Author Topic: Andy_Thong aka Popsalute seller. Pease help.  (Read 2005 times)

Offline luvje0rdie

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Andy_Thong aka Popsalute seller. Pease help.
« on: July 9, 2006, 04:58 AM »
Hi Star Wars fans. 

I need some help.  My back's to the wall on this one.   I found this message forum doing a search in google for a seller in Hong Kong named Andy_Thong.  He sold in Ebay for a while under the Ebay id Andy_thong@hotmail.com.  That's also his only contact address also.  That email address.  He then changed his Ebay id to Popsalute.  named after his new and seemingly empty website store called popsalute.com.

Back in March I sent this idiot $178.58 for a Medicom Jack Sparrow figure.  It was a pre-order.

 (I hate pre-orders because I nearly got burned out of $50.00 over a year ago from another seller who took the pre-order money and ran to Ca.  Ironically that was a different Jack Sparrow figure that time.  With the help of another burned buyer we all tracked him down and contacted the police and just solely doing the jobs of the police, FBI, and investigators ourselves, recovered our money.)

This time it's alittle more difficult.  Because this jerk is overseas.  He's a complete flake and I don't know if he's running a scam on me or not.  The first thing that tipped me off is that he soon after I sent his money turned his feedback onto PRIVATE.  Because negatives were piling up.   Then I started to get antsy.  I contacted him and asked when this figure is supposed to be in.  I found he only had a hotmail address as a primary email contact.  Another red flag.  Anyone can register hotmail accounts all day long.  All you need is real address.  Doesn't have to be your address.  Just ANY address with a correct zip code.  Then something just doesn't feel right.  I checked and he's only selling like one or two items in Ebay.  I check again and he's no longer a registered member now.  He writes me back this email.

Quote
hey that figure will be shipped by july time! so pls. keep in touch!

i am off ebay as i have new business in my local city..stay cool and have a good day!
 
best wishes,
 
andy

So I write him again and tell him I don't trust him and this is just too long to wait for this item and too much money to just entrust with him with all this funny stuff going on.  I asked REPEATEDLY for an address to contact him at , or a phone number.  Something besides a free sign up hotmail address.  He never gives me one.  I finally just tell him Look, I don't want to wait anymore for you.  I'm getting the run around.  I want my money back.  Just cancel this pre-order and refund my money.  I will buy this item from a more reliable source or wait til it comes out and is in-hand. I now send him a Paypal money request bill for the complete amount I sent him.  All he's got to do is click it and pay it.

He writes this..

Quote
greetings,
 
we have already placed an preorder for you.
 
so pls. keep in touch and we will ship your set once the set has been released.
 
thx. and regards,
andy


Now what?!!!  So that was 5/25/06   I wait all of June and now into July.  The figure was listed as coming out in June, then July.  Now I see in the Entertainment Earth website it's scheduled for September!  And since I paid him in March Ebay nor Paypal will do anything.  Because too much time has passed.  I will contact the authorities, the better business beuoro(sp), Fraud.org, and anyone else I can to track him down.  The police.  Whomever is in charge of regulating the importation of goods to the United States.   I finally have sent a couple of emails just this week to his hotmail account address. With no reply.

I sent second notice and third notice letters.  I threatened legal recourse.  I sent a paypal reminder for that money request.  I told him I didn't have to nor want to wait for his order.  When he gets it, he can just resell it to someone else, but I wanted MY money refunded immediately.  Nothing.   I got his contact information from ebay and this was what I got:

Quote
User ID:    popsalute
Name:   Thong C Mao
Company:    POPSALUTE.COM
City:   Berkeley
State:   CA
Country:   Hong Kong
Phone:   63320781
Registered Since:   Monday, Aug 14, 2000 21:22:17 PST

I can't make out that phone number.  I tried looking up the number in Hong Kong directories online to no avail.  I don't know if it's fake or not.  I looked up the country codes for hong kong but I don't know if their phone number there have eight digits or not.  I don't know what the berkeley Ca. address is for though.  My assumption.  The contact info is FAKE.  And I blame Ebay for that.  They accepted a half ass address like that, no questions asked??!!!

So I went through Popsalute.com and all they have is a ghost forwarding address for the site.  orderinfo@popsalute.com, Contact@posalute.com, blah blah@popsalute.com.  It's all going to the same address no matter what word or words is in front of @popsalute.com.  And that's not even an internet email address either.  It's a forwarder.  I know, because I use one on my own website.  Probably forwards all mail to that andy_thong@hotmail.com address.  So I look up the info on the domain name. popsalute.com.  The whois information on that is this.

Quote
Registrant:
   Thong
   Flat F, 25/F, Tower 10, Laguna
   Hong Kong, Hong Kong  55125
   HK

   Registrar: DOMAINBANK
   Domain Name: POPSALUTE.COM
      Created on: 17-JUN-02
      Expires on: 17-JUN-07
      Last Updated on: 21-JUN-06

   Administrative Contact:
      Thong, Chung Mao  00009172@hkbu.edu.hk
      ABACA
      Flat F, 25/F, Tower 10, Laguna
      Hong Kong, Hong Kong  55215
      HK
      21269173

   Technical Contact:
      Thong, Chung Mao  00009172@hkbu.edu.hk
      Abaca
      Flat F, 25/F, Tower 10,
      Hong Kong, Hong Kong  55125
      HK
      21269173


   Domain servers in listed order:
      NS.HKTECHNOLOGY.COM
      NS1.HKTECHNOLOGY.NET

End of Whois Information

 So I just tonight sent an email to that email address in that info and I haven't heard yet.  But what else can I do?

I read through this forum on a thread and saw that some of your collectors were dealing with him and got taken for a ride a little bit.  I was wondering do any of you have a legitamate address on maybe a box that he shipped your items to you.  A return address on a customs form or something?  Any other info at all maybe.?  I'm really trying to get this guy.  I think he's run off with the money from myself and many others.  He built up some cash and just chucked the ebay account and business and left us all out several hundred dollars.

 Maybe to get a new ID and come back again later to do the same thing.   Any help any of you guys could give would be so appreciated. 

Thanks

luvje0rdie@aol.com  (spelled with a zero)