[angelaneal]

I just like to add this question because I've scammed by a so called company <name removed> and the contact person is Regina. Which will give you her email address and skype id to contact her. But when you made payment she will give you a tracking number in Chinese that you would not understand. Then when your package arrived instead of cellphone on my experience it's a headset not even a cent worth of what you paid for and then she will block you on skype and won't answer any of your inquiry anymore in email. Beware friends.I am also wondering if there are someone here who's been a victim of online shopping scam and what did you do about it?

[NeedKarma]

If it looks too good to be true then it is.

[smoothy]

I agree with NeedKarma, I don't know of any business that uses skype for any transactions. And the first indication of a possible scam is prices too good to be true. If there was a fat enough margin to make money there would be others doing it to and making up for it in volume. But with consumer goods... there isn't a huge profit margine because of competition.

Do you have a link to the product you was scammed on? Sometimes they show one photo which can sometimes be a misleading one, then the description has something completely different.. and the item you are buying is what's described.

I've seen that happen on eBay in certain rare cases.

[NeedKarma]

The site is already dead.

[smoothy]

Ah... a hit and run operation. No question about that then. Many times they don't even bother to ship anything.

[joypulv]

Thousands of people are scammed every year in the US alone.
There is nothing you can do. Yes, there's a contact site run by the FBI, but it's not going to help one bit. The sites and emails can all disappear in a flash and can't be traced. A name like 'Regina' is meaningless.
They count on you to be naïve and GREEDY. By greedy I just mean hoping for that super bargain. Super bargains don't exist. There ARE bargains, but you have to search established sites like Amazon and eBay, where there is buyer protection. I've bought stuff on eBay that was shipped from Walmart or Amazon, because I didn't do my homework. That's totally legal - my fault for not looking enough.

[ScottGem]

You ask: "How come there are scammers?" Two reasons. 1) Because there are dishonest people who have no ethics or morals and think nothing of taking money from people. 2) Because there are foolish, naïve or greedy people who fall for the come-ons of these scammers. If there were no victims they couldn't exist.

I personally, have not been victimized because I do my due diligence before placing an order.

Note, however, if the order was placed by credit card, call your card issuer immediately. If this was a scam they can usually do something about it.