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Amtrak Travel + Saving the Environment

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Campaign: I Wish...

5 Reviews

Added: 4/13/2009 1:42 PM PT
Last Modified: 4/16/2009 4:50 PM PT

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I wish that I would have an opportunity to travel across the country on Amtrak again because I am a train lover. And if I do, I hope I will be able to get a bedroom on the train this time because last time I was having a coach seat all the way along, and I was traveling all the way from CA to NY too! (Here's the story of my journey: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=WSArticlePage&pagename=WhistleStop%2FWSArticlePage%2FRiderMemories&cid=1178294264788)

I also wish that people will choose Amtrak as their transportation to travel across the country because according to Amtrak, it is the most energy-efficient transportation to travel across the country, which helps saving the environment much more than airplanes and cars!

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Copy/Title_Image_Copy_Page&c=am2Copy&cid=1178294035703&ssid=6

http://www.amtrak.com/ws/video/amtrak_eco.html

Acer Ferrari Notebook For US$800?!

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Campaign: Internet Fraud - Share Your Story!

80 Reviews

Added: 5/18/2008 5:49 PM PT
Last Modified: 7/13/2008 7:36 PM PT

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I remembered it all happened in January of 2007. I had been wanting to buy a notebook computer for college use so I had been looking for one on sale on the Internet, and on one evening, I found this fantastic notebook that I really liked on Froogle.com product listings. Froogle.com is a shopping site hosted by Google. So this notebook is an Acer Ferrari Notebook, and its retail price is usually about $1500-$2000, depending on the model and the specification. However, I found one that got its price set to $800.00, and my eyes were wide opened! I clicked on it and read the complete details about the notebook and the seller's contact infomation. When I found the seller's email, I emailed him immediately and let him know that I was very much interested in buying his notebook, and he replied me just as quick as a few moments! In his email, he introduced himself by claiming himself Miron and gave me some information about the notebook and how he bought it. Miron claimed that he had a great deal on buying the notebook along with a few other electronic products at a Romanian Digital Shop that was exported to the U.S. and Canada and went bankrupt. After that, he asked me if I was interested in buying the notebook, just simply sent him my full name, shipping address, and a telephone number so we could keep track of the transaction. I couldn't wait anymore so I immediately sent him the information he needed.

In the next morning, I received an email from Miron when I went to check my email, and this time, he said that he had already shipped the item, giving me a tracking number to track the package on a shipping company website, and asked for the payment. For the payment, Miron asked me to wire the money directly to an address he gave me in the email (it was a Romanian address, so yes, it was oversea) by using Western Union or MoneyGram, and the amount of money to wire was, of course, US$800. At that point, before I started doing anything else, I thought to myself that I had never seen this company before so I thought it was some kind of personal shipping company and I tried to look it up on Google. There, I couldn't find any link that would link to the website I was looking at.

Later on, I received a phone call from Miron and he told me once more that he had already shipped the item and was waiting for my payment. He also told me that I should receive the item in the next 2-3 business days. So that afternoon, I ignored everything else and went to the Western Union website and started the money wiring process, even though there was a warning from Western Union that said do not wire money to anyone you do not know. I wired the money with my credit card. After the wiring process was completed, I emailed Miron the money transfer control number (MTCN) so that he could receive the money. I went to check the status of the transaction a few hours later, and I found that the money was picked up. For the next 4 days, I kept tracking the package, and everything seemed fine. I was still full of joy and excitement until I could no longer access the tracking company website. At that time, I realized that something didn't seem right and began to worry. I tried to call Miron on the phone (I got his number since he called my cell phone) and the line didn't get through and I couldn't reach him. I tried emailing him but had no response. Then I went to search for the shipping company on Google again and this time, I found that the web address of the company was on the Artists Against 419 list, a list that contained a lot of addresses of fake websites that got shut down by Artists Against 419 Anti-fraud Agency. At that moment, I was very shocked and quickly realized that I was scammed.

The next day I immediately went to the FBI website and filed a complain. I told them what happened, and I think a few months later, an agent named Tony sent me an email and said that he had reviewed my complain. Along with the email, he also sent me a complain form, which he asked me to fill it out to help him for further investigation. So I printed and filled it out, and sent it back to him. But unfortunately, I never heard from him since then until now.

Here's my advice to you: NEVER use money transferring company such as Western Union or MoneyGram to pay for the product you intend to buy because once your money has been picked up, it's GONE forever!!!

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