At first glance, Tfox Mart (tfoxmart.com) looks like an innocuous online shop selling women’s clothes. Even its prices seem reasonable. Some of the clothes may be on the cheap side, but there are legitimate dropshipping operations out there that feature even lower prices on products shipped directly from China.
This may hold for clothes, but that is not all that Tfox Mart peddles. According to user/victim testimonials, the site also sells pressure cookers, air conditioning units, couches, ovens, grills, and you-name-it. With such theoretically more expensive items, the too-good-to-be-true nature of the offers becomes obvious.
If something priced at $300 at a physical store like Walmart is advertised for $90 online, you are most likely dealing with a scam.
Let us take a closer look at Tfox Mart and see:
- Why it is a scam.
- What red flags it raises.
- Why it has been so successful scamming people.
- How you can avoid such scams in the future.
Why Tfox Mart is a Scam
Tfox Mart is a scam for a couple of simple reasons.
- It charges its buyers more than it should, based on the prices featured on its pages.
- It does not deliver any products. By the time its victims realize that they have been duped, it is too late to do much about it. All they can do is try to navigate PayPal’s procedures to maybe get their monies back someday.
Tfox Mart Raises Scores of Red Flags
We cannot deny that the Tfox Mart website has an air of legitimacy about it. The scammers have done their homework well. Still, if you run a scam, there is no way to hide it perfectly. Here are some telltale red flags about Tfox Mart, that you too will likely notice at a closer look.
The credibility of the website does not hold up to scrutiny. The people behind the scam created the site on a template, tossing it together quickly.
One telltale sign of an online shopping scam is that the site does not have policies. Well, this one does, but the scammers have simply copied the terms and policies off other sites.
Performing a whois lookup on the domain (tfoxmart.com) reveals other unsettling details. The site is only 88 days old, meaning that it has been around for less than three months. You should never trust an online shopping site this young.
Furthermore, whoever registered the site insisted that the registration should be private. Only someone with something to hide would register a site anonymously in the online shopping vertical.
The operators of the site have only reserved the domain for one year. They probably do not intend to keep it any longer. It is a standard practice among some online shopping scammers to “work” a site for a while, and then drop it when it gathers too much online heat and scam reviews.
The contact information and the credentials on the site appear to be fake. There is an address as well as a phone number here, but neither of them looks legitimate. The phone is a New Hampshire one, while the address is in Atlanta, GA.
The person whose name the site provides, Adrianna Redondo, does not seem to exist in the context of this online shopping business.
Online shopping scammers usually advertise their merchandise at unrealistically low prices. If a deal seems to be too good to be true, it most certainly is.
The payment method is another scam giveaway in this instance. Tfox Mart only accepts PayPal. It is peculiar, to say the least, that PayPal still acts as a payment processor for this operation. The slowly turning corporate mechanism of the payments giant has probably not yet realized what Tfox Mart is doing.
Most online shopping scammers insist on immediate, upfront, electronic payment. PayPal fits that description. Some people may not realize that they have been duped immediately. Thus, they give the scammers time to withdraw their funds. Those who do dispute the transfers as soon as possible, run into a lengthy procedure that may or may not end up recovering their monies.
Serious online shops have refund policies. Tfox Mart’s owners even thought about covering that angle. Since you never receive any merchandise, however, there is not much point in having such a policy. You will not have anything to return.
Client feedback is always a huge factor in determining the trustworthiness of any online service/goods provider.
In this instance, client feedback is abysmal. There are few Tfox Mart reviews, but most of them have drawn litanies of complaints, scam allegations, and even threats.
The Tfox Mart scammers have made use of Google Shopping to accost their would-be victims. Many feedback providers have pointed out that they found the extremely low prices suspicious when searching for pool pumps and other such devices.
The official front of the site does not even mention the sale of such items. Those who search, however, do happen upon such offers.
If you placed an order at the site and you got a package tracking number, take a look. If it says that you have already received the goods, then the conclusion is clear. Sometimes, the alleged delivery date may even precede the date of the order.
Why Tfox Mart has been so Successful Scamming People
The scammers have set up a relatively credible front. Also, the operation works with reputable entities such as Google Shopping and PayPal. For many, it is impossible to comprehend how PayPal could do business with such scammers.
According to some complainers, in some cases, PayPal even sided with the perpetrators, when the victims disputed the transactions.
How to Avoid Scams like the Tfox Mart One?
If you find a deal online that seems too good to be true, even if you find it through a trusted entity, run a search on it. Look around for information about the company peddling the deal.
Those scammed are more than willing to complain and warn off others. Community feedback is gold in such cases. Also, you may happen upon reviews such as this one, which dissects and details every aspect of the scam.
Before using any online shopping site, find out who is behind it. If the company is based in the same country you are, your chances of recovering your money if anything goes wrong, are much better.
Before you turn to the authorities or the payment processor, try to contact the seller. Not all misplaced orders are scams. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons behind the issues. We should note that in this instance neither the phone number nor the email address works for contacting the scammers.