Description

Went to https://reptmarts.com/ to buy a common rain frog for my child. The website looked legit and said the frogs were in stock. Upon checkout, there was no direct connectivity to a payment system. I was asked to pay by Apple Pay, Zelle, PayPal etc. and to send a screen shot of the payment. Upon hitting submit, I received an email of the order asking me to make the payment. I was given a phone number 240 698 9289 to make the payment to. I made the payment via Apple Cash. They said they received the payment and everything was legit. Then they sent me a tracking number for a “courier” company. https://azexpresscourierservice.com/. Subsequently, I received an email from the “courier” company that my package is stuck with the authorities at the Miami airport. I need to buy pet insurance of $499 otherwise the package will be destroyed. That’s when I sensed a scam. The email’s style was same as that of the order confirmation and payment types were also the same. This raised a suspicion that this is an elaborate scam where the scammers have two websites - an order placement website and a fake courier website. They take money through non credit card means (cash) and then they scam further by creating the insurance issue. At this point in time I texted the store rep’s number and asked about the matter. The reply came that they can’t do anything as they have given the package to the “courier” company.