Is this a scam?

[digip]

Funny. I got the same PM and I never even talked to the man/whatever before. LEt me ask this. How the hell did he come here? The whole thing smells of bullshit to begin with. Who is spreading what? I smell manure and its being spread by Mr So Called Burres. What lawyer would even bother with us when NONE of us have done anything. What is it we did? -Or- Who really cares? Lame. Just, lame. I don't care if his site is legit or not. People should be cautious of ANY site they buy something from. Especially when they claim so much emphaticlly how legit they are, "though dost protest too much". Mr Burress, I would also like to invite you to my Buttocks so I may

Please, if you disagree with some of the people on here, either grow thicker skin, or make a rebuttle that makes an attempt to sound legit instead of trying to threaten people who could care less about you and your website. If anything, I take your post as advertising spam and in my opinion, it should be removed. Feel free to respond, but please, your lawyer can talk to my lawyer and they will both have a nice chuckle over your claims. Have a nice day.

[DingleBerries]

Mr Burress, I would also like to invite you to my Buttocks so I may

lawl that is classic

[digip]

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?...mageID=25967611 One of them is him and another brother of Plaxico??

His (Ricardo) myspace? http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?...mageID=25967611

Brother of both Ricardo and Plaxico: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=70095980

Another site linking to his myspace: http://hometown.aol.com/eauto1002/index.html (And not much better than his iPhone site)

Not sure: http://www.kaneva.com/channel/vitalrecordsmusic.people

http://thebiz.variety.com/people/michaelhusted <--Now, if he is going to be on a reality TV show, why is he selling phones? If he is "in he bizz" wouldn't he already have money?

Maybe Ricardo Burress that posted here isn't even the real Ricardo Burress.

[moonlit]

Hi, everybody this is Ricardo Burress CEO of Ricardo's Closet. I been reading some bad stuff about my website and how it's a scam. Let me just say this first of all you dont have any clue who your dealing with. Second, my brother is Plaxico Burress from the NY Giants and why would I scam somebody for a couple dollars when I can just jump in a Maybach hit the tarmac and hit Miami.... So before you start making up stuff about who I am you better check yourself out first. My lawyer's are checking into this matter and I sure all this information here on this blog will be used against who ever is spreading this rumor mill. If you want to purchase anything from my site please do so if not thats cool I wont lose sleep and my house and car will still be here. So thank you all for helping me spread the word... that my website has just been launched and still under construction. Thank you.

hamptonroads.com/2008/02/former-coach-basks-burress-glory

www.ccaaevents.com

It's perfectly reasonable to have concerns about websites selling what seems like a very, very good deal and even more reasonable to ask others for a second opinion. I don't know whether you're legit personally and to be quite honest I don't care. That said, there is no reason to 1) get funny when someone wants to know whether you're safe to order from, you could've done a lot more to inspire confidence and 2) start PMing random users on this forum.

In fact, why the hell are you even here? You chase up every potentially negative reference to you that appears on Google? CEOs do that now? Duly noted.

Thanks, Henry Tudor

[DingleBerries]

Henry Tudor

Henry Tudor, like the king of england?

Also:

atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/867862999.html

When did Iphones come with blue protective screen covers, and have more then 11 default icons? False advertisement is illegal last time i checked...

Im not going to waste to much energy on this guy unless something drastic happens.. Ill skype him tomorrow and see if it was actually him and post it back here. Thank you whois

[sqall]

Perhaps it was just a not funny joke from someone. I received the same PM for saying "I wouldn't buy there for myself!". It's just rediculouse. But I'm curious about his reaction.

[MaxRabbit]

Okay, so I just want to say way to go Dingle Berries!

Secondly, Ricardo being here probably has to do with the fact that any Google search for his website, or him, or his URL turn up with this Hak5 thread towards the top of the results :D

If you really want sales, man, you ought to pay attention to this thread rather than threaten everyone here.

[Darren Kitchen]

I just got an email from ricardoscloset@hotmail.com

I need you guys to call me 757-572-7753

Ricardo's Closet

"We keep you looking good"

Obviously I have no intention of calling him but I just wanted to let you guys know you've probably pissed off a small business owner.

[digip]

I don't see how we pissed off a small business owner when all we did was try to warn the op of this thread against getting scammed. The guy should be used to this sort of thing as a business owner. People don't have to buy a product from someone if they feel they are getting taken for a ride.

He states they are iPhones on his site, but then where did this line come from?

"These are for people who cant afford the real iphone. Looks and works the same. I sell more of these phone then the real ones."

when the picture is an iPhone box and maybe a real iphone:

I saw his guestbook the other day when the link was working, but for some reason now its gone and gives a php error: http://foneaddons.com/page5.php

His sales page says they are iPhones: http://foneaddons.com/page7.php So what is really going on. Is it false advertising?

It all looks shady, so if anyone should be pissed off, I think it should be the buyers. "Buyer Beware" as it looks like a scam on every level. Can't help the fact that his site is poorly designed, and his contacting you, Darren, and the PM's to people on this site just don't make any sense if he wants to sell products. He is only tarnishing his web presence.

If he had retained a lawyer for any reason, his lawyer would probably be the one to contact you, not him, and you would get either a letter by mail from his lawyer or something official by a court. I'm sorry if this thread brings something negative to hak5 in anyway, but we haven't done anything wrong(that I can see) so I have no idea what the guy expects from you or any of us. We are only responding now to his PM's and what MaxRabbit has said in the thread. If any of it is even true...

[twocs]

This poor schmuck got stuck with the wrong hosting company. His host, domain.com, uses the classic bait-and-switch of cheap hosting with expensive add-ons. Unfortunately, this style of hosting ruins the Internet for everyone: Burress' Closet gets the "under construction" look for a few years until he cancels his domain name, and nobody buys his phones, so he never gets back the $150 he wasted on his hosting service.

Maybe the best thing he could do would be to use that site as a "web business card." Something simple and presentable instead of a scammy webshop. If his jeans and clothes are legit, he should think twice about protecting his customers. Ditch that moldy host, Ricardo!

Another thing about this guy I'm thinking is crazy... RicardoBurress.com is available, nor does he prefer RicadosCloset.com, instead selecting the weird sounding foneaddons.com. GO FIGURE!

-- edit ---

Another thing, Ricardo Burress: learn to punctuate! Apostrophes dont' go there's.

[digip]

This poor schmuck got stuck with the wrong hosting company. His host, domain.com, uses the classic bait-and-switch of cheap hosting with expensive add-ons. Unfortunately, this style of hosting ruins the Internet for everyone: Burress' Closet gets the "under construction" look for a few years until he cancels his domain name, and nobody buys his phones, so he never gets back the $150 he wasted on his hosting service.

Maybe the best thing he could do would be to use that site as a "web business card." Something simple and presentable instead of a scammy webshop. If his jeans and clothes are legit, he should think twice about protecting his customers. Ditch that moldy host, Ricardo!

Another thing about this guy I'm thinking is crazy... RicardoBurress.com is available, nor does he prefer RicadosCloset.com, instead selecting the weird sounding foneaddons.com. GO FIGURE!

Thank you. Valid observation as well. Why not have a site with your name if that's who you really are? I'm not saying it isn't really him, but what's to say this guy on the forums isn't impersonating him and givinghim a bad name?

Although, I think it could be the real Ricardo Burress, as several links online seem to point towards the same guy with similar sites and layouts including his music on MySpace and some other sites. They use a lot of the same language and grammar style he used to PM and post here, so I think it could really be him. Either way, I can't see what a lawyer has to do with any of this.

[moonlit]

I just got an email from ricardoscloset@hotmail.com

Obviously I have no intention of calling him but I just wanted to let you guys know you've probably pissed off a small business owner.

This is a public discussion forum and it runs on our terms just as the aforementioned store runs on its owner's terms. Harassing users is not acceptable regardless of a thread's content and if people suspect that all is not well with a given service or store, hashing it out and asking for opinions is certainly a good idea. I have seen no reason to close this thread and so I will not do so. This is a complete non-issue. If you wish to buy from this guy's store then that's your decision and the same applies if you don't.

As for the apparent owner of said store, this is a private matter and a public forum is not the correct place to deal with it. That said, I'd rather not hear that anyone on this forum is being hassled because they suspected something was amiss. Note though that if people perceive your messages as an attack on a potential customer then it's not going to look good for you and if (let me emphasise: *IF*) you're selling things that aren't what they seem then the backlash you may or may not encounter is yours to deal with and yours alone. Don't take it out on savvy customers.

If these products are indeed iClones (of all their various models, some better than others) then when described correctly I wouldn't strike them off the list entirely, they're alright phones if you take into account that they're certainly not iPhones and the only likeness is in the case and the home screen. As has been said already, buyer beware, and whenever possible, buy from trusted or reputable sources.

[twocs]

I've seen posts on forums with big words like "lawyer" before. Maybe his lawyer would try to harass me if he had any evidence that I attempted to impersonate him on the registration page of his website... ^_^

[MaxRabbit]

Well I'm glad that I'm getting support from you guys-I feel bad that this is potentially bringing "negative" attention, but at the same time, I intended no harm by creating this thread.

[digip]

Well I'm glad that I'm getting support from you guys-I feel bad that this is potentially bringing "negative" attention, but at the same time, I intended no harm by creating this thread.

You did nothing wrong by asking our opinions so don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff. I still fail to see what we did that makes him think he needs a lawyer to come after us? Did anyone here do somethign we don't know about? Like create another site somewhere slandering him or send him harrassing emails?? Either way, Hak5 has nothing to do with it and its just silly to think he would be going after anyone here for -- for what reason? I don't know...

[Razor512]

you did nothing wrong by asking about the site here. it is always better safe than sorry.

most small sites that sell things will use ssl to secure the traffic

they will also have other guarantees that the site is secure and offer a buyer protection

most sites will offer a return policy

the site could be legit for all we know but it has too many red flags while some may take a risk with items under $1 (common ebay marketing, sell hundreds of $1 items, this boosts your score and makes people more willing you buy your 500 dollar items, businesses go through a great deal of work to gain your trust)

@ the store

also if you have so much money, you would have hired someone to set the site up for you

if you cant do that then just post your items up for sale on ebay many small businesses do both ebay and their main site as that helps build trust as it proves that they actually have the items they are claiming to sell. if a user on ebay scams you and you report them, this usually happens if ebay tries to get your money back and the seller refuses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJDK6ctRjqw

but in the case of a site that offers no guarantee what so ever and also skips the item list confirm before signing into the paypal, if the site does scam you, you may just be screwed out of money with no hope of getting it back

this happens a lot these days. you will see many sites selling stuff and offer no security of any kind of guarantee that you will get the item then when a few people get tricked, they take the site down and launder what ever profits they gained from the scam

[Brennan]

alright I just read this topic and I know this is late and everything but to the guy with the site you DO NOT launch an e-commerce site that is that under developed you launch it when it is in beta or alpha. I know you cant work out all the bugs until the site is up but you can TRY! at least secure the traffic If anyone knew a little something they would not shop at your site. You have no security nothing is validated and you have some half assed code made from a generator. and if you are who you say you are (The brother of the "famous football player") then pay someone to develop a site for you. Now before you get all huffy and through your babyfit and threaten a lawyer this is not slander this is constructive criticism directed towards YOU! Now what I suggest is you calm down and if you want to own a business act professional.