Dear bradburgess30,
I checked both companies. Here are the results of my research:
-- Gicu Mobile --
There can be no doubt that Gicu Mobile is a scam, for the following reasons:
- They claim to be an Italian company. However, they also claim that
their legal form is "Gicu Mobile Co. Ltd.". The legal form "Co. Ltd."
is not at all in use for Italian companies .
- They claim that their address in Rome is Piazza S. Apostoli, 81.
That is a mistake real Italians would never make: "Apostoli" is a
plural form, "Apostles". Therefore, the "S." must be written in a
plural form, too. The correct street name is "Piazza SS. Apostoli".
- Their Web address, "gicumobile.com" was registered only very
recently, on 17 March 2006, which is always suspicious. Even more
suspicious is the fact that the domain will expire already after only
one year, on 17 March 2007. This is the typical behaviour of online
fraudsters: For their scam sites, they register "disposable" domains
that are simply abandoned once they are not of use any longer.
- They registered their domain through a US-based anonymizing service,
Domains by Proxy. A reputable company does not have any reason to
conceal their identity. This is the behaviour of scammers who do not
want to be traced by their victims.
- Although they claim to be an Italian company, their entire website
is available in English only. There is no Italian version and no link
to such a version; neither are there versions in other European
languages.
- Finally, they insist on payment through Western Union. This is the
most typical sign of a fraud. Only scammers insist on this kind of
payment because it is impossible to ever find out who received the
money or to call back the transfer once the scam became obvious.
Reputable companies do not use this method of payment.
There can be no doubt that Gicu Mobile is a scam. I recommend not to
do any business with them.
-- Boby Electronics --
Boby Electronics is clearly a scam. Their postal address makes absolutely no sense:
Boby Electronics Ltd.
140 Rommany Road
Los Angeles, California
United States SE27 9PT
Tel : 1-626-593-5268
Fax : 1-626-593-5268
So they claim to be a US-based company located in Los Angeles. But the
postal code "SE27 9PT" is not at all a US zip code. It is a postal
code that belongs to the United Kingdom, more precisely to London.
That is also where Rommany Road with the postal code SE27 9PT is
actually loacted, and not in Los Angeles. The telephone/fax number,
however, are not British. The 1 at the beginning is the country code
of the USA and Canada; the area code 626 and the prefix 593 belong to
the Covina / Baldwin Park area in California. And a Californian
company would not use the British legal form "Ltd."
The address of ths "company" is a clumsy fake, a horribly dilettantish
lie. A real, reputable company would not do this. Boby Electronics are
a fraud; I recommend to avoid any contact with them.
Regards,
Scriptor
Sources:
Allwhois Domain Database
http://www.allwhois.com/cgi-bin/allwhois.cgi
GoDaddy Whois Database
http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx
Official Italian Telephone Directory
http://www.paginebianche.it/index.html
Telephone Prefix Locator
http://www.thedirectory.org/pref/
Streetmap.co.uk: Rommany Road, London
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=532661&y=171748&z=1&sv=Rommany+Road&st=1&tl=Rommany+Road,+SE27&searchp=newsearch.srf&mapp=newmap.srf
View London: Postal Code SE27 9PT
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/London_maps_search.asp?postcode=SE27+9PT&imageField.x=11&imageField.y=11 |
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