EMAIL THE WATCHDOG If you feel you’ve gotten a raw deal and need assistance
setting a vendor straight, email the Dog at [email protected]. Please
include a detailed explanation of your problem as well as any correspondence you
have sent concerning the issue.there’s no customer service
number to call. I found a num-
ber via Google, but nobody
ever answered. I tried dif-
ferent menu options, but all I
could do was leave a message.
I left two messages and never
got a call back. My wife sent
two emails and never got a
response. I disputed the charg-
es with my bank, as this was
my only reasonable recourse.
Has Classic Closeouts sold its
last $5 shirt or what?
—Scott MarlowThe Dog also gave
ClassicCloseouts.com a few
rings but never reached a
human. An Internet search
indicates this may not be an iso-
lated event. From Pricegrabber.
com to Ripoffreport.com, it
seems you can’t click a link
without stumbling over a com-
plaint about the site.
One person on
Complaintsboard.com wrote,
“I noticed the $69.99 charge
on my debit card this morning,
and I have not ordered from
the site since earlier this year.Like the other guy stated, there
is no number to call nor an
email address....”
Sound familiar? In fact,
many people have reported
unauthorized charges on their
credit cards from the com-
pany, with some stating they
had never even shopped at
ClassicCloseouts.com. What
the hell is going on? As the
Dog indicated earlier, he was
unable to reach the company
for its side of the story, but as
of this writing the site is still
functioning and taking orders.
A search of New York’s busi-
ness licensing departmentdidn’t turn up the names of any
officers or registered agents
for the company, but the Dog
found a 2003 news story in a
local paper featuring Daniel
Greenberg, who was about to
open ClassicCloseouts.com.
The website itself is also regis-
tered to a Daniel Greenberg of
Cederhurst, New York.
The Dog was unable to
reach Greenberg for comment,
but it’s clear that something’s
not right. The BBB agrees. It
gives ClassicCloseouts.com a
thumbs-down and has logged
no fewer than 224 complaints
in the last three years. Of
those 224 complaints, the
company failed to respond to
213 of them.Something’s Phishy
I purchased FraudEliminator
Pro in April 2007. I had a disc
failure and lost my registration
key. I tried to contact the com-
pany numerous times but have
not received any response.
When I purchased the pro-
gram, it was from Infini Corp.
in Boston, but I cannot locateany software company of that
name in the Boston area. At
this point, I would say I’ve hit
the wall. Any assistance you
can provide in this matter
would be greatly appreciated.
—Gary SnyderGary, this one has the Dog and
even the software vendors
stumped. The product you pur-
chased, FraudEliminator Pro,
was one of the earlier toolbars
that screened for phishing sites.
However, FraudEliminator Pro
was turned into SiteAdvisor,
which was in turn sold to
McAfee in 2006 for $70 million.So how the hell did you buy the
old version of the app?
There are two possible
explanations. The first one is
most likely. Many older appli-
cations get scooped up and
packaged for resale by dis-
reputable folks. That’s initially
what the Dog assumed hap-
pened here, but there are some
issues that have him confused.
While sniffing around for this
story, the Dog found a link
(http://fraudeliminator.com/
aboutus_tech.htm) that took
him to FraudEliminator.com.
The site appeared to be fully
operational with links for
downloading the trial version
of the software and even the
ability to purchase the pro
version. However, if you navi-
gated to the root of the website
or typed FraudEliminator.
com into your browser, it
would redirect to McAfee’s
SiteAdvisor.com.
While SiteAdvisor.com
is registered to McAfee.com,
FraudEliminator.com is still
registered to one of the original
creators of the program, Chris
Dixon. The Dog contacted
Dixon through email for infor-
mation about what was going
on, but Dixon did not respond.
The next day, clicking the
links that previously brought
us to FraudEliminator.com
were suddenly redirecting us
to SiteAdvisor.com.
McAfee officials were
initially confused about
FraudEliminator even being
one of its properties and then
later told us they were refer-
ring the matter to the legal
department for clarification.
The Dog, honestly, can’t
make heads or tails of this.
Occam’s razor would tell us
that you simply purchased a
copy of the older free version
from a disreputable site that
repackaged it, but something
else is going on here. Check
back next month for an answer
to this mystery. Woof.EMAIL THE WATCHDOG If you feel you’ve gotten a raw deal and need assistance
setting a vendor straight, email the Dog at [email protected]. Please
include a detailed explanation of your problem as well as any correspondence you
have sent concerning the issue.FraudEliminator
“I WAS TOLD THAT CANCELED
CHECKS FROM THE U.S.
CAN TAKE UP TO FOUR
MONTHS TO RETURN.”