Does anyone monitor the google ads on the homepage?

**kjjb0204** · 06-21-2010, 03:05 PM

Noticed an ad on the homepage. Swipebids.com is a horrible site and a quick search provides link after link of people complaining about this scam site. If anyone on cb.com has control, you might want to consider removing this advertisement.

**msaririan** · 06-21-2010, 09:39 PM

I clicked on the Swipebids advertisement on Crackberry, assuming that it was a legitimate site. Now I am out $150, with no way to recoup my money. I would not have known about Swipebids were it not for CrackBerry.com.

Though I don't blame CrackBerry.com for my mistake, I do agree with you that CrackBerry should not be associated with such a company.

CrackBerry addicts, beware!!

P.S. If anyone from the CrackBerry team is reading this, maybe you can share some of your advertisement dollars with me?

**Adam Zeis** · 06-22-2010, 06:36 AM

The ads come from Google not us but we'll have that one blocked asap.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

**Branta** · 06-22-2010, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by msaririan

I clicked on the Swipebids advertisement on Crackberry, assuming that it was a legitimate site. Now I am out $150, with no way to recoup my money. I would not have known about Swipebids were it not for CrackBerry.com.

If it was a scam or unauthorized charging you should contact your bank or card company and get them to raise a chargeback.

**kjjb0204** · 06-22-2010, 10:12 AM

I'm surprised Google would not have filtered that one out on their own.

**msaririan** · 06-23-2010, 01:32 AM

Originally Posted by Branta

If it was a scam or unauthorized charging you should contact your bank or card company and get them to raise a chargeback.

I did - three times. But only on the third try did the agent agree to open a case. They all said that my case was weak, and even though they empathize with me, and agree that swipebids is deceptive and dishonest, they can't do anything about it. They will have their legal department review it, but swipebids has done its homework and has created its terms and policies to be within the boundaries of the law.

It's not clearly apparent, during the sign-up process, that there is a $150 sign-up fee. It's in small print, tucked away in a corner of the page. There is no "sign-out" page or confirmatory step acknowledging that the credit card is being charged. Most people who sign up are under the impression that joining is free, as their website advertising would almost suggest. Lines such as "join and receive" and "bonus" are just part of their dishonest and deceptive practice.

**Branta** · 06-23-2010, 05:30 AM

If you google swipebids you should find a link to Have You Bid on SwipeBids? which makes interesting reading. Following some of the links there makes downright alarming reading. There are suggestions that there are several different signup pages so the new signup sees "free" and complainant or enforcement officer sees a page which has everything legal and binding. I also found a big list of other websites which are associated with the swipebids parent company. Many of the site names are familiar to the moderators because they feature frequently in spam reports here.

On balance I think I would be talking to law enforcement if I had been scammed by these lowlifes. The only restriction on this might be that they keep the value stolen below the action level for investigation and prosecution.