If I ordered a watch, or penis enlargement drugs, or canadian pharmaceuticals from e-mail spam, would I get what I ordered? I’m not going to, mind you, but someone must be responding to these ads or there wouldn’t be so many. Has anyone ever really received their goods via e-mail spam order?
I got tooth whitener gel that way, but then before it even arrived I got billed for a special kit with a an ultraviolet flashlight “booster” and a second order and the original order, although it had the word “Free Trial” did not let you return it if you’d opened the package, and you had to get their authorization before returning and you had to pay the return postage and they would not accept delivery returned items…
I took the whole thing to the bank, told them it was a scam, got all the charges reversed and they deleted that number and gave me a new card.
Thanks for the fast answer. Glad you were able to get the charges reversed.
About 20 years ago, I got one of the first spam emails on a mailing list. This person claimed to be a student who was trying to earn her/his (letters varied and so did the name and sex of the sender) through college by selling subscriptions. I was on many email lists, and seeing this spam on each and everyone made me angry. I vowed to track that person down.
I finally found the man: Kevin Lipschitz. He was sending them from his computer and having the orders faxed to his father’s TV repair shop fax machine. I gathered the evidence, and presented them to the New York Attorney General. However, the AG was interested in Lipschitz for another reason. He was apparently not very good at finishing up the paperwork and ordering the subscriptions he was pushing. About half of his cliental never got the magazines they ordered. The information I provided was useful because it helped the AG find this scum bucket, but he was never charged with the actual deceitful emails (claiming to be someone else and that he was trying to earn his way through school) since they already had him for other things.
So, there’s a good possibility that the products in spam emails will never arrive. You should instead do business with people you trust. Like people on the Straight Dope Message Boards.
I myself am an African Prince who was close to the former President of our Republic. However, the coupe leaders overthrew this man and are now trying to steal funds that were entrusted to me by the President. These funds total more than $125,000,000 and I have hidden them for now in a bank in Lagos, but I need your help…
I’ve gotten sufficiently annoyed several times at particularly persistent spam that I’ve ordered a low-cost item with the intention of either then charging it back or using the credit card or return address information to track down the spammer and report them, contact them directly, etc. I actually succeeded in a few cases in finding someone’s home contact information and calling them to tell them I know who they are and will report them to FTC or whoever if they don’t stop spamming me, and they did.
And IME with those 3-4 instances – each time I got whatever crap they were selling (diet pills once, a fake watch, whatever). So based on that, in most “product” spam cases, I’d predict something would eventually arrive at your door.
Are they convertible funds?
Yes, and my penis has never been larger!!! For a low, low price, you can too!!