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I've purchased meds overseas from Mexico, Taiwan, and India. Our blessed government has managed to put the squeeze on Mexico and Taiwan so they no longer ship meds to the U.S. I've never once been snake bit up until now. This week I was scammed by someone representing a large pharmaceutical company in India. Should have been leery when his email said the company couldn't accept PayPal, Credit Cards, or International Money Orders on orders below $2000 dollars. They could only accept Western Union Money Order Telegram.
Okay, still no Flashing Red Light Alert, as I've done this many times. Yep, you guessed the rest of the story by now. I sent the telegram. He delayed six days before emailing me the order had been shipped, gave me a shipping tracking number and the name of the shipper. I put the number into the shipper's tracking site and it came up invalid. My turn to be more dumb then I already was. Figured it was too early for their system to register it. The next day the same thing, invalid number. It still didn't compute in my tiny little fuzzy mind I'd been had, until I received a notice supposedly from the shipper there were taxes pending on the package and I needed to pay up. I replied they needed to contact the company that had mailed the package. They replied it was up to me, not their problem.
Warning lights are starting to turn on in the very small intelligent corner of my brain..., finally. This is where it gets so damn funny I have to laugh at the whole situation. I contact the "gentleman?" I had been dealing with and informed him the shipper needed taxes paid on the product. Pay close attention boys and girls because this is the "ah ha moment". He replied he had forgot about the taxes for export and I had to pay the taxes. He would file a notice with his insurance carrier and they would reimburse me for half the cost. OH YEAH, Red Alert Lights finally came on in my fuzzy brain and dummy finally did her research on taxes for meds coming out of India. The scammers were demanding a hundred and five percent of the cost of the item, $56 dollars, when real taxes would be twelve percent, $6 dollars.
I informed him I'd pay if and when the package arrived. It was the last he would communicate with me. I sent all data in an email to the company he was supposedly representing and to India International Trade Organization, India Mart, he was advertising through. That was four days ago. Today I'm going to send an email of all correspondence along with copy of Western Union Telegram to:
https://www.india.gov.in/official-website-serious-fraud-inve...
https://www.econsumer.gov/
Getting any money back is immaterial. My greatest pleasure would be to put the hurts on this slime ball and stop him from doing this to anyone else. I guess I finally need to start paying attention when I order from anywhere, not just overseas. It was an inexpensive lesson. The idiot could have all my info on my credit card and really milked it dry. LOL, he's as dumb as me.
always,
Barb
Life is too short to take seriously. No matter how bad it gets, it's still illegal to eat us.
Comments
Small scale fraud
is quite often the MO since most people being scammed don't bother to take action if the amount isn't that large. If you take action police and other authorities put it in the (usually very large) low priority stack.
Western Union?
Oh dear.
That is a prime channel for this type of scam. WU don't give a toss.
We all have these 'brain fade' moments from time to time.
Samantha
Even Worse
Doing a wire transfer directly into a bank account. I believe WU may have a transfer limit?
The Real Scam
The real scam here is our bought and paid for government.
Anyone who will write a big enough check can do anything to anyone and there's no consequences.
Big oil, pharma, NRA, defense industry, etc.
This is the only bi-partisan effort in Washington.
It's hard to drain the swamp when the two-party system allows you only to vote for swamp-creatures.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Instead of "drain the swamp" - Swamp the swamp?
Don't try to drain the swamp. Pump water into it instead and, maybe, you will get a nice lake.
LOL
Hugs Jill,
Hon don't be like me and go tilting at windmills, Don Quixote.
Looking back, life is just too damn short to cure all the problems.
pssst, I still have some ocean front property in Oklahoma for sale discounted especially for you girlfriend.
Bring Bru, I'll give her a "hell of a deal" also because we're buds.
always
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I have a question.
Why are you even buying meds from overseas to begin with if they are not done through amazon?
There is something really odd about this.
Nothing odd at all
Most meds purchased are a tenth or less of the price from overseas pharmacies than any pharmacy in the U.S. The second factor is doctors usually only write a prescription for three months max. Start adding the numbers. $300 for doctors visit, over a $100 EA month for prescriptions. Now add that up. four doctor visits, twelve hundred dollars and fourteen hundred for the prescriptions. I can get the same number of pills, meds, whatever for less than two hundred for the year overseas.
The U.S. has the highest cost per prescription in the world. Big Pharmas control our government. Key congressmen and senators are bought and paid for with billions of dollars American citizens donate to Big Pharmacies. If you purchased any kind of pharmaceuticals last year, you contributed to the three trillion dollar income Big Pharma made.
Now to tie the tail on this sad woe of American Consumers verses Big Pharma. Ninety percent of the prescription meds are manufactured in India. No matter whose name is on the package there is a ninety percent chance it was made and packaged in India. So you bet your last lucky dime, I and millions of other U.S. citizens are buying overseas. If one lives near the Canadian or Mexican border. walk across buy three months worth of prescriptions and bring it back. Perfectly legal but only three months supply each crossing/day. Don't go back and try it the same day. Customs will confiscate it. I order three months supply at a time, they ship and again legal. Never had a package opened by customs. They get hundreds of thousands of packages from overseas pharmacies coming into the U.S. every day. The logistics of opening and inspecting would be a nightmare for them. They do track where it is shipped from and what pharmacies are shipping. There are some on the no import list. Customs will confiscate it.
Hope I haven't rocked anyone's faith in our superior medical profession.
always,
Barb
Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it is worn out
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
well i am in canada
and most of the meds I take are manufactured locally, I do mean locally as the plant for making pills is in the town I went to highschool in. There is plants like this in ontario since over 80 percent of medications are grown off tobacco plants(surprise) and no its not the smoking kind of tobacco but is paid for by the cigarette companys.
It's not _all_ Big Pharma.
It's not _all_ Big Pharma. Much of it, a HUGE chunk of it, is the insurance industry, because of the lawyers. Suing pharmaceutical companies is so profitable there are law firms that do nothing but specialize in generating lawsuits against them. Most are settled out of court for HUGE amounts of money, because otherwise it'll go on forever.
If you want someone to blame - go after the FDA for failing to indemnify drug companies against lawsuits _for problems specifically stated in the packaging_. "If you have high blood pressure, do not take this medication." 50 people die from taking the medication - while clearly on medication for high blood pressure - and the lawyers go NUTS. Our "Failure To Take Responsibility" raised American generations immediately blame it on the drug - rather than on the idiot who didn't follow directions.
It's less profitable, or accessible, for a US lawyer to sue a company in Mexico, India, or Canada.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
There are also meds that are just not available.
There are three different kinds of meds. Meds locally approved and available. Meds locally prohibited. Where you can get a jail sentence if you found in possession of... Sometimes those prohibited meds are just a cough syrup/pills. But jail time can be very real and very long... And then there is a third kind. A huge gray zone between locally approved and available meds and prohibited meds where there are meds that are not locally available or officially imported but are not prohibited. As I traveled quite often I several times happened to be the one to buy meds from "not available locally but not prohibited" list for my friends.
Robaxicet - we buy it (the
Robaxicet - we buy it (the generic, anyway) in Canada. Over the counter medication. Even the stuff with codeine is behind the counter, not prescription.
Here? It's apparently considered a controlled substance. Must have been a lot of addicts of low grade muscle relaxants knocking over convenience stores.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Don’t blame all of healthcare
Big (and small) pharma are corporations. Having no morals corporations exist for the sole purpose of making money. If you have a protected monopoly on a needed item you can charge all the market can bear. (Capitalism 101....)
Please remember that medicine refers to Doctors and Surgeons. Healthcare then includes Nurses, Therapists, Pharmacists, and many other professionals.
Most individual doctors and nurses I know (and pharmacists too) want cheaper meds for their patients. We (I’m a retired Nurse) see too many people who can’t afford needed meds.
Unfortunately tort Lawyers and pharmaceutical corporations and insurance corporations care only for their profits. And those corporations can afford to buy more legislators (most of whom are also lawyers) than the rest of us.
And so it goes.
BAK 0.25tspgirl
YIKES!
That's why when I was self medicating I used Inhousepharmacy they are reliable and have done this for decades
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
Western Union
Will never allow you knowingly to send to a fraudster. It is one of the questions that the agent is required to ask you.
Are you sending this money to receive goods or services? If the answer is yes then they block you and your name for four hours.
If the agent did not ask you that question then they are at fault. Hard to prove though still a complaint about that location should help the next time there is a complaint and they can lose their license. If it is a retail location complaining to the manager will get the clerk written up for not doing their job.
I have been personally attacked because I would not allow this woman to send money to some guy, she had not meet before, claiming to be in love with her. I have seen someone try to buy 2000 worth of google play or iTunes cards. I have stopped a transaction because someone was being coached on the phone right in front of me and didn't even know how to pronounce their name.
Lower your chances of falling victim to fraud by checking out these eight things you should never do when using a money transfer service.
1. Never send money to people you haven't met in person.
2. Never send money to pay for taxes or fees on lottery or prize winnings.
3. Never use a test question as an additional security measure to protect your transaction.
4. Never provide your banking information to people or businesses you don’t know.
5. Never send money in advance to obtain a loan or credit card.
6. Never send money for an emergency situation without verifying that it’s a real emergency.
7. Never send funds from a check in your account until it officially clears—which can take weeks.
8. Never send a money transfer to an individual for online purchases.
General Warning Signs
Scammers have many excuses about why they can’t meet you in person. They list numerous reasons why they need the money and always seem to be in trouble.
Scammers claim they’ve been in an accident or have a sudden family tragedy right before boarding a plane to meet you, or are held up in Customs and needs money for their release.
Scammers continue to ask for money for a plane ticket to see you, or to “float” them until payday.
Scammers need money because they were mugged and their money, passport, and ID were stolen while traveling.
Scammers will tell you to send the money in the name of a friend or family member to verify you have funds or to act as an escrow until you receive the purchased goods or services.
Scammers claim they have been in an accident, are in the hospital and their medical bills have to be paid in full before they can leave.
Scammers will claim to be your relative and need help.
Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Contemplation, yet duty
Death, yet the Force.
Light with dark, I remain Balanced.
Not just Western Union
I was scammed once and the #1 rule will always be if they try to get money from you then watch out.
It is hard on those who genuinely need the money as I’ve ignored god knows how many ‘homeless’, drifters, ‘disabled veterans’ people asking for help to get bus fare etc. Tough.
Like you said, they will try to play on your sympathies and your good nature but never trust strangers applies even as an adult. Grifters never change.