Another Scam?

[wolf]

Has anyone else had to deal with the hell of finding a charge from "M-TECHINC.COM" of Basking Ridge, NJ on a credit card bill? (The company phone number appears to resolve to somewhere in Arkansas. They have a "blind" voice messaging system ... no company name or identifiers are provided on the voice message, just an opportunity to leave voicemail or send a fax.)

I have never dealt with this company, and on checking their website discovered that I have NEVER heard of them or their products, nor, certainly, have I ever made any purchases of downloaded web or logo templates from them.

Going to their website you find, on their front page, a mysterious link that asks: "What is M-TECHINC.com billing me for?"

Resolution with my credit card company was simple, they credited me $9.95 and responded to my request to cancel my card since obviously security has been compromised on it. What's interesting/scary, though is that the card that the charge appeared on is NOT one that I regularly use online. In fact, it's one that I pretty much don't use at all.

[wolf]

Update: On a credit card bill received today, I got hit for another one of these from a different vendor, different transaction date.

international-wd.com

(their website is "down" currently ... there is just an email address for their tech support. as with the previous incident, the card involved is now dead)

[SteveDallas]

Yikes! That's scary. I actually went to the first address you gave and clicked the "why are we billing you" link. At that point my browser sked me if I wanted to accept a certificate from an unverified source, and I decided to let it go.

Oddly enough m-techinc.com doesn't show up on Google or Google Usenet. Most scams like this get talked about on the net in some way.

[Undertoad]

You can accept a non-certified certificate OK, it's not a security risk. All it means is that they generated their own certificate instead of getting one from Verisign or another secure cert vendor. The connection is secure between you and them, but the bottom line is that nobody has verified that they are who they say they are.

I have a delay in one of my projects because the guy didn't have current documentation to prove that his "doing business as" was valid. He said he was "XYZ, Ltd." but without the document from the state that said he was d.b.a. XYZ Ltd, they wouldn't issue the cert.

[Beestie]

The website has scam written all over it. First blush looks good but start clicking on stuff and you'll see what I mean.

If you pursue the "why are we billing you," you'll end up providing a phone number and email address (I inserted bogus ones) before being taken to a non-functioning page.

The "contact us" page is yet another way to scam email addys from people who wish to send a message to the "chief manager."

I don't think these people sell anything at all - they are probably a holding company owned by an offshore firm through which orders are tacked on to legitimate credit card orders placed over the phone. For example, if you buy something over the phone, the sales rep might ask if you are interested in product X (not the product you were calling about). Regardless of what you say, they will bill you for it. That scam has been around for several years and it looks like this is but its latest incarnation.

When prosecuted, the defendant just indicates that the salesperson misunderstood, a slap on the wrist ensues, then they relocate and rename and start all over again. Minnesota just ran a few of these firms out.

You have to read your bill carefully and call the card servicer with any complaints. If enough folks call and complain, the Fed might get involved which, imo, is the only entity that can peirce the corporate veil and start locking some of these theives up for good. The states are helpless to stop this.