fraudulent websites selling our product using paypal

[alene55]

Hello, I would love some help and wonder if anyone has had success getting paypal to help intervene. We are a small company selling only one product for $179.00 that we cannot sell for less because it is expensively manufactured. (we are www.nowbysolu.com) I'll cut and paste what I just sent to the FTC as it explains what we just discovered:

We sell a product on line (www.nowbysolu.com) for $179.00 and recently we received orders that used a third-party credit card, sending to a different name and address. We at first thought these were gifts, but it happened several times and we discovered that people had ordered our product online at a much cheaper price than we sell it for.

We investigated and found these two sites: www.stoneluna.com and www.goodscheapest.com, which are pretending to be sellers in the USA. The sites are run by the same company. We placed an order and discovered how they work. The buyer buys our product at the site’s lower price ($119. Or $155.) and pays with a credit card through Paypal (I am trying to contact them as well, but of course COVID is wreaking havoc also in this world right now). Then within 24 hours we receive an order at our site at our regular price of $179.00, but they use a whole different third-party stolen credit card for this order. We send the product and the customer receives it never having realized that they were part of a scam. When the second credit card owner realizes that they have fraudulent charges for an order they did not place, it is now OUR company that has the charge reversed, and the original fraudulent site of course is protected. The two sites have hundreds of products all advertised for cheaper, and I am sure they are one of so many sites operating like this.

If any of you have figured out how this can be navigated, I'd love to hear. THANK YOU SO MUCH for listening to me cry, anyway. Best to All, Alene

[no1csme]

I thought I found a product for a great deal at stoneluna.com and saw that it took Paypal.  My assumption was that, if it takes Paypal, I won't get scammed because they have a guarantee.  So I purchased the product on my phone.  I then try to log into the account as I never received an email or anything confirming my purchase.  I did a quick google search and your article came up.  I then tried to call them, but the number was not in service.  I emailed them, both the website email and the PayPal associated email, no response.  Then I looked up their address at <removed> which turns out to be an Express clothing shop.  I immediately made a claim and am still waiting for the outcome.  Thanks for your post as it helped me understand this and now I am dealing with something else I bought that I think did exactly what you explained.

[Kilikina_]

I too bought from this fraudulent website stone luna.com a water filter. I’ve told Paypal numerous times that they were representing and working with a fraudulent website I reported it so many times and they never took action and then I found this forum on Paypal community and it all came together. Paypal did not help me get a full refund from stoneluna.com and I was really disappointed in Paypal . I told them there were two false phone numbers and addresses on the website and even after all that, Paypal told me to return one of the water filters that I did not order to stoneluna.com fake address in Vietnam! can you imagine? I was almost going to close my PayPal account I’ve had open for 16 years .