Has anyone dealt with sale-telescopes.com?

[tomski]

Hi,

Just want to ask if anyone here had any dealings with sale-telescope.com?
Their prices seems to be very low, almost to good to be true.

I'm looking at Explore Scientific ED127 under $1k.

http://www.sale-telescopes.com/products/Explore-Scientific-ED127-Essential-Edition-Refractor.html

Please let me know what you think.

Tom

[Kunama]

Hard to see how they can sell Losmandy G11G2 for less than half of Aussie price,
Payments by wire transfer !!!!!
I would recommend you take care before sending money!

They are also selling AstroPhysics Mounts which you can't even get from AP without waiting lists.

They also have TSA120 Taks for 2600, I might get another and make a binoscope!

The only way I would buy from them is if I was in Indonesia and picking up after ensuring the item was real. Might also need asbestos gloves!

[gaa_ian]

Remember "Australian Telescopes" and how they evaporated in a puff of bargains once persued by consumer affairs ....Beware & Avoid !!!

[tlgerdes]

Well they advertise a lot of Celestron equipment, yet are not an authorized cCelestron dealer, and knowing how Celestron protect their markets, I would definitely say they only exist to take your money.

[bigjoe]

FAR, FAR Too good to be true in my view. Beware!!!

[tomski]

Thanks for your input. I will definitely avoid this one.

[seeker372011]

There is a thread on cloudy nights

Someone went to the actual address in Indonesia...they don't exist!

Stay far away

One giveaway is they don't accept Paypal

[mental4astro]

I had a look through the site, and came across something odd. They sell the Argo Navis system under the name of "JMI NGC-superMAX":

http://www.sale-telescopes.com/products/JMI-NGC%252dsuperMAX-Computer-Only.html

I've sent Gary at Wildcard about this. The really concerning thing is the price this mob is selling it at - way below local price from Gary himself! Will be very interesting his reply! As soon as I get a reply from Gary, I'll post it here.

Mental.

[LewisM]

Aw... and here was I hoping to get an AP Mach1 or a Tak Temma mount for under $5K each. Spoilsports :)

[Terry B]

Seems like a lot of effort to go to for a scam. The website is well presented. The market isn't very big really for astro equipment.
Still I'm not risking it.

[barx1963]

JMI in the States remarket ANs as a "superMAX". See http://www.jmitelescopes.com/buy_ngc.htm . So I guess this mob in Indonesia have simply lifted things from the JMI site.

Malcolm

[gary]

Thanks Alex.

Just to make it clear to everyone reading or Googling this thread, the web site
http://www.sale-telescopes.com is a scam.

Their purported address is -
Jalan Gajah Mada 104-107
Jakarta 11140
Indonesia

However, as someone has noted, they are not at this address.

In any case, there are some simple rules in life and I will make this as blunt and
as crude as possible to emphasize the point.

1. Never go to a brothel in Lagos Nigeria and have unprotected sex.
2. Never buy anything online out of countries such as Indonesia and never ship
to a buyer there unless you know them personally and trust them.

Indonesia is a major center for international credit card fraud. If you provide your
credit card details to a site such as this there, then it is stolen. If you do a wire transfer
you will never get your money back.

I have to hand it to the creators of www.sale-telescopes.com though
as they have gone to a lot of trouble. I've traveled to countries all around the world
and seen a lot of great attempts at scams. But as far as scams go, I do in particular
love the touch of the "Gift Certificate" feature of this web site. :lol:

Almost certainly the creators of the web site will have other web sites targeting entirely
different markets.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
wildcard@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au

[tlgerdes]

I find these funny, we notice them because they are so cheap.

If they had their prices up to 80% of the market price rather than 50% of the market price, they probably would get more fish on their hooks as less people would think it is too good to be true.

[wavelandscott]

I was thinking the exact same thing...I suspect that a "good deal" instead of a jaw breaking steal would attract many more folks to the scam...

[brian nordstrom]

:question: another thing also is that a lot of the advertised gear is obsolete now , its like they don't even know what is the latest stuff ? , some of it is from the 1990's ;) .
Shame as those are great prices , but , :screwy: .
AVOID ! like the plague .
Brian.

[bigjoe]

Is anyone going to admit they were just about to get sucked in?.Come forward please!! And that means YOU!!HAW.:P

[foxdie76]

hello, i placed an order about 2 weeks ago for a coronado solarmaxII double stack 90 w/bf30 block. for £2,581.92 then it went up to £2,697 on the same day(witch i didnt no about). thay shiped the telescope afew days after the money cleared throught using a SWIFT account that thay use. ( U WONT GET YOUR MONEY BACK). thay told the shipping company to hold the telescope at the cochin internatinal airport india. After a few emails, it turns out thay sent 2 telescopes, and WONT send until i pay for the second uint.. I told them i placed an order for 1 unit and not 2. all thay kept saying is to pay for the second unit to allow the the shipment to carry on. I then e-mailed them to cancel the order and a refund. thay said thay cant refund. Even tho there terms and conditions say 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE !!

[multiweb]

Gee that's terrible. If you have a copy of the original order and email correspondence then start to take legal action and recoup some of your money. I assume they have emailed you a receipt or a tax invoice for the original order? If you paid via PayPal you have the opportunity to lodge a dispute and you'll get some cover. If you paid via CC call your bank and see what your options are.

[gary]

The bad news is that you have become the victim of fraud and that you will never, ever
get your money back. It is lost forever.

There were never any telescopes. They don't have any telescopes to ship.

Though you will never get your money back, the UK has a national fraud
and internet crime reporting centre called Action Fraud.
Their web site is here - http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
You should nevertheless report it including the name of the bank you
telegraphically transferred funds to, the bank's SWIFT code and the account
number and the account name they suggested to use. This may help others from sending
money to the same account but assume they will simply set up another.

Currently we don't know who is behind http://www.sale-telescopes.com/ but
it is nothing but a front for criminals. It may be the work of a single individual
working alone. The really bad news is that in the worse case it might turn out to
be a front for an organization such as Jemaah Islamiyah to raise hard foreign
currency to assist them fund their operations.

Action Fraud's number in the UK is 0300 123 2040. Whether they can issue a
warning to the UK banks to put an alert on the Indonesian account number, I don't
know, but it may help assist others from losing their money in the UK too.

[tomski]

fox, i am really sorry to hear you got cheated and lost your money.

I think we should spread the word across other astronomy forums to ensure others can be warned. When I first encountered that site I googled their name for reviews and found nothing. If we post on other forums that should show up in google results for anyone else looking for info before they fall victim.

[foxdie76]

thanks eveyone:thumbsup:, i have reported it to the police today. its shame, but there you go it happens. ill be looking at the internet in a diffrent way, ill stick to uk sites. i have posted this on cloudy nights as well.

[Tony_]

For future reference you can use this website to get a risk analysis of possible scam websites (it's free).

"scamadviser.com"

It list further information about sale-telescopes including website domain & owner etc.

[gary]

Notice that they are also behind http://www.sale-paper.com, http://www.sale-medical.com,
http://www.tools-top.com and a bevy of other sites all with the same modus operandi.

[multiweb]

Here's their details:

- Beneficiary Name / Account Name : Putra Jaya
- Beneficiary Number / Account Number : 021-840-2557
- Bank Name : PT. Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk
- SWIFT CODE : BNINIDJA
- Bank Address :Jl. Jend Sudirman Kav. 1 Jakarta 10220
- Country : INDONESIA

[solararity]

Sale Telescope, do not buy from this website, its a SCAM SCAM SCAM, i checked this website out on scamadviser.com... it turned out that the website is high risk , the website is based in indonesia, but the owner is Australian
you can check yourself got to scamadviser.com then in the search bar type in www.sale-telescopes.com and it checks it for you.... Hope i helped , be well

[brian nordstrom]

Some astro buddies from 'Sing Astro' , Singapore's IIS went to the address of this so called telescope supplier and guess what ??? IT DOES NOT EXIST :screwy:,
Scam for sure , just look at the prices and some of the gear is obsolete now .
Brian.

[luxorion]

Very sorry for your bad experience.
But positive point, it will help maybe hundreds or amateurs to avoid this trap...

I noted that when you order something on that speudo site, the page does not even switch in secure mode. It is simply written in php !!
Indonesia is famous for its fraud and cybercriminality.... This site is a school case :-(

Question : have you tried to record a complain to your police and opened a file to a customer protection association ?
No possibility to put the owner in trial ?

Thanks.

[AG Hybrid]

When are people going to learn? If it sounds too good to be true. It is.
That should be everyone's personal radar to scams.

72mm ed astrotech for $260. Half price. Not to mention it's been out of stock from retailers everywhere in the world approaching 1 & 1/2 years. Sounds alright aye?

They are preying on peoples greed.

[Mickey_C]

Wow - I am sooooo glad I searched this. I was being lured in by the 1/2 off price of the Tak TSA 120.

What a bunch of criminals. You would think that once a website was established to be a scam that their DNS records would get updated and nobody would get directed there. There should be some international movement by the internet committees to do something like that, to stop online fraud.

Thanks for having this site and calling attention to these scum!

[John K]

Very disturbing.

I remember many years ago when I bought my DSLR - similar scenario - someone had set up a very convincing website with the cheapest prices on the net and wanted a wire transfer - they were quite convincing and answered all questions etc - what gave them away was when I Googled their so called address in Italy - it ended up being a hotel! Busted!!!

As others have said - if it is too good to be true then it is!

Caveat Emptor.

John K.

[johngwheeler]

Wow, I'm really glad I looked this up! I was being tempted by a really cheap Explore Scientific ED 102 Carbon at US$899 (a tad over half its MSRP), but wanted to do some due-diligence first.

Just as well; it appears to be a well-crafted scam.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is, sadly :-)

Will now look at SW ED100 from someone like Andrews Com - sounds like a less stressful buying experience!

[LewisM]

http://www.astroshop.com.au/products/details.asp?id=MAS-045D

Comes with GENUINE Australian warranty too and the same price as Andrews (grey imported, dubious warranty)

[brian nordstrom]

:D There is an ED100 Saxon brand for sale right now in the classifieds for $800 , that's a good buy for a great scope .
Brian.