WeldingSupplyUSA.com 1&1 Internet, Inc. Credit Card Harvester, Fraudulent Web Site Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania

WeldingSupplyUSA.com is a front for a black market credit card harvesting operation.  I tried to purchase a MIG Welder from them on April 15, 2011.  I picked the one I wanted, added it to my shopping cart, even added some accessories to the order, looked over the page quickly, felt they looked legit since they said they'd been in business since 1964 or something, but was I suckered!  I checked out, entered my name, address, credit card details, and everything they needed to complete the $420 purchase, then submitted my order.

I quickly received a professional looking confirmation email from their Sales Department giving me a purchase order number and a complete recap of my order.  It all looked legit.  Oh, and I should note that this company was listed on Google Shopping pages and other search engines and was consistently 10-20% cheaper then all the other vendors...that's how they lure suckers in.

After a few days of not receiving a shipping confirmation for my order, I replied to their sales department seeking information about my order.  By the next day when I got no response, I went back to their web site looking for a phone number.  That's when my heart sank, because I realized that they gave no company information whatsoever.  Not an address, phone number, email, or anything.  They just had a form that you could submit to contact them.  I filled it out 2-3 times over the next 24 hours.  I got no responses at all.

That's when I decided to look further.  They had not charged the transaction to my credit card at all, but I could not withdraw the transaction either....there was nobody to contact.  I realized the company was a fraud, so I looked up the contact info on www.networksolutions.com for who owned that domain name.  That's where I found that they had a "private registration", which meant you could not view who actually owns that domain name, but there is a company that was chosen to act as a Liaison for the actual owner and that company is:

1&1 Internet, Inc. - http://1and1.com/contact
701 Lee Road, Suite 300
Chesterbrook, PA 19087
1.877.206.4254

I went to that company's website and also called their number.  I sent email and left voicemail for them and never got any responses.  Surprise!

That's when I decided to contact the Attorney General's office for Pennsylvania.  I filed a complaint with that office and submitted all the proper paperwork and they said they'd "look into it".  

I knew I should cancel my credit card, but many of my bills are billed directly to that card every month and I was about to leave for a long vacation, so I didn't want to have all my bills bouncing while I was away.  Needless to say, the bank took care of that for me because a week after I left a fraudulent "gas" charge appeared on my statement claiming to be from my home zip code when I was 3 states away from home. 

The lesson learned?  This is an actual black market criminal operation and they ARE taking money from their victims.  I'm also about to file a report with the FBI, but I doubt they'll care or have time to investigate it.

Beware WeldingSupplyUSA!!!