Scammed!

I am often considered by many to be naive, and have even been called gullible more than a few times in my life-time, regardless of either attributes, however, I consider myself to be self-aware and even somewhat skeptical. I say all this because though naive and gullible I am aware that scammers do exist online, thus enters my skepticism. I, however, up until lately have had very good luck when shopping or banking online. Unfortunately, my skepticism faced-off with my gullibility during Christmas shopping this year (or should I say "last year") and my gullibility dominated.

I'm not sure if you remember, but in my "Virtual Christmas Shopping" post I mentioned this Website where I purchased Rosetta Stone Spanish for my husband for an awe shocking low price of $139! For those of you who do not know, Rosetta Stone usually retails for $539, that is a $400 savings! I had never heard of the Website before but because it had a phone number posted, offered online chat for customer support, sent an email confirmation with a contact person once signing up at the site, and used Paypal for its transaction I thought for sure this site is legit, right? Wrong! Though I did receive my Rosetta Stone 3 weeks later (it was being shipped from China), and the box was shrink-wrapped and looked nearly identical to those I'd seen at Borders, I grew increasingly concerned when I realized after viewing the Spanish version at a Borders store my box was missing the black inked word "espanol" on the front and instead had a white label on the side typed "Spanish (LA). I then decided, after no longer being able to access the website, that I had an illegal copy, but continued to hope. I did give my husband Rosetta Stone for Christmas, of which he was elated to receive, but warned that I bought it from a wholesaler in China so was a bit concerned about its authenticity. Unconcerned, since the differences were indecipherable to the untrained eye, he brought it home, opened it up and was ready to begin learning Spanish, but whoa was he when he discovered that the program did NOT come with an activation code. Now, $139 down the toilet and a disappointed husband I warn you of online scams. I have not been able to access the Website for the last month and no one has responded to my inquiries from the website.

Though I have not yet discovered how to truly decipher a legitimate site from a scam, here are a few easy rules of thumb to follow for your future shopping.

1. Do NOT shop on a site that you have not either been referred to or heard of before.
2. If you cannot find reviews on the Web for the site, it may not be legitimate.
3. If its too good to be true, than it probably is TOO good to be true (that one I learned from my husband).

I sincerely hope that no one was scammed this Christmas, but if you have any advice or have been scammed in the past I would love to hear of your experience or any other rules-of-thumb for online shopping.

Best Regards and Happy New Year!