they say to use western union send 10 digit mtcn # to them on there web site
they will get money and pack and ship my phones.
from italy lot of fraud there?
to send funds to there representative wardean marco corso spezia 31 torino, 
italy 10100.

Dear crystalt1,

I advise against doing any business with Phones Arena. They are a
scam. There can be no doubt about this, for the following reasons:

The first thing to do when encountering a suspicious online store is
to check ownership of the domain. I did so and found out that the
domain name "phones-arena.com" is reportedly owned by this individual:

Domain Name.......... phones-arena.com
Organisation Name.... Dean Ward
Organisation Address. P O Box 99800
Organisation Address. EmeryVille
Organisation Address. 94662
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. US

You will notice that the alleged address of the domain owner does not
at all match the company's address. This is so because they used an
anoymizing service offered by Yahoo under the name "Yahoo! Private
Domain Registration". It is a fact that reputable companies have no
reason to conceal their identities and actual locations. Only the
owner's name remains unchanged, but nothing is easier than to register
a domain with a fake name. Only fraudsters have reason to hide behind
a such mask, because they don't want to be tracked by their victims.

So although the registration record does not reveal who the actual
owner of the domain is, it has some other interesting information:

Registration Date.... 2005-09-28
Expiry Date.......... 2006-09-28

This means that the domain has been registered only recently, and for
just one year. This is typical for fake online stores: The fraudsters
use "disposable" domains that are simply abandoned once they are not
of use any longer. Isn't it interesting that the domain
"phones-arena.com" has been registered only several weeks ago, while
the website claims "Copyright ©2003-2005 Phones Arena". Why should a
real company wait two years before registering their domain? I believe
that this "company" is not one day older than their website.

And something else: The "representative" in Italy is, reportedly, one
Wardean Marco. The alleged owner of the domain is Dean Ward. Wardean -
Dean Ward. The scammers suffer from a certain lack of imagination;
they were not even creative enough to invent a completely new name for
their Italian pseudo-representative.

Talking about the Italian address: It is a very bad fake that makes no
sense. While there really is a house number Corso Spezia 31 in the
Italian town of Torino, the postal code of that particular address is
10126, not 10100 as stated on the Phones Arena website. Besides, it is
more than suspicious that there is no other contact information than
the postal address - no telephone or fax number, no e-mail address.
Again, this is typical for fraud stores. They don't provide useful
contact information because they don't want to be contacted - it would
only blow their cover. It is worth noting that the only company
located at Corso Spezia 31 in Torino (with correct postal code) is a
concert agency; no sign of any telephone store.

It is also highly suspicious that an (alleged) Italian company offers
their website only in English, German and Spanish (the latter two
versions are not even working properly), but not at all in Italian.
And why would an Italian company label all items only with prices in
US Dollars, but not at all in Euros, although the British, German and
Spanish flag indicate that they are aiming at European customers?

Almost ridiculous is this part of their "privacy policy": "We will
only use the information that we collect about you lawfully (in
accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998)." - the act they refer
to is a British act, but this is not even mentioned. An Italian
company would refer to Italian or European laws. Actually, the
scammers who designed this fake website just copied the privacy policy
text from British sites; they did not even consider that it makes not
much sense for an alleged Italian online store.

Finally, the method of payment. The fact that they offer only paypent
through Western Union is something very typical for frauds. You can't
track who actually gets the money, and you can't call it back if you
find out that you have been scammed. Only fraudsters insist on this
method of payment - reputable companies offer other, better options.

The conclusion: Don't do any business with Phones Arena. They are a scam.

Regards,
Scriptor




Sources:

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

Yahoo Small Business: Domains FAQ
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/faq.php#7

Yahoo Small Business: Private Registration
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/contactinfo.php

Sperimentale Concerti
http://www.sperimentale.org/contattaci.html

Italian Telephone Directory
http://www.paginebianche.it/index.html


Search terms used:
"510 595 2002"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22510+595+2002%22&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
myprivateregistration
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=myprivateregistration&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
"committed to protecting your privacy. We will only use"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22+committed+to+protecting+your+privacy.+We+will+only+use%22&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=

I tried to buy the Nokia N80 phone using the phones-arena website, and
got cheated, so I am sharing my experiences...

I ordered the N80 on Dec 12th, 2005 [Order #: 1194462922-13]. At this
point, they asked me to send a Western Union money transfer to Wardean
Marco - which I did on Dec 13th, 2005.

I received no response back from them for 2 days, and my account on
phones-arena still showed my status as "waiting for payment". So I
sent a mail to sales@phones-arena.com [responded back to their email
in my email account] asking them for clatrifications.

I received a response back on Dec 19th, 2005 stating that my order has
been shipped [My account with phones-arena was also updated to show
the order as "shipped"]. Here is the email in full:

===================================================

Phones Arena

Order Number: 1194462922-13
Order status: Shipped

For any questions regarding your order please send replay to this email message !


Phones Arena Sales Team

===================================================

After that, I waited for another few days thinking that my package
will arrive. When it did not, I sent them a mail asking them to give
me the FedEx shipping / tracking number so that I can find out the
status online - with no response. Since then, I have been sending them
emails almost on a daily basis, with absolutely no response.

I even tried calling up FedEx and asking them if they can track a
package for me from Italy - tentative shipping date between 13th Dec,
2005 - 19th Dec, 2005.
They said that they could not trace any package for me, and said that
they can really help only if they had the tracking number.

It may just be that my order has been delayed due the Christmas - New
Year rush. However, the lack of response back from phones-arena is
very worrying, and I am beginning to think that I got cheated.

So keep away from doing any business with these guys. I hope this
prevents others from getting conned - I am just sory that I did not
bother to check google answers before I transferred the money.

I wonder what it is about Italian Sites and Cell Phones....

We run http://www.americancell.com and for some reason among our
thousands of daily visitors (mostly from Yahoo and Google) are
hundreds of visitors from Italy each day. That's the only non-US
country where we get bunches of requests and comments. I am not sure
why that is - maybe there are a lot of Yahoo users in Italy and they
end up seeing our site? Anyway they seem to all want Motorola phones
especially Razr V3 - which we dont sell unlocked.

Anybody have an idea what it is with Italian web surfers and cell phones?

Thank the heavens i found this thread on here. I almost did buisness
with a very simaler site http://www.bds-onlinestore.com After doing
the things done by scriptor i found amazingly simaler results. They
also require payments done by western union and the person picking up
the cash is
Zelda Forberg
Address: Via Due Ponti 229
City: Rome
Zip: 00189
Country: Italy
they say this is there accountant. I am probably not as skilled as the
guy above but i cannot find that adress at all.

Although the company is supposed to be in rome the domain is
registered to a adress in montana usa. The domaian search cannot
provide full details about the domain as the customer has requested
they be with held.

This is who owns the domain.
   BDS Online
      Matthew S Hanshaw
      161 Woodland Drive N.
      Branson, MO 65616
      US

The site also was only created recently
Domain created on 26-Jan-2006
   Domain expires on 26-Jan-2008
But on the site they have customer testimonials going back as far as 2004.

Suffice it to say i have cancelled my order for 5 samsung D600 phones
and will not be sending paymet as the risk is to high.