brandmay.com – electronics @ wholesale prices
November 19, 2008
Filed under Company or Business, People
My mom wanted to send me a nice present for christmas. She resides in the US and I reside in Malta (Europe). I told her I wanted an iPhone 3G, and since there aren’t any available iPhones off contract from AT&T in the US, she searched elsewhere.
She came upone a site: brandmay.com, that listed electronics at HALF THE PRICE. The site was very credible, and even said that they used the PayPal system(right at the bottom of the site page)…. anyway, my mom is very naive, and paid anyway, when the customer support rep. said they needed to be paid through MoneyGram (wire transfer service, offering no guarantee of refund)… I was shocked when she told me, because I work in the financial sector and know these types of scams exist… but she gave me the site name and it seemed very legitimate. They also gave her a UPS tracking number (which turned out to be invalid on www.ups.com)…when she asked them about this, they told her to “wait. the status will change”…and after that… nothing happened! I was supposed to receive this iPhone 5 days later on a shipment from Canada… OK, considering the distance, I kept waiting… but over a MONTH has passed… the website wasn’t uploading anymore, my mom called them: no reply. She emailed them: undelivered… I now checked on website profile info site: ‘who.is’, and found out that ‘brandmay.com’ is INACTIVE. The number provided goes straight to voicemail, saying you have reached “Eddie”…who the hell is Eddie? the rep’s “supposed” name is Jill Nixon… I searched further… turns out the number is a cellular phone; provider: Telus Mobility…no online free directory available…
I have tried searching for scam site lists in every possible way, but to no success. I cannot discover anything about this site, whether a scam, or otherwise!
I don’t know who can help me with this problem… how can my mum get her money back???
Thanks
This post was submitted by Kim Zammit Endrich.
Kim,
This is the info we get by tracing the domain. Is this the contact info that you tried?
Nixon, Jill
Brand May
105 street
Edmonton, AB T5K 0Z8, CA
Phone: 7806684499
Email: jills1960sd@hotmail.com
Your mom may not get her money back, considering that she used MoneyGram for payment. Just remind her never to use those types of payment systems — including Western Union — unless she’s sending money direct to you.
Try to contact authorities such as the FBI or maybe the authorities in Canada to see if they could help you at all. At least, you’ll be able to have a report on file for others in the future.
One thing you could also do is to contact the web hosting provider for brandmay.com — OMNIS.COM. Explain them your situation, and hopefully, they can help you by providing a valid contact info for the site owner that they are hosting on their servers. They may also shut the site down and take it down from their servers.
Thank you very much for all your help. I had already searched on who.is and got that info as well. I tried calling, and as I said, I got a voicemail saying ‘you have reached Eddie’ … My mum has contacted the FBI and other authorities as well, as you have said… and I advised her never to pay through wire transfer again… but obviously you only learn from your mistakes!!! I will try calling OMNIS.COM if I still do not receive anything.
Thank you so much