Very cheap laptops, free delivery

palance · 27-01-2004 10:42pm #1

Hey everyone, just thought Id share this:

Acer TravelMate 804LClb

Intel Centrino 1.7Ghz
512DDR Ram
60GB HD
Ati Radeon 9000 64MB Graphics
15" SXGA+ (1400 x 1050)
DVD writer
WiFi
5.5 hr battery life
XP Pro

€1523 incl VAT (I emailed to check this)
delivery and 3 year warranty included

http://www.buy-best-laptop.com
anyone know anything about them or have ordered from them before? Theres an additional 10% off if you pay by western union.

jasperok · 27-01-2004 11:16pm

i'd loveto know too- there are somegood enough deals there but there is something about it that doesn't feel right- i cant find ny shop reviews of iton the the web and the purchase procsess is just that bit too easy- also 10% is a hefty discount i wonder why they is so keen to use western union. let us know if you find anything out about em.

muffinhead · 27-01-2004 11:18pm

i think it's a bit dodgy! look on the opening page - the images aren't linked properly & the western union link has been done wrong!

would you have any comeback by using western union to pay for the laptop, if you never received the laptop?

skipn_easy · 27-01-2004 11:24pm

I have the acer travelmate 803 and it is a beautiful machine

Seems like a very good deal....

palance · 27-01-2004 11:31pm

I haven't ordered anything yet, yip I haven't found anything else about them on the net either although I did stumble onto them via a google ad. They were very prompt with replies to my questions though

Hi There,
>
> Im very interested in purchasing two of your
> laptops, specifically the
> AcerTravelMate 804LMi and the Sony VAIO V505DX and
> have a number of
> questions I hope you wont mind answering.
>
> 1. Im based in Ireland, what is the situation
> regarding VAT, do I pay it
> when the goods are delivered, at checkout or is this
> included in the price?
> VAT in Ireland is 21%, would I pay this rate or the
> rate you have?
>
> 2. The 10% off offer regarding Western Union
> payment. How exactly does one
> go about setting this up? If I was to pay by Visa is
> there a surcharge?
>
> 3. Terms and condition mentioned a 36 month
> guarantee as standard. Is this
> applicable to Ireland?
>
> 4. Is delivery free to Ireland?

Hi, let me answer your question:
1. VAT is includet in price.
2.For the moment we accept just western union
payments.Thats why we give 10% discount soo you can
pay the western union fees.Your discounted price will
be 2100 Euro for the two laptops.
3.The warranty is 36 months and is aplicable in
Ireland.
4.The delivery is free.
If you have more questions or want to place an order
please email me ASAP.Thank you.
Esteve Eva.

They're based in Italy so I'll excuse the spelling mistakes :dunno:

Ryaner · 27-01-2004 11:35pm

The whole thing looks very very strange. There is very little come back against paying and getting nothing from them.
Where did you get the link from in the first place?

Ryaner · 27-01-2004 11:39pm

Just been looking on the Western Union site. To get the money from Western Union they need a valid id so in effect you can tell who they are if things go a miss.
The offer is being to look very very tempting now

raphaelS · 27-01-2004 11:39pm

The domain is not registred to someone in Italy... dodgy, very dodgy!

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=buy-best-laptop.com&server=whois.melbourneit.com&cache=off

Raphael

raphaelS · 27-01-2004 11:44pm

Originally posted by Ryaner
Just been looking on the Western Union site. To get the money from Western Union they need a valid id so in effect you can tell who they are if things go a miss.
The offer is being to look very very tempting now

I am sure Italy is a country where it is easy to get a fake ID... that's just my opinion not a fact...

Raphael

jasperok · 27-01-2004 11:53pm

a laptop company working through a yahoo mail account?
i don't think so.....

eth0_ · 27-01-2004 11:53pm

That is a SCAM. It's rife on ebay. I got ripped off for a lot of money last year by some b*stard in Romania. Saw an auction that said 'email me for buy it now' which I did, he said he was liquidating stock, he gave me a price, I asked him would he take paypal as western union didn't instill a lot of confidence in me.
He said "It's very secure. Ok, you send the money to someone elses name...say your father. You also tell western union you want to use a security question, just tell me the answer so I can ring them and check the money has been sent, then I will send, via UPS, the goods. I cannot take the money at this stage. When you receive the goods, ring WU and ask them to change the receiver name to my name, and the deal is done'

Of course I did this, suddenly the emails stopped and I rang WU and they said the money had been claimed.
YOU DO NOT NEED IDENTIFICATION TO PICK UP A WU PAYMENT!
Just having the answer to the security question is enough!
Presumably this is for people working abroad who have had their passport stolen etc. WU is INCREDIBLY insecure.

DO NOT GO THROUGH WITH THIS DEAL. In fact. report it to the police.

Actually, email the guy back and ask him what I asked, would he take paypal as WU doesn't look very secure. Check the IP address on his mail in the headers when he replies. I can almost guarantee you it'll be Romania.

Ryaner · 27-01-2004 11:54pm

That may be true but then I'm thinking the problem is with Western Union to identify them

Villain · 28-01-2004 12:00am

I tried calling the number listed but it doesn't seem to be a valid phone number.

eth0_ · 28-01-2004 12:04am

Originally posted by Ryaner
That may be true but then I'm thinking the problem is with Western Union to identify them

Read what I said. They do not NEED identification. How likely is it that Joe Soap off the street is going to walk in and try his luck to see if Mr Smith from Dublin sent any money to that WU office and if the password is 'rover'?
Once they have the answer to the 'security' question, they do not need ID, they get the money, you've been ripped off, zing.

In the rare event they would need to use ID, a forged passport is easy to obtain, and the onus is not on WU to triple check the authenticity of said ID. Do you think I just shrugged my shoulders when I realised this prick in Romania had stolen a lot of money from me? I pursued it through the police (who said it would be a civil case or I would have to go to the police in the country the money was picked up in....the guy was long gone by then), WU (who said it was my fault) and my credit card company, who said they can't offer any protection on WU payments.

palance · 28-01-2004 12:10am

thanks for all the info, i've sent them another email with a couple more questions. Now that I think about it Eva sounds distinctly Romanian... :eek:

zAbbo · 28-01-2004 12:12am

All they need to do is send an empty package

which you think is a laptop and for all intensive purposes *is* a laptop, until you open it, then its an empty package

Scam scam scam

palance · 28-01-2004 12:17am

Wow that was quick! A reply in 5 minutes!

Reply:

Hi, i can tell you that our company is 3 years old has
26 employes, the company address is on the site.We
accept just orders made by western union becouse we
had problems with hackers and we decidet to cancel our
contract with our merchant provider.Anyway i tell you
that we are a serious company and we do just good
deals.If you have more questions please email me.
Esteve Eva.

Villain · 28-01-2004 12:28am

Ask them for a contact phone number

theciscokid · 28-01-2004 12:29am

thats the beauty of western union..

dodgy money is sent thru WU all the time, they can't do anything about it!

palance · 28-01-2004 12:42am

Yup gotta be a scam what sorta company doesnt have a working phone number? It did seem too good to be true

Reply:
Hi again...i know the number its not working becouse
we have a problem with our phone company.If you decide
to buy from us please tell me when you want to send
money to prepare the laptops for shipement.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Esteve Eva.
P.S. If you want to send the money send to:
Name:Esteve Roldan Eva-Teresa
City:Benedetto Del Tronto
State:Osimo
Country:Italy

Capt'n Midnight · 28-01-2004 12:43am

http://mappe.virgilio.it/tcol/mappa.jsp?com1=san+benedetto+del+tronto+%28ap%29&to1=&civ1=&cx=13.8928&cy=42.9336&lx=13.8928&ly=42.9336&z=0.75&lv=1&ct=null&st=null&cs=&nm=&al=default

Map of where they say they are from. Which proves they are there. (or that they can look up addresses)

You could ask them for company registration numbers / VAT numbers - in Italy it's called IVA - if they say they have been in business 3 years they need them. Lots of forms to fill in and licences to get to setup a business over there - so if they can't supply you with those then deffo dodgy.

Over there they have people who are a bit like traffic warders (ie. not cops) invigile (SP) who can fine shops for not giving you a receipt etc.

Sniipe · 28-01-2004 12:46am

LOL, the site is soooo plain... not alot of effort for 26 ppl in the last 3 years? what do the 26 ppl do?

It must be a HUGE warehouse or something...

Don't do it palance.

have u rang the contact number ?

"Phone: 071/730101"

Thats nice, an Italian number perhaps, yet normally there would be a +353 (1) 9999999 number, Or maybe not???

(edit: typed this b4 palance's last post, this is a hot topic I c)

Villain · 28-01-2004 12:48am

Originally posted by palance
Yup gotta be a scam what sorta company doesnt have a working phone number? It did seem too good to be true

Ask them to call you and see what the caller id comes up as

Qadhafi · 28-01-2004 12:57am

i have been spending a lot of time on ebay checking stuff out recently and was getting all these great offers, I was wondering about the whole things so made a few phones calls and started to look into a few things.....

I would just like to warn anyone making deals and links to sites such as
http://www.buy-best-laptop.com/

Dont buy anything through sites which arent recognised or cover your deal that you purchased. For example a bid on ebay is ok since both ebay and your credit company will cover your , but if someone emails you privately and offers you a deal like - "i saw you didnt make the selling price do you want a cheap laptop" then just stay away, it a scam

Anyone pushing for a Western Union transfer seems to be real dodgy. Its a one way process, you cant guarntee that you will recieve something in the post.

Recieving items through UPS is another favourite, but the tracking numbers that they generate are very easy to do. You dont have to pay any money, call in anywhere etc to generate a tracking number, so if you are giving a tracking number and log on to find its at your local post office, its more than likely not. Look for billing information recieved, that just means that they have given an address and nothing else. Your best bet when dealing with UPS is call them up and ask all about the product companies online sell.

There is only a bottom line price with things such as laptops, if your getting a laptop than is cheap than the processor then there is defintely something wrong. If it sounds too good to be true then it is too good to be true.

ken90 · 28-01-2004 12:59am

I wolld not pay 2 cents for this "laptop"

Look up the whois on www.godaddy

Interestingly the phone is picked up!

I won't post details here in fairnes to Mods

palance · 28-01-2004 1:03am

Cheers everyone guess I'll be looking elsewhere. Interestingly they didnt reply to my last mail, maybe they've gone to bed.

Ryaner · 28-01-2004 2:00am

eth0_, sorry I had hit reply before your post came up.
I only quickly scanned the western union site and saw the part about the id section.

I've looked at the reg info on the domain
Creation Date........ 2004-01-25
Registration Date.... 2004-01-25

Site's domain only came active a few days ago. So there goes the 3years old thing.

eth0_ · 28-01-2004 2:19am

Registered 3 days ago! hahah! I missed that. More ammo for me...i'm currently 'playing' with them. I sure am impressed at their dedication, having sales people on hand at a quarter past one in the morning! Oh and I was right about them being based in Romania. I mailed them and sure enough the mails were sent from an IP address registered in Romania.

Check this out:

Return-Path: <sales@buy-best-laptop.com>
Received: from web109.biz.mail.yahoo.com (web109.biz.mail.yahoo.com [216.136.174.219])
by boyne.socc.ie (Postfix) with SMTP id CA6335EA1F
for <XXXXX@socc.ie>; Wed, 28 Jan 2004 01:18:54 +0000 (GMT)
Message-ID: <20040128005955.64213.qmail@web109.biz.mail.yahoo.com>
Received: from [80.96.144.50] by web109.biz.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Tue, 27 Jan 2004 16:59:55 PST
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 16:59:55 -0800 (PST)
From: "BuyBestLaptop.com" <sales@buy-best-laptop.com>
Subject: Re: Order confirmation from BUY-BEST-LAPTOP.COM
To: XXXXX@socc.ie

That is just for orders from italy.If...lets supose i
want to steal your money you can go to police and ill
be sent to jail becouse i need to show my id card when
i will recive the money.
Esteve Eva.

--- XXXXX@socc.ie wrote:
> hi i am meanig how am i to know you are not going to
> steal my money + not
> send laptop?u say u 'just accept western union
> payment'....why then is there option 2
> use credit card on your site?
> > Hi, i must tell you that western union is safe in
> both
> > sides.I wil pick up the money with my id
> card...soo in
> > case if something is wrong i will go to jail and
> we
> > are fraud safe.That is why we accept just western
> > union payments.If you need more informations
> please
> > email me.
> > Esteve Eva.
> >
> >
> > --- XXXXXX@socc.ie wrote:
> >> Hello what isthis? Is not telling me how i send
> you
> >> money? This is not
> >> like any other online shop i use....I need this
> >> apple computer for my
> >> business urgently......can you help me? how am i
> >> send money?
> >> do you use paypal? western union look not too
> >> safe...
> >>
> >> > Shop Order
> >> >

palance · 28-01-2004 2:27am

Nice work eth0_

eth0_ · 28-01-2004 2:31am

Originally posted by palance
Nice work eth0_

I can't sleep, it's fun

I've also reported the b*stards to the ISP which owns that ip address. Just wish there was some body I could report them to who would DO SOMETHING about these nasty little romanian scammers. They really make my blood boil.

Ryaner · 28-01-2004 2:40am

Go to yahoo. They really "frown" on people using their service to scam people. They'll take it pretty serious and if your lucky to get a tech who's bored he'll play with them too.

Very cheap laptops, free delivery

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