Victim Location 55803
Total money lost $5,349
Type of a scam Employment
The first contact was on September 23rd by a woman claiming to work for Amazon.com and selling their products. She stated that I could set up a web site and earn up to 15% of the products that sell. I wanted to know more and took a phone call in the evening with a James Hall. He proceeded to state that a web site would be created and the items on the site would be sold by my me online in a social media format and the cost was $499. I listened to the conversation and it seemed like a scheme or scam of some type but I checked amazon for the affiliate program where they told me to go online and that seemed legitimate. I was able to negotiate a price of $349. James Hall stated there would be 24/7 support and help throughout the process and they would set it all up for me. I asked if the company was the third party and he stated no. I asked if this was directly with amazon.com and he said yes. Both of these answers were not true or honest, which we found out later. I asked what is the percentage breakdown from the 15% if they are working for amazon? James Hall stated we would earn that flat rate with the products sold. This was not truthful either as we found out later. We signed up and were told that we would hear from someone by the next day for the web site details. On September 24th and email was sent to my account called Base Camp but no information was given about being prepared for this and signing up to that web site.
I called the company to find out more information the next day and was told that the people are not trained yet to tell the new affiliates about base camp but yes this where the work will be completed.
Jennifer Beck called me on Monday, September 28th to basically tell me what should be on the web site and that it would go live in 7 -10 business days.
On October 7th an email was sent with information about how to look up my site and other information to sign up as an Affiliate at Amazon. This seemed legitimate at first because the site has amazon products and the other information went straight to the amazon site itself to set up for payment and track orders. I received a phone call from a marketing manager on Tuesday, October 13th regarding my site with a person named Colin who proceeded to state that I have a business now and need a marketing team to help draw traffic to the site to earn money. Colin asked some personal financial information, which was suspicious and my wife asked if more money was going to be required. He stated yes and wanted to know more about my limit on credit cards and other information that I was not willing to give. After he realized I was not going to go this route with him he stated I was not ready for this venture and Jennifer Beck would be in contact with me to give more information on how to market my site by myself. Colin stated he would contact me at the end of the week (would be Friday the 16th of October). I was not contacted by anyone and sent an email with disappointment on Saturday October 17th.
The following Monday I called amazon directly to find out if this company indeed works with them and how I could market my site on my own. The support services person named Jeff stated that they do not work with any companies and looked at my web site. He stated that there are only amazon products on the site and that is not how the affiliate program works. He said it is free to sign up and find a niche like candle making, create a blog and link it to amazon to find books on this craft as an example. He suggested that I request a refund from the other company and report them to the ScamPulse.com. He stated that amazon does not like it if people or companies try to sell their products in this manner and they might have taken over the direct link to amazon with all the profits for themselves. He stated there is nothing I can do with this web site as it is not functional. I hung up immediately called the company and asked for a refund and stated my findings about what they are about and that they would be reported to the ScamPulse.com (this was in a message since they never answer the phone).
I called my credit card company to refute the charge of $349 and this process began of challenging the company to fraud or not delivering on their promise of a product and service. The next day I checked the chase card statement and noticed another $5000 was charged on the credit card by this same company, but in the pending section of the statement. I called chase immediately (within 5 hours of the charge) and this was taken care of to some degree but evidently they were not able to stop the charge. The credit card account was cancelled and new card was mailed to me. There has been no contact from the company in question but my credit card company stated recently that this company tried to charge again with no luck since the account has been closed. The charges are pending and the credit card company is conducting their own investigation to determine if we are responsible for the charges. The $349 has been cleared but we are still waiting on the final decision for the $5000
Below is information about the two different companies and names of the people involved including phone numbers and web sites.
Company and Contact Emails
Customer Service <[email protected]>
Names of people involved
Lance Craven
Brian Gregg
James Hall
Colin ?
Renee Hall –customer service
Jennifer Hall
Jennifer Beck
Company names
Sitezon.com- charged our credit card account twice
Craven Marketing LLC Base Camp- false web site never intended to be used
Phone numbers:
1.888.585.8353
SiteAzon.com 631.383.8537