I am posting this in a few forums to boost awareness.
Thought I would share with you guys there are at least two fraudulent retail websites peddling high end gear at ridiculous prices. Unfortunately, one of my customers actually tried to buy something from them and is dealing with the replacement of his credit cards, etc... These are scams that fit the formula outline here.
Remember folks, if a deal seems to good to be true, it probably is. They seem to be scraping the web for any audio product they can find. Here are the two I have found so far. I am intentionally not linking to them since it is Fraud.
I agree 100% that Alien audio Academy's is a complete scam website. They have some of the products that we import from Cyprus on their website and they have them on sale.
Number one Aries Cerat does not reduce the retail pricing. Number two the manufacturer only allows authorized stores to sell their product.
I've already contacted the Kansas fraud squad and they are looking into this company/website. The Kansas fraud squad has been out to the advertised location and it is two elderly people living in a small home that have nothing to do with audio.
Sorry for any confusion but yes please be careful as there are a lot of scams on the Internet.
Thanks verdantaudio for shouting out a warning. These scams are popping up for many types of goods. They look real, and show up on google. It’s hard to tell if they’re legit without close inspection. I check them by googling “is ——- legitimate“.
I’d brought this up in a post a few weeks ago. I looked into the company’s bona fides by using “Whois.com” and also looking at the address - mapping the actual location of the “company.”
In both cases ownership of the website/URL was relatively new (within a year), the site hosted by Godaddy (who I’ve used for about 15 years) linked to overseas owners traced to Singapore and Hong Kong while the actual “warehouse” turned out to be a small suburban home. Not very likely a legitimate operation.
While possible that someone is reselling returned or overstock or “going out of business/large lots items” a pair of vacuum tubes normally selling for upwards of $400 offerred for $77 is, at a minimum, odd.
No, I didn’t buy, just posted the info as a warning to others.
Thanks for sharing and as the actual OEM it sure makes sense you’d know your own distribution, costs and dealer network. Further having a customer get scammed, the sites copying other sites etc all adds up to fraudulent activities. @cleeds not sure why you’re so adamantly questioning Verdantaudio when he/they are the actual OEM? Tracking grey market activity is pretty easy actually- we did it 20 years ago when we were a large dealer group in NYC/NJ (Harvey Electronics). It’s easy enough to track serial numbers- if you sell s/n 1234 to an authorized dealer "A" and then find s/n 1234 for sale or actually purchased from a non authorized (Grey market dealer "B"), then "A" sold it out the back door to "B". If "B" is advertising the product but never delivers (because it’s a bait / switch item) then its still highly sketchy.
No business can sustain selling below cost for long. I know, tell that to Jeff Bezos! But he had major venture capital to start with, and that doesn’t apply in high end audio. Chances that these sites are reselling distressed and overstock goods if they’re selling anything at all, or simply phishing to scrape credit card data are high.
Cleeds, please go and purchase something from the sites he’s cautioning agains, and then report back if you received your items.p, or if your credit cards start showing suspicious charges shortly after.
you must have never been the victim of fraud or identity theft. Lucky you. Once you become a victim, you will appreciate these type of warnings on a this form of folks who tend to spend a lot of money, many times sight unseen for their audio products.
I am not sure why you want to disagree with the OP’s assertions ...
I’ve questioned the OP, who has made claims of fraud. I haven’t actually disagreed, other than to note that the sale of gray market goods is not inherently fraudulent. Both sites look sketchy to me. On the other hand, it's also odd to see a manufacturer use a forum to claim fraud on the part of a retailer. That's why I asked if the OP contacted the US retailer before going public.
My guess is this thread won't last. It's one thing to urge caution, and it looks well warranted here. But it's another to allege fraud in the absence of proof.
If we could just get some DNA to make sure the website isn’t run by the same person, only in an alternate dimension.
It’s a dang quandary, either way. There has to be a simpler explanation than all that, but these days if you hear the sound of hooves, it’s likely to be zebras, not horses. Another clever story, ruined in 2024.
I’m back to playing pinball on my tablet, and happy to say my diatribe made me feel a bit better.
So sorry to hear about this. It must be hard on you and your business. While the only thing in the near future that I am looking to buy is a streamer, I will definitely stay away from the two companies that you mentioned.
There are business that I know of that do things that are unethical and I choose not to deal with them. Unethical or questionable marketing practices are one thing. If they can’t fulfill an order, they will refund you. I don’t like it and choose not to do business with them but it is not fraud. Those folks go unmentioned and standard, buyer beware is appropriate.
I don’t believe these two sites are actually businesses. You could have a site up like these with a very small amount of effort. If you look at the extremely poor structure of both of the sites, there was a bulk data upload and they haven’t even gone through the effort to normalize or fix the menus. Most of the products are not in the menus and can be found via search. No legitimate business would be this poor. Additionally, most of the prices listed are below my cost as the importer and they are not aligned with any manufacturers MAP. This makes no sense, particularly since the manufacturer would have to sell directly to them at a price that is lower than mine. That is theoretically possible but it then seems unlikely that the manufacturer would point the site out to me and ask who these people are.
I am sure the domestic one will be de-platformed within a couple months as a result of chargebacks, etc… Shopify will shut it down . In the interim, it can do a lot of harm. The international one is a bigger problem. And if these scammers make money on it, those of us who are not scammers will end up playing whack-a-mole as a never ending list of fraudulent sites will pop up.
It’s very unusual for a manufacturer to make an accusation of fraud on A’gon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it happen before. As a manufacturer, I’d think he has recourse other than a public forum. Given that he’s publicly posted the allegation of fraud, it seems fair to ask simple questions, such as if he’s contacted the entity he’s accused.
For the domestic retailer, it is not grey market for my products. Best case, the domestic site is a very poor bait and switch as I am certain they can’t get a large chunk of their product offerings. And most of the retails they are posting are below cost.
The international site is mimicking a legitimate retailer out of Australia. They have taken that retailers name and implied they are them. They are not and commit credit card fraud within minutes of a customer of mine attempting to buy from them. He was paying attention and on guard so his cards were cancelled immediately. This is certainly fraud.
Not all that bold. The scumbag has literally lifted all of the info from my website and not reviewed it or changed even slightly. I distribute several of these brands and the language in the text is the same.
It is so egregious that Verdant brand speakers are offered on their site. Obviously I manufacturer those and don’t sell to them. I have checked with other manufacturers and the site was brought to my attention by a distributor who is angry about it.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
