I suppose if you spend as much time as I do behind a computer, it’s only a matter of time before someone does a ‘better’ job of trying to take your cash. You all might be familiar of receiving emails from Nigeria - the famous 419 scam. You know, the ones with the sick or dying uncle or parent and they need to transfer money to your account?
The Nigerian Con-Artists and my Cadillac:
Well, in my old blog, I had a story about that where I actually got into an email shouting match with one of those Nigerian scammers who was trying to buy my old car, and he ended the conversation by saying:
—– Original Message —– From: “steven cool” To: “Charles Leo” Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:23 PM Subject: Re: Classic 1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Seville $975
SUCK YOUR MOTHER SWEAT PANT GO TO HELL
FU** YOU–
_______________________________________________
Get your free email from http://fastermail.comPowered by Outblaze
This makes me laugh. I reply again:
LOL. This gets reported to the FBI too. Hope you stick around so when they come to the door you’ll look ready to go to jail. Learn to speak english you stupid f**ker…
“Steven” replies:
DONT MAIL ME AGAIN OR IWILL SENT TO HELL MOTHERF**KER –
Well, at least that was a good time. I’m sure we both shared a few laughs - him calling me a ’sweat pant wearing mofo’ and me telling him ‘the FBI is coming to lock your a** up.’ How he ever knew I wore sweat pants and worked from home is still the luckiest guesses I’ve ever encountered.
The Con-Artist Camera Store Outfit:
Flash forward to May 2008. My sleep schedule is all out of whack again and I’m laying down on the couch about to pass out. My girlfriend was going to take photos this weekend for a communion - ironically for a bunch of Nigerians (and no I’m not racist, but I do think it is funny.) However, as great of a camera as a Canon Rebel XTi is, it doesn’t have an external flash gun. The reason why most people use flash guns is that they have better control over lighting - often being able to avoid the harsh shadows and bright spots that most ‘point and shoot’ cameras tend to produce.
So I’ve been biding my time, planning to get a decent camera of my own for work. I figure, hey it’s a write-off and I really do need a decent one for shooting architectural spaces. Laying on the couch, I told her - ‘go order the Canon Speedlite (flash gun) from Soniccameras with my card - I was planning on getting one anyways.’
Now, Soniccameras is this Internet camera outfit I found through Google Shopping. (Note: I will not do them a pleasure of linking to their website here as that only serves to boost their search rankings.) The prices were dirt cheap compared to every other outfit out on the Internet. From the outside, it also looks like a very genuine store. Plus, they were listed on Google Shopping so I guess I assumed it would have been safe.
So she registers my email address, password, username, and credit card number as I proceed to pass out. A few hours later I wake up and go to check my email - looking for the receipt so that I can add it to my business deductions. The problem is - there’s no receipt - just a confirmation email number with no price listed. It also looks like there’s a duplicate email and Outlook flagged it as a potentially phishing email.
So, the red flag starts to raise a little. I figure, well I’ll go to their website, login there, and printout my receipt. The problem is, I spend about 15 minutes digging through their site looking for a place I can check my order - just a simple login page and there’s none to be found. The flag starts to get raised higher now. I start to think, ‘well it could just be a shitty website’ and I give their toll-free number a call. I get to a directory menu, and get put on hold indefinitely with their elevator music.
At this point, the red flag is about to fly off the pole. I type ’soniccameras’ into Google and come across pages of people complaining that this store is a complete scam. I just about lost my soup. They’ve got my email, username, password, and business bank card number. I haven’t felt this humiliated in such a long ,long time. I had always prided myself in being able to detect when a site or an email was a scam and here I was falling prey to fraud.
Corrective Measures:
First thing I did was to check my business account online. I saw no deductions from my account - but it’s not always updated immediately. So I had to call them up and confirm that there wasn’t any activity. They told me that there wasn’t so I went ahead, canceled my card and had them send me a new one.
Second measure I took was to change all my passwords and remove the card number. I generally use different passwords for different websites, but occasionally they do overlap. I wasn’t about to take any chances. The main problem was that I’m registered online with about 100+ websites - and had to start at the beginning one by one. So I just tackled the most important ones first and would come back to the list later on.
Third thing I did was to run a ‘WhoIs’ on their domain name. I want to track this mofo down and deliver some punishment. The problem I ran into there is that they’re not listed. A few years back, domain name services started offering ‘private’ registration so that you couldn’t track down information on the people that registered a website. They just happened to have done that.
Fourth was to call up their domain name company/registrar - Godaddy.com. The person I get on the phone there has no clue what to do - and he can’t even begin to steer me in the right direction. They have no interest whatsoever about taking corrective measures. In his own words, “we’re only responsible for the domain name. Sorry sir.”
Fifth measure was to contact the local FBI office via phone and find out what I could turn up there. I get an agent on the phone and he listens to my story. What he tells me is that I need to go to their Internet crimes division website at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. He also goes on to say that “unfortunately, they get so many claims on a daily basis that they can’t keep up. What ends up happening is that they look for a high number of complaints regarding a specific person or outfit, or they look for a high dollar value transaction to have occurred in order for them to take notice.”
So that’s just great. I’m already feeling like I’ve hit red tape. The bank is not willing to do anything. The domain name company wants no part of this. The local FBI basically says ‘write this other office and best of luck to you.’
So I start hitting the blogging community - writing and telling people that the appropriate place to file a complaint is the FBI’s Internet Crime Complain Center and that we need to do this in mass together in order for them to take notice. Letters and emails start to come back to me - in particular this one pretty nice guy named Gerald and his website www.desertexplorer.us. He goes on to send me a few links (some of which may or not be confirmed):
1) Better Business Bureau Link on them
2) Thoughts-of-Dave on Blogger (probably the most comprehensive blog about the topic so far)
3) NY Times article on their business practices
4) Information about the people (possibly family or organization behind this)
Conclusions:
Is there a conclusion? No. There wont be until they get put out of ‘business’ or end up in jail.
Supposedly from what I’ve read, these people have been doing this under multiple names for over 7 years. Somehow, they evade the law and do a good enough job to make it worth their while.
I’m not so much upset about my situation as I’ve caught it in time. What I am upset about is that others have been repeatedly taken by this outfit and I can’t just sit back idly and let it happen to others.
Is it organized? I would say yes. The individuals operating these websites have some sort of organization. Their websites are fairly well laid out on their front-end. The individuals have enough brains to market their websites effectively and are willing to pay advertising in order to have their search engine results ‘optimized.’ The registrant was smart enough to hide his registration details. The code behind their site (while gleaned from other camera websites) is ‘hacked’ fairly well together - it looks better than 95% of all other merchant sites in my opinion. Products are constantly updated (as they have some of the latest camera equipment on there) so there is a definite interest in keeping their ‘ball’ rolling.
In a nutshell, whoever is running this operation is fairly bright with very low moral standards and respect for others. I’m not a FBI profiler, but from what I’ve read about the few times people actually got into contact with them, their ‘employees’ scoff and laugh at the people they’ve taken. I think that in keeping their operations up, they’re laughing all the way to the bank with little repercussions.
They are scum.
I recommend that anyone that has submitted their information or has been defrauded by them write to the FBI Internet Crimes division immediately. They need to be taken out.
Update:
It’s been bugging me. I don’t like to be taken and when someone tries to do that, I’m all about revenge (in a peaceful manner of course.) Earlier today, I called up the local FBI office again. The agent I got on the phone today was a bit less polite, but did give me an actual phone number to the FBI’s IC3. After a few more phone calls, I managed to finally get someone on the phone who listened to my story for about a 1/2 hour.
She elaborated upon what one of the agents had told me earlier - that they receive about 8,000 complaints of fraud a month, and that they only have 11 people on staff to look into all these cases. That’s a really frightening statistic. I mean - we ARE talking about the FBI here… But I insisted that I’m always online, and I haven’t seen a scam like this in a very long time and that it’s really worth paying attention to. She replied that she would make special note of this particular situation.
At this point, it is out of my hands and in the rest of the community to take a step forward. All I can do is hope for the best.
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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November 25th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I nearly got scewed by these bastards. I ordered the Canon 70-200mm2.8 IS USM lens. Received an email immidiately confirming my order but oddly no online emailed receipt which is usually standard practice when ordering. Waited for my lens to arrive. Nothing. Got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize…didn’t answer it. 3 days later gotta another call from same number. I answer it to find out who it is assuming it has to do with my lens. I was right. He was calling to confirm the order so he could ship it but needed to confirm the security code. I said that they didn’t ask for it on the website and I didn’t feel comfortable giving that over the phone. He said “fine. to verify I’m from Sonic, call up the customer service line, it’ll say we’re closed…but we’re not. I’m still here. Just punch in ext. 229.’. I did so and then stupidly and against my instincts gave him my security code info. Long story short, he tried to up sell me on a ‘new Sigma’ lens that was listed for $1999.00 for $1200. I later researched that lens and it sells for $650 at B&H. I wouldn’t let him confirm my order till I researched the lens and everything else he was pitching me…meanwhile being very rude saying “he tired and has to go home and to do what I want but ‘this’ is what I should do…and offering me a TON of stuff for free to be included with the order to get me to confirm the sale. Anyhow, I told him I would call him back via that extension so he got the commssion (after he said he didn’t care if he got the commission as he had 100’s of order’s to fulfill…after just saying I needed to make the desicion now cause he didn’t want to lose the commission) Crazy pressure sales. I got off the phone with a promise to call him back tomorrow and thankfully found all this negative stuff about that place. Immediately called my credit card company (they hadn’t charged me yet for some reason thankfully) and blocked/canceled my card and got a new one issued. Phew. What a SCAM! That was a crazy experience. lol I’ve never been treated so rudely by a customer service rep…and now I know why.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I too have fell for Sonic Cameras “low prices” when I ordered a Canon 17-85mmIS USM . I also got the email saying to call to confirm order and then tricked me into upgrading something that didn’t need it and spending more cash. Now, a couple of months later my lens will no longer autofocus past around 60mm and they will not return any emails I send and you just get put on hold with stupid music when you try to call. Wish I would’ve checked them out before I ordered.
July 16th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
BEWARE!!! I fell for Sonic Cameras bait and switch scam and was screwed big time!! They are horrible people!! They sent me the wrong lens on purpose and tried to tell me I was getting a great deal, knowing they were screwing me. I finally had to get very aggressive and rude with them and we ended up in a sreaming match. The guy told me to shut the hell up and that I was a stupid bitch and to keep quite about this whole ordeal and he would refund my money!!! Are you kidding me?? I got my money back and now I’m trying to spread the word! STAY AWAY!!!
June 14th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Photo Dynasty / enterprisephoto.com is also operated by the scum at Sonic Cameras. Warning! Do NOT buy anything from the above websites or you will be scammed. Alert the FBI with all of the known site names for this company so that the FBI can keep track correctly and investigate and put these thieves in jail where they belong. http://www.soniccameras.com is http://www.photodynasty.com and http://www.enterprisephoto.com.
Do NOT buy from these websites. Stick to the well knowns.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Thank you for doing what you can. When I called them to “confirm” my order (which I know NOW that is their signature scam technique) they took advantage of the fact that I don’t know much about camera equipment (I suppose they can easily tell by ‘testing’ my knowledge about camera lens specs by way of a normal conversation). At the time, I believed (stupidly) that “Edward” was trying to help me find a better choice for what I need. And I got pressured into agreeing to get something other than I ordered for $300 more. When I asked about a return policy, he told me I had seven days to return it but failed to mentioned on the phone that there is a ‘minimum 10% restocking fee’ which I found later on their site. I called back to cancel, but they told me that it was already shipped. The receipt did not have itemized product list. Anyway, I spent the rest of the day feeling queasy and sick that I did something so stupid. I cancelled my credit card and got fraud protection, which I’m glad I did. I’m going to file a dispute with my credit card company for this transaction as soon as it posts. Damn them for scamming so many people!!!! I will file a complaint about Sonic Cameras whereever I can, so thanks for providing such info…and I really am sorry you fell into their trap, as I did. And all I wanted to do was to get a nice lens to photograph my two precious children on their Disney Cruise trip.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
Sharon, thank you for your reply. I have a lot of respect for Sigma products and have quite a few lenses myself. I wasn’t aware someone else wrote you concerning Soniccameras until now, but I am glad that you found this website as it will hopefully serve to inform consumers about these scammers.
A lot of negative articles has been written concerning Soniccameras and their practices. This isn’t a small-time scammer by any means - this website is really doing considerable damage to the industry. If you just take the time to investigate a bit more, you will see what we mean.
Many of us have taken as much action as possible to put an end to their practice or at least raise awareness amongst consumers. Unfortunately, most of the time our words fall on deaf ears. I think as Sigma is one of the major players in the industry, it would be extremely helpful if they could assist us further in this fight as your words carry a lot of weight.
Thank you,
Charles
Update - I just got off the phone with Sigma and they mentioned that they are well-aware of the complaints. They also ask for people to send in their receipts (although I doubt if you get one) to them. I gather that they are taking all their receipts to their attorneys.
However, this is continuing on an on-going basis and there doesn’t seem to be a stop to it. Their representative asked me to mention to tell people to forward their complaints to the agencies which we’ve listed in this post, in particular the FBI’s IC3 website: http://www.ic3.gov
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
—–Original Message—–
From: Desiree Gaige
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thu, 22 May 2008 9:29 am
Subject: RE: Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 DC OS BEING SOLD AS A KNOCK-OFF AT http://WWW.SONICCAMERAS.COM
Thank you for choosing Sigma products.
Let me start off by apologizing for the extreme inconvenience you have experienced.
They are certainly not an authorized dealer of Sigma products and unfortunately we do not know where they get their product from.
Unfortunately with the internet there are a lot of companies out there to try and scam customers.
I would suggest making complaints to the better business bureau, consumer affairs, and even the state attorney general’s office.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
For the future please purchase our products from only the authorized dealers, which you can find a list of on our website, http://www.sigmaphoto.com under the where to buy section.
Best regards,
Desiree Gaige
Customer service/technical assistance
Sigma Corp of America
15 Fleetwood Court
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779
631-585-1144
631-585-1895 Fax
dgaige@sigmaphoto.com
http://www.sigmaphoto.com
——————————————————————————–
From: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 9:59 PM
To: info@sigmaphoto.com
Subject: Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 DC OS BEING SOLD AS A KNOCK-OFF AT http://WWW.SONICCAMERAS.COM
Sigma: Since I have used your products for years and trust and respect them and the company I think you should know that an online camera store is selling what I believe is NOT real Sigma lenses. I ordered and received a Sigma 18-200mm lens from http://www.soniccameras.com and the lens was made out of rather cheap material. It was most noticeable. Also, the lens did not fit on the new Nikon D80 I bought for my sister. The cap said it was for Nikon but the fit suggested that it was not. The lens also made odd grinding noises when telescoping and was difficult to use. I believe this was NOT one of your products but a conterfeit or grey market product. I do not have proof except for my own experience using Sigma products.
I strongly suggest that you check into this online camera store as there have been many, many complaints about them and their poor quality products. Now, how would that be possible if they are selling from Sigma, Nikon, Cannon?
For more information on this store see http://www.soniccamerassuck.com/Welcome.html. This site provides a great deal of data, rather distrubring data, on this online store. I am sure you do NOT want to be associated with this type of scam operation. However, when a scam operation online store does “sell” your products, YOU look bad. If I did not know that Sigma was the highest quality out there, having bought from this scam online store, I would have just assumed that you made poor quality products. Not fair to you all.