Your advertiser, sales@neowatches.com, refuses to complete a sale
unliss I provide my PIN number for my credit card. As I have ben
instructed by the crdit card company to never revel the PIN numne,
what assurance do I have that this is a ligimate business transaction?

---

Request for Question Clarification by muhammad-ga on 19 Aug 2005 04:14 PDT

Hello!

After the transaction at neowatches.com, did the website mention:

"# At this time we accept payments only via MoneyGram money transfer
service. Once we receive the order we will contact you by e-mail and
provide with necessary information.

Payment Method 	Moneygram money transfer"

If yes, has moneygram.com asked your PIN or the website from where you
placed your order (neowatches.com)?

Please also note that Google Answers service does not solicit Customer
Support enquiries  of the advertisers of Google.  I am pointing out
this since you said "Your advertiser,...."



Regards,
muhammad-ga

Dear toez,

Don't give them ANY data. In fact, I must advise not to do any
business at all with neoWatches. That company is, without any doubt, a
scam. I came to this conclusion for the following reasons:

1.
I checked who the registered owner of the domain "neowatches.com" is.
Allegedly, it it is this person:

Christopher J Tomasetti
94538 Fremont, CA
[detailed address omitted by me for privacy reasons]

Person, address and phone number really exist, as I found out.
However, on their website they say they are a British company located
in Oxford. Why would a British company have their domain registered by
an American through a French (!) domain registration service?
Actually, this is typical for scam sites: The fraudsters take any name
and address from a telephone directory and use it, without that
person's knowledge, to register a domain for their scam site. They are
just trying to avoid being tracked by their victims. Reputable
companies don't do that.


2.
I have checked the British government's database of registered
companies. Neither neoWatches nor "Watch Coast" show up there. It's a
fictitious company that doesn't exist.


3.
On their website, they say that this is their address:

Watch Coast
31st Clements Street
Oxford
OX41AG
United Kingdom

There is neither a telephone number nor a fax number. Again, this lack
of contact information is typical for scam companies. Besides, while a
Clements Street really exists in Oxford, I found this in a web forum
where neoWatches is being discussed:

"After sending the money via MoneyGram I tried to contact them... I
went to the Yell.UK pages and put their address. Nothing came out. So,
I contact (by email) a flower shop which address seemed near 31st
Clements and they answear me saying that: "31st Clements..." is AN
EMPTY SHOP!!!!"

For the discussion at the Watchnet forum, see:
http://www.watchnet.com/forums/dealwatch/forum.pl?noframes;read=5429


4.
Finally, they insist on an obscure payment method where you can
neither control where your money is going, nor can you call it back.
Only scam companies do that.


The final conclusion can only be: neoWatches is a scam. Don't do any
business with them, you will neither get a watch nor will you ever see
your money again. And because they are a fraud, don't give them your
credit card PIN - they are criminals!

Regards,
Scriptor


Sources:

Allwhois Domain Database
http://www.allwhois.com/cgi-bin/allwhois.cgi

UK Database of Registered Companies
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/WebCHeck/fastrack/

Switchboard Telephone Directory
http://www.switchboard.com/

Search terms used:
neowatches scam
://www.google.de/search?num=20&hl=de&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=neowatches+scam&btnG=Suche&meta=
"watch coast" oxford
://www.google.de/search?num=20&hl=de&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22watch+coast%22+oxford&btnG=Suche&meta=
"Christopher J Tomasetti"
://www.google.de/search?num=20&hl=de&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22Christopher+J+Tomasetti%22&btnG=Suche&meta=

---

Request for Answer Clarification by toez-ga on 19 Aug 2005 07:29 PDT

Please read the question. CREDIT CARD.They want my PIN (Personal
Idenifactin Number) of my credit card. I was not willing to send a
moneygram.Do I have any protection if I furnish the PIN number of my
CREIT CARD? Not Maneygram.The answer that I received if wortless. They
are your advertiser

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 19 Aug 2005 08:57 PDT

Dear toez,

You are wrong if you say that my answer is worthless. I have read the
question. I told you that the company is a scam, created by criminals.
That should be reason enough to not send them your credit card PIN. So
my answer is useful for you.

Besides, they are not "our" advertiser, as the comment by my colleague
muhammad-ga already made clear.

Just to make it clear once more: The people behind neoWatches are
ordinary criminals. You will never get a watch from them, no matter
what you do. If you give them your credit card PIN, they will use it
for criminal purposes.

Scriptor

Merchant should never ask a PIN.  They do not need a PIN to proceed a
transaction.  Would it be possible that they are asking for a CVV2 or
CVC2 i.e. the last 3 digits on the signuature panel of your credit
card.

If the transaction needs to go through program like Verified by Visa,
you should register such service with your bank before hand.  You may
need to key in the pre-reistered PIN during the process but this will
go directly to the bank instead of through the merchant.

For more information you can refer Verified by Visa or MasteCard 3D Secure

I think meant scriptor-ga that you have no protection at all and that
you should NOT do ANY buisness with the company regardless of where
you saw the ad.

Go for it - give them your PIN

If you can't smell a scam, can't heed warnings, then you need a little tuition.

If you have one grey cell, then give them a different PIN 
- with a bit of apparent stupidity you could waste their time
- that can be educational