www.hottoysonlinestore.com is a scam (Unofficial Hot Toys web-shop--legit?)

[speiky]

Neither did Mario Leon, if they were innocent they would've at least tried to justify themselves.
The way I judge this situation is Dave and Mario are in it together and ripped us and the distributors (eBay sellers) off.
We get the money back, the "distributors" will have a hard time.
And the Malaysian IP can just be a proxy. The fact that something was sent to Malaysia (according to the seller who dealt with chengda85) does bother me though...

 

[Cheungkinmen]

wow, just read half the thread and this has been a big change of events, feel sorry for those who were scammed. You can't really trust anyone online now-a-days. :/

 

[BlitzOUT]

Good to know its officially a scam. Hope everyone gets either their figure or money back

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

Good to know its officially a scam. Hope everyone gets either their figure or money back

I'm glad I decided not to buy from these guys

 

[Hamanu]

Police usually don't bother with petty theft (in my country under $200), but this scam, combined, superceeds $10,000. If people here report this to the FBI, shouldn't they take action?

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

Police usually don't bother with petty theft (in my country under $200), but this scam, combined, superceeds $10,000. If people here report this to the FBI, shouldn't they take action?

it would probably have to be a curtain $$$ amount for the feds to get involved

 

[Hamanu]

I think every US citizen that fell victim to this scam should report it to www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

 

[EVILFACE]

ok now the person says this:

Hi， friend
I think we both involved in the scam. If paypal force me to refun you, I can’t get my items back and I am the one who suffer the lost. Could you please do me a favor? I mean I hope you can report this cases to paypal to let them know there is a middleman between us.

The fact is :
I am a ebay seller. A man whose ebayID is rik_spurs contacted me several days ago. He told me he had some friends who want to buy item from me and then he give me your address, so I send you the invoice. After I receive the money, I send the items out. He offered me the shipping address, one in HongKong, one in Malaysia. I just check the tracking number, it shows the items have already been received.
The explanation for this situation is that man use your money take item from me. And finally, I lose my items; you lose your money. The items was taken by that man~


I hope you can explain this to paypal for me. So, we can both avoid the lost. And we can get that bad guy back together.

what am I supposed to do?

wow. That is why you ship to paypal confirmed addresses and nothing else.

 

[iampiya]

Re: Unofficial Hot Toys web-shop--legit?

so from what it looks like.. his scam goes like this:

Buyer places an order through HTOS. Dave gets the order and finds a seller who is selling the product you are looking for. He contacts the seller and asks if they could send the buyer an invoice but ship it to him because he claims the buyer is his friend. Seller sends invoice and buyer thinks its from HTOS. Buyer pays, and seller thinks since the buyer paid, Dave is telling the truth. Seller ships item to Dave, and he ships documents to buyer. Buyer gets documents, files claim, and the loser out of all of this is the original seller, while Dave walks off with a free HT figure. Damn, that is low!

It seems like it but I'm still not 100% sure if we still can confidently say that the "seller" is not part of the overall plan though. Below is a replied email I got from Tong Zheng Zhang during PayPal dispute process:::::

From Seller - tongzheng zhang27-02-2012 18:50 GMT+07:00
I think we were both cheated by the man who runs Hottoys Online store.

The fact is

I am a ebay seller. A man whose ebayID is rik_spurs contacted me several days ago. He told me he had some friends who want to buy item from me and then he give me your address, so I send you the invoice. After I receive the money, I send the items out. He offered me the shipping address, one in HongKong, one in Malaysia. I just check the tracking number, it shows the items have already been received.

The explanation for this situation is that man use your money take item from me. And finally, I lose my items; you lose your money. The items was taken by that man~

I am really upset about this.

I think we should resort police for help but I don't know which country's police we should call because this is an international case.

Do you have any idea?

 

[iampiya]

We need to find put who & where this Rik_spurs (eBay ID) is

 

[Solidus]

Re: Unofficial Hot Toys web-shop--legit?

He took away the option to receive messages from strangers.
Mario Leon still didn't answer me.

Now it's Malaysia ?! WTF ?

You can contact one of his friends and ask if they can pass a message along that you need to speak to him. A long shot, but it's worth a try.

 

[Hamanu]

One of the guys that got an email from the seller could ask for the shipping address the figure was delivered to, in HK or Malaysia. There must be a name that could be supplied to the police.

 

[iampiya]

Re: Unofficial Hot Toys web-shop--legit?

The only thing I don't understand is Dave will need to find someone selling the figure at the low price like on their website. It's pretty difficult to find some of the figures? and at those prices?

That puzzles me very much too. That's way I'm not 100% convinced that they (eBay sellers) are not part of this overall scam. If they can sell the items at the low prices, why we can't seem to be able to find it on eBay in the first place and had to end up in HTOS.

Since I have our problem to resolve, I'll worry about my problem & continue to file claim with PayPal for my refund. And let the sellers worry about their own problem. Seems like we cannot really trust anyone anymore when it comes to on line purchase.

 

[VSolution]

Re: Unofficial Hot Toys web-shop--legit?

That puzzles me very much too. That's way I'm not 100% convinced that they (eBay sellers) are not part of this overall scam. If they can sell the items at the low prices, why we can't seem to be able to find it on eBay in the first place and had to end up in HTOS.

Since I have our problem to resolve, I'll worry about my problem & continue to file claim with PayPal for my refund. And let the sellers worry about their own problem. Seems like we cannot really trust anyone anymore when it comes to on line purchase.

If the ebay seller had those figures they would more then likely list it at the ebay going price?
Anyways, best to submit the claims and see what happens.

 

[speiky]

My thoughts exactly, unless "Dave" sent him an extra 50 to 100$ from his or another account I can't see why an eBay seller would sell his HT for a lot cheaper than what they go for on eBay?

 

[Hamanu]

Dave could have sent an "advance" as "proof" of his good will.

 

[a-dev]

So a few earlier orders were fulfilled successfully to lure people in, then he started ****ing people over?

 

[iPaul]

It seems I was the first one from this forum that got scammed,they sent two figures to Eamon and one of his mates and right after Eamon confirmed that he got his figure they started scamming people.

 

[BadMuthaDude]

ok now the person says this:

Hi， friend
I think we both involved in the scam. If paypal force me to refun you, I can’t get my items back and I am the one who suffer the lost. Could you please do me a favor? I mean I hope you can report this cases to paypal to let them know there is a middleman between us.

The fact is :
I am a ebay seller. A man whose ebayID is rik_spurs contacted me several days ago. He told me he had some friends who want to buy item from me and then he give me your address, so I send you the invoice. After I receive the money, I send the items out. He offered me the shipping address, one in HongKong, one in Malaysia. I just check the tracking number, it shows the items have already been received.
The explanation for this situation is that man use your money take item from me. And finally, I lose my items; you lose your money. The items was taken by that man~


I hope you can explain this to paypal for me. So, we can both avoid the lost. And we can get that bad guy back together.

what am I supposed to do?

That seller is responsible for his own claims. You can't speak for him or verify any of that information and it is not your responsibility to do so. Go through the proper channels and make the claim that you paid and didn't receive the item so you can get your money back.

 

[Raymond F.]

I'm lazy not reading. What happened they sent out a few figures to the first buyers and now just take money and send nothing?