Victim Location 98383
Type of a scam Phishing
Asked me if I had a website. I said “yes” then they hung up! I shouldn’t have answered but I was tired and not thinking clearly.
Victim Location 64119
Total money lost $149
Type of a scam Employment
Received a call from Norm Andrews at 844-206-0862 regarding making a website for me to sell Amazon products.
Initial cost $149.00 with $19.95 monthly fee and another $149 in three months. Initially I was dumb enough to give him a Discover number and sign up by signing the contract (actually receipt). This was all done yesterday 12/30/15. After talking to my wife and investigating further, this is a well know scam that promises you a website where Amazon items can be sold. Actually nothing more happens than banners and popups. It has no legal connection to Amazon and most of the articles we read said that the return on the money is nil. They also claim to be Amazon Associate; but they aren’t. Amazon does have some type of associate program but it is FREE and does not work like this. I called my credit card company and cancelled the card and talked to the dispute department of Discover Card. Then I called the actual Wedsite Design and told them I was cancelling (within the three day notice in the very fine print of the receipt. There are many complaints about the scam on line. I do not know where they are based out of. All I have is the name Website Design and the phone number 844-206-0862.
Victim Location 93062
Total money lost $499
Type of a scam Other
They call you and tell you you can make 1000-2000/month with your own website as an amazon associate. They create the website for you (it’s a cookie cutter website with no content, just product links to Amazon.com), and that their marketing people know how to drive traffic to your site, vaguely stated as "by google search," and that you just have to meet weekly about 45 minutes with your "marketing team." In truth there is no marketing team unless you pay a lot more money than the $499 they are charging up front. For $499 all you get is a crappy website (which Amazon will reject anyway because it has no content and adds no value) and access to the amazon associates tools, which are free anyway, if you sign up directly with Amazon. If you don’t want to pay extra for the "qualified leads" they will get you, you’re on your own as far as developing your "business."
The name of the company that generates the cookie cutter websites is this awesomely generic name "Website Design." Another associated name is Charles Anderson. The phone number to reach someone at Website Design is 844-217-0836. Supposedly they have offices all over; the address I was able to get is 3565 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas.
After you buy your website, you get a call from somebody else who is supposed to get you set up with the website. The callback number for them is 877-721-6849. Supposedly they are with Amazon, but that is not true. Amazon does not call people. And this other group, which I could not get a name for, has their own ‘back office’ system that does not integrate with Amazon.