-- Valerie MacCabe, June 22, 2004 Comments I would not buy any equipment from a firm who did not accept credit cards. The use of a credit card offers you a host of protections against fraud and abuse. Walt
-- Walt McKinney, June 23, 2004
Yes, it IS A SCAM. I was just checking it out for someone else. I live in Finland and can verify that the address they give does not exist. The street is an actual one in Helsinki, but there is a northern and southern Hesperiankatu. They have made a crafty combination of taking a street number from northern hesperiankatu (7) and plunking it into southern hesperiankatu. However, Northern is all odds, while southern is all evens... Southern hesperiankatu 7 cannot exist and does not show in the Finnish yellow pages (neither does the name finetronics or any derivatives/versions). Do NOT send them Money!
-- traci birge, July 3, 2004 I placed an order to see what would happen and I got the following response. (I could not help but wanting to know the details of the scam) Thank you for shopping at Finetronics
Grand Total: $1052.99
Please transfer the payment by Moneygram international transfer (not express payment) to our financial manager:
Name: Malceva Tatyana City: Helsinki Country: Finland
Please email us the 8-digit reference number that you received from MoneyGram after the transfer. As soon as we receive this information we will ship your order.
Nearest MoneyGram locations to you:
HEIDI SUE VARIETY 230 BRIDGE ST
if it looks to good to be true?
jeff
-- JEFF KEATLEY, July 13, 2004
Thanks everyone for saving me from getting ripped off. I was about to buy a D70 from them because of the low price. After reading your email I sent fine-tronics.com an email and asked them to comment on the quotes on this site. Here is the email I sent + the response I received from them (their last line is the kicker): -----Original Message-----
From: sales@fine-tronics.com [mailto:sales@fine-tronics.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 3:45 PM
To: Matthew S.
Subject: Re[4]: NIkon D70
Hello Matthew,
MS> I am interested in ordering but am concerned about the following
MS> website info I found about your company
MS> http://www.photo.net/neighbor/view-one.tcl?neighbor_to_neighbor_id=1
MS> 99170
MS> Please address these comments before I order.
MS> Thanks,
MS> Matt
We tried to talk with this people, but vainly and we are carrying on negotiations with the administration of photo.net to delete this mendacious topic from their site. It's blatant lie and provocation from our unscrupulous competitors.
Anyway, it's only your choice whom you will trust.
Regards,
Anne, Sales manager mailto:sales@fine-tronics.com
-- Matt SC., July 15, 2004
I hate to say this appears to be another European scam, but it is the 2cd. one I've come across in the last 45 days. The other one was from the UK; I had to send my Money buy Western Union to his manager to some county that used to be behind the Iron Curtain. Western Union says these scams are quite common. It's simple, no matter how attractive the deal,,, don't sent the MONEY. You'll loose it. PebbleHV
-- Pebble HV, July 16, 2004 THe Fine-Tonics website is hosted in New Jersey. (NJ). And the email I received have a return IP address pointing to NJ hosting company. So that means the emails are coming from US. ITS A COMPLETE SCAM. BEWARE or LOOSE MONEY. I asked if I can pick up from them, they said NO. Amit
-- Amit Gupta, July 25, 2004
Can anyone tell me of some good internet firms that sell cameras? I've been looking all over for a D70, and so far not having much luck. I actually had purchased one from A&M photoworld some weeks ago, but after ordering it I had to call to confirm the order and was pressured into buying a number of accessories that weren't included in the original price (although I had understood from their site that these were included). In any case, the final price ended up being nearly double what I had originally planned, so I finally cancelled the order entirely. After that I found the fine-tronics site, and also decided to order it there. I received the reply about having to send the moneygram, which I found odd, but in my eagerness to get the camera for an upcoming holiday I decided to go ahead. I was actually in the post office this afternoon ready to send it, but there was a trainee on duty who didn't know how to proceed, so I decided to go back tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I decided to check up on this company (something I should have done much earlier), and I happened upon this site (and subsequently others) which warn of a scam. Thanks for your postings. I of course am not planning to pursue the fine-tronics deal now, but I wonder if in fact there are any reputable firms out there which any of you have dealt with and would recommend I look into? Thanks. Steve.
-- Steve Smith, July 25, 2004 Warning! fine-tronics is a scam, they got my money and now don't reply to my emails any more.I hope this saves someone else from getting sucked in. Jim Strang
-- Jim Strang, July 27, 2004 Steve. With so many NJ/NY camera shops, If you look they all have a website and a pattern. The 1800 Number goes to one store. A lot of them dont have address or have a PO box. The sell camera, with no US warranty, and if they do , then its NOT MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY . It is their warranty, which is useless after you read all the fine prints. The only Reputed places I found are ( I just bought one ) Wolf/Ritz Camera, Best Buys, Good Guys , Amazon. They all have almost same price 1299/- and 200$ expensive then others who sell with No Manufacturers US warranty. Suggest to buy from these reputed places and not from any ofh the NY/NJ stores. most of them are just offering cheap and no warranty. Fine Tronics Fellow I traced is in Philedephia. Too bad we cannot do anything about it.
-- Amit Gupta, July 26, 2004 Thanks, you saved me a lot of money. I was skeptical and it is nice to have my suspicions confirmed. It is concerning that they are a Google sponsored site. I know that they pay for the side ad but I thought Google would check their credibility.
-- Darlene Lewis, August 1, 2004
I've been recently duped as well!!!! I've already made the payment 5 days ago and still haven't received my camera. The emails are bouncing back I've tried several times to email in last 24 hours. There is no response. What should I do now...?
-- Chitra Mohanty, August 2, 2004
I am not very aquainted with the internet, therefore in looking online for a nikon d70, i found the deal that i could not refuse, yet if i would have looked further i would have known that FINETRONICS.COM was a huge SCAM. i went to word search and typed in nikon d70 and found this offer for 959$. not checking into it so much, i was more excited about my new purchase because i was going to visit my nephew and niece, and couldnt wait to take digital pictures with my new camera!!! when i didnt recieve my camera after the three to six business days that they claimed i would recieve it, i began to panic. i wrote them several emails and there was not even one response. the only way i knew for sure that i was really SCAMMED was by going under word search under "Fraud" and thats when i found this website. i wish there was a more visible way of finding out what companies check out, because there is always going to be someone like me who is NOT computer literate looking for something cheap online. how are we going to shut these fraudulant companies down???? just please if you find a deal too good to be true, and a company that only accepts a money gram or western union(basically anyone who won't take a credit card) DON'T DO IT!!!!!!
-- laurie durham, July 31, 2004 I also was had by them...and I am turning them over to the FBI,state atty. general, US atty general, the local Helsinki Police, and our consulate in Helsinki and also their consulate in Washington....maybe some thing will happen....ANYONE THAT HAS BEEN SCRE_DED BY THEM NEEDS TO FILE REPORTS....Whom ever is running this seems to think they are above the law and untouchable....might need to contact local VOO-DOO GROUPS for help also :o} had to lighten this up a bit. Almost forgot...Anne actually said it had shipped and I even paid for FED EX 2 day...all because I had a job and the customer wanted it all digital...lost my a_ _ 2 ways on this one.... any way the more formal complaints that are filed the better our chances of recovery are....so no matter how embarrassed you are file complaints.
-- ARTHUR SCOTT, August 2, 2004 I am sure glad that I did a google on them. I was very close to ordering. I even contacted US Customs to be sure of any import duty that I would have to pay. But, things that sound too good to be true tend to be just that. I am sorry about any one who has falled into the scam pit. It hurts!
Perhaps a note to the FBI on this would be in order?
-- Peter Kumble, August 6, 2004
I was equally skeptical and did not bite. Now they seem to have changed their name to Digibest..also based (?) in Finland and interestingly enough the sales manager also goes by the name "Anne". I got several replies to emails from 'her' all sounding very nice and convincing but I still wont' bite. They did, BTW, offer the same package for a Credit card for $1400 which would at least allow redress but why go thru the hassel. Too good to be true..so it isn't. M. Rogers, Aug. 14, 2004
-- Mark Rogers, August 14, 2004
I was also looking at purchasing the D70 from digibest.net and had some big flags go up when I read that they only take money orders. Another item that made me rather suspicious, is that I looked up every one of the people on their feedback page, and none of them exist. The odds of not one of them living in the same town anymore are pretty slim. So, no longer planning on paying for the camera, I ordered one, and looked at the header information in the email they send for confirmation. They are sending their email from host68.hrwebservices.net. Which it turns out after a little digging is in Clifton, NY.
They haven't asked me to pay for it yet, and I'm curious who they will request I make the money order out to, but rest assured, this is a SCAM.
I also emailed google at suggestions@google.com to request that at very least investigate this company because they are inadvertently helping them commit fraud. Hopefully they will take the sponsored link off and save a lot of people pain.
-- josh huhmann, August 20, 2004
They have now changed their name to DiGi-Best.Info
-- you (edit your comment), August 26, 2004 Wow, thanks! I read the above thread AFTER I had sent them my money, but thanks to the time difference (10 hours ahead of California), I was able to have the transaction cancelled before the slime picked it up in Helsinki, and am only out the $65 transfer fee charged by money gram. These crooks are slick and seemed to have all of the answers for anything I asked. I am in the process of reporting them to Google and ro any other search engine I can think of.
-- you (edit your comment), August 24, 2004 I have reported them (and all their aliases) to Google's AD-word fraud department, to Nikon USA and to MoneyGram's fraud department. I have also sent an email to their two hosting services (for their email and for their website). I am sure though that these suckers will merely change the name of their 'company' and scam some more unsuspecting folks.
-- you (edit your comment), August 26, 2004 In an email from 'Anne', the sales mgr. at Digibest she offered to sell it COD or credit card for $1400. I don't think one is allowed to open COD until it's paid for. Even so, who knows what the 'camera' would be worth even if it were inside...or even ever delivered for that matter. Wonder if FBI would respond if notified by enough folks. M. Rogers
-- Mark Rogers, August 24, 2004
Comments
Ron Ashley , September 03, 2004; 12:01 A.M.
Ron Ashley , September 03, 2004; 12:34 A.M.
Terry Erdt , September 03, 2004; 01:02 A.M.
Ron Ashley , September 03, 2004; 09:46 A.M.
BK prasad , September 04, 2004; 03:01 A.M.
Tom Feazel , September 04, 2004; 01:24 P.M.
Karl Schoen , September 05, 2004; 04:19 A.M.
jeff diamond , September 06, 2004; 10:05 A.M.
BK prasad , September 09, 2004; 01:19 A.M.
jim fleeb , September 13, 2004; 12:49 P.M.
Amit Gupta , September 14, 2004; 05:10 P.M.
fallpopia tuber , September 27, 2004; 10:52 A.M.