Dear bijoule,
Exports Trade claims on its "About Us" page to have been "established
in 2000", yet its domain was only registered on March 22 of this year.
This suggests that the firm was not established under its current name
until a few months ago. Furthermore, the domain was only registered
for one year, which does not inspire confidence in the firm's
long-term plans.
Exports Trade: About
http://exportstrade.com/About.asp
Verio: Whois: exportstrade.com
http://www.whois.net/whois.cgi2?d=exportstrade.com
Another indication that Exports Trade is a fly-by-night operation is
that the same person is listed as the domain registrant,
administrative contact, technical contact, and billing contact,
suggesting that it is a one-man outfit rather than a genuine
organization. The email address given for this person is a generic
contact address for ymBiz, a legitimate webhosting firm that appears
to have no connection whatsoever with Exports Trade.
ymBiz: Company Profile
http://ymbiz.cn/Web/Introduce.asp
The email addresses given on Exports Trade's own contact page not only
do not match the address in the domain registration, but they are all
free email accounts on Hotmail. Such accounts are not characteristic
of genuine import/export merchants, but of scammers who like to hide
in the anonymity of a public email service. No phone number or street
address is given on Exports Trade's website, of course.
Exports Trade: Connect
http://exportstrade.com/Connect.asp
A further strike against Exports Trade is the nonsensical array of
corporate logos featured at the bottom of each web page. Instead of
inspiring confidence, these logos demonstrate that the website
operators don't know much about the corporate world. Some of the logos
are for product brands such as Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger, but most are
for department stores and discount chains such as JC Penney, Target,
Nordstrom, Macy's, and Neiman Marcus. It is not conceivable that there
is any real connection between these stores and a slipshod website
like that of Exports Trade.
Finally, the products themselves that Exports Trade claims to sell are
not represented properly. The site offers only distorted pictures of
the products, without technical specifications, retail pricing, or
warranty information, all of which are typical of legitimate
electronics dealers. The manufacturers' logos, such as those of Canon
and Sony, do not appear on the site at all. Furthermore, Exports Trade
gives no indication that it is an authorized dealer for Apple, which
is known for tightly controlling its distribution network.
In conclusion, I am confident that Exports Trade is a scam. I
recommend that you avoid dealing with this outfit in any way.
Regards,
leapinglizard
Search strategy:
domain registration record
://www.google.com/search?hs=MQn&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=domain+registration+record&btnG=Search
apple authorized dealer
://www.google.com/search?hs=bKn&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=apple+authorized+dealer&btnG=Search |
