cheap goods that they did not get. In the mean time the scammer has a nice collection of cc numbers.
Another thing I noticed if you click the buy now VISA/Mastercard button you are brought to your PAyPal a/c. I wonder how PayPal feels about being tied up with this?

Yeah but Paypal hide credit card numbers don't they? And the money gets transfered immediately. There must be a catch with all this. Maybe emailing Paypal and asking them about it might clear things up

[EDIT]Actually, I just thought of something there, maybe that paypal page is a fake somehow, it brings you to the login screen, you type in your password and that gets sent to this crowd. Now they can access your paypal account easily!

Irishpimpdude

No the paypal page aint fake its legit and btw paypal will return the money if its a scam so nothing to loose!

shanethemofo

hey... as they say dont knock it till uve tried it.... somebody should by the cheapest thing on the website (128mb mp3 player for £13.00) and see what happens.. after all you use paypal so whats the worst that can happen? (damn ive been watching to many tv ads)

paconnors

i've just done a postal search for the uk, the address is pukka but there is no buisness by name of that companay there

newgrange

The filenames in the HTML on the website would indicate it was made by a person called 'Lee' - there is a 'Lee Hill' listed in Grimsby (not a million miles from Scunthorpe) in the UK phone book.

The fact that the PayPal account is not a Premier Business one is dodgy, but the whole prices too good to believe is usually a dead give-away. The spelling on the site is very sub-standard.

bombidol

someone take the plunge then!

A Dub in Glasgo

Irishpimpdude wrote:

No the paypal page aint fake its legit and btw paypal will return the money if its a scam so nothing to loose!

No they won't. If the seller can prove he sent something, they will not pay out. If the seller decides that the something is a couple of batteries, Paypal will not be interested.

shanethemofo

yea come on... surely one of ye will sacrifice £13.99 + £5 p+p for the sake of boardsters... i wud try it straight away only for the fact that i dont hav a paypal account or a credit card for that matter

Villain

Sorry I meant to post again earlier but was busy, my brother came across the company when he was searching ebay, he had a laptop going very cheap which actually has been removed now, however he has a few more things up his details are: here

Be interesting to see if any of those sales go through.

GrumPy

someone buy the mp3 player and keep us updated!!! these really has me interested lol :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Support@public-wholesale.com it says they offer live support over msn messenger, but if i add them, thell prolly track my ip and gimme a virus, with a CHEAP LAPTOP LOL.

fade2black

Go to Contact us and take a look at their warehouse.

Then go to google images and type in warehouse.

Now go to pic number 3, and compare.

Another argument for the prosecution maybe.

GrumPy

haha, well done

kaisersose77

lol why would anyone order an mp3 player just to see if the site it a scam when it definitely is one!

L Hill is probably some scouser trying to raise money for his holiday to Ibiza

"We are afraid we cannot offer Support over the phone at current as we do not have the facilities to do so" . Must have forgot to pay the phone bill

Julesie

The FAQ is so funny... when a company has to answer a question such as:

Q: Can i come to your warehouse personally to see if you are legit?

you know there is something up.

StickyMcGinty

i sent him this e-mail... its complete sh1te but we'll see how he reacts

Sir/Madam,

I looked up "L-Hill Wholesalers" on the companies
registrar and your not a registered company. This is a
breach of the "Company Law Enforcement Act 2001" which
states that you must register the name you intend to
trade with. Also your prices seem a bit too good to be
true. Can you prove you intend to send such items by
providing a contact number and VAT number? If no such
proof is provided, i will be referring your
website/businness to the European Office of the
Director of Corporate Enforcement, and informing
PayPal of your set-up and account use (which would be
in breach of their Terms & Conditions). Please respond
as soon as possible.

Regards,

Tony Sullivan
Watchdog PC Magazine

Hobbes

It is so obviously a scam.

1. Prices are too good to be true.

2. No real way to contact the person.

GrumPy

lol, oh the fun

pred racer

Why dont a few of us put in say 20 quid apiece and get a one time credit card from aib and try buy one of these lappies, if it arrives we are quids in if not we have lost a couple of quid each!

Id imagine that the stuff is probably knocked off, if there is any stuff atall.

ronano

Oh lord you guys are gonna become the new scam target market

shanethemofo

lol

drdre

who ever thinks this is not fraud and if anyone bought anything from these guys must get a check up from a doctor:D


its SO fraud, u can see it from far away:D

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

drdre

vinnay thats a great idea. lets wait for a reply.please keep us updated.

The tax man

Q: Do i have to pay VAT on any of the items?

A: No, the price you see is the price you pay, VAT is included in the price.

No??? but i do have to pay the VAT that's included. oooook.

Q: Is this legal?

A: There are currently no laws stopping wholesalers from selling the goods online like we do.

I think there is ya know.

Q: Do they have 2 pin or 3 pin plus and are they 240V?

A: The shipped item will have the correct plus and voltage for your country.

God I'm like sooo out of touch with things these days. Must replace all my plug sockets with plus sockets.

Q: Can i come to your warehouse personally to see if you are legit?

A: Yes you can visit our warehouse office during 9AM and 5PM Mon-Sat, although you cannot order while at our premesis or pick up orders from our premesis as our licence does not allow us to do so, all orders must be done online, although our friendly staff there will be happy to answer and questions you may have and show you round. for our warehouse location please see the CONTACT US page

Yeah cause you don't have the balls to rob someone blind while they're standing right in front of you.

As Monty Python once sang.... scam scam scam scam.....

Tusky

Im almost tempted.

petes

You cant buy the lowest product on the site, the mp3 player for 13stg. Temporarily unavailable. So is it a coincidence that the lower priced items arent available. I think not.

StickyMcGinty

its says in the faq:

Q: Is ____ item in stock?

A: Our products are stored in the 1000's and there is very little / no chance an item is out of stock.

and the mp3 player is temporarily unavailable?!?

if this is legit we're all gonna be red faced

Alun

I've fired off an email to North Lincolnshire Trading Standards. I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

Zapho

I've also emailed paypal to see if it is actually verified. I'll let you know the responce. Then again even if it is verified, they'll still probably still send you something, like the box of a toshiba laptop, and then when you try to claim from paypal, they'll say "well you bought something and it arrived so whats the problem? A proper laptop couldn't possibly cost as little as that!"

StickyMcGinty

maybe he jut isnt payin VAT??

muffler

Anyone got any family or friends over in that neck of the woods that could call in person and check it out

Private Joker

have paypal closed them down?

went to the buy page just to see what the story was and got the message
error detected
" This recipient is currently unable to receive money."

StickyMcGinty

yea i'm gettin that too... looks like the scamola has been found out

okidoki987

the prob would be that once they have your details they can order stuff from other companies. its a lot harder to prove you didn't order stuff. and i dunno how you are covered in that case

If they didn't deliver it to your address, they would have a problem getting paid by Visa.

This reminds me of the scam auctions that used (they still do) to happen
in Henry Street or in Hotels.
Works like this:
They'd use an empty shop and get people to come in by saying cheap auction of goods, TV's for a £1 (that's how old) etc. So Joe gullible Public walks in and they have a couple of blokes up on a podium. They start selling small items for about the right price then they go selling TV's. They have blokes in the audience working for them who bid and they create a frenzy and then one of 2 things happen
(A) Either you end up with a TV box with nothing in it
or
(B) You've paid about twice what it was worth and of course they leg it as soon as it's over and you never hear from them again.
The reason they will let you see inside the warehouse is so you can physically
"see the goods" but you probably never get them. The "see" bit is to make sure you think they are legit! And don't forget you CAN'T collect the goods so you go off thinking yes it's fine and they'll post/courier it out to me.
There's no doubt it's a scam.

AdMMM

Must say I got a good laugh off this thread. All you little detectives. The prices would be enough to put me off and the terrible spelling and the fact that the warehouse is just a generic pic!

weeder

decided to add him to msn for a lil chat


chloride says:
hello
L-Hill Wholesalers - Live Support; How May I Help You? says:
hello, how may i help you?
chloride says:
could you please telll me why your combany isnt a registered businesss and the domainis registered to a proxy i mean seriously LEE that wirehouse picture is the third match for warehouse on google images
L-Hill Wholesalers - Live Support; How May I Help You? says:
1) we are not a registered business
2) my name isnt lee
3) we never actually state that that picture is our warehouse
chloride says:
i smell scam all over for example why wont paypal lemme put money in your account
chloride says:
and not registering your business is illegal i think
L-Hill Wholesalers - Live Support; How May I Help You? says:
we cant accept paypal at the moment as we have reachedthe 10,000 a day a limit, and we are aware its illegal.
chloride says:
then why would anyone buy from an illegal non verified scam shack run by lee hill
chloride says:
you state to have thousands of items yet your mp3 player not avialible
chloride says:
you cant spell either


he then blocked me