Avoid Internet Scams

About a week ago I was scrolling through YouTube and saw an ad for an IQ test.  For fun, I took the test, but at the end I was told I would have ot pay $9 to receive my score.  No problem I fired up PayPal and paid the $9 -- or thought I had anyway.  The next day my PayPal account revealed that instead of taking the $9 the vendor had charged my account $29.90, and indicated that this would be a recurring monthly charge.  None of this was authorized by me and I complained to PayPal and they removed the recurring charge but would not remove the first charge of $29.90.   So much for the safety of using PayPal.

I tried to reach the vendor directly though their website, but the website would not allow any messages to themselves unless you were a registered user.  The company was in China, no surprise there.

A few days before this episode I had ordered a glucose monitoring device from a Chines company for $25.  However, they charged my PayPal account $65 instead and also put me on a recurring charge, unauthorized by me.  I got PayPal to reverse the recurring charge and got the excess chare refunded.  There is a lesson to be learned from this:  if you order something through PayPal, unscrupulous vendors will have access to you PayPal account and will rob you blind with charges you never authorized.  I doubt that I will ever receive the device I did order and paid 25 for.

Here are my suggestions to avoid getting ripped off by unscrupulous vendors:

1. Never directly order anything advertised on YouTube.  Instead, check Amazon.com to see if you can order though them.  Amazon is honest and fair, and you can return anything you ordered with no hassle and no questions asked, and receive a refund.

2  Never directly order anything advertised on FaceBook; check Amazon to see if they carry the same thing.