Fraud and misrepresentation - Dish network
Complaint
Mo. Ouijdani
Country: United States
I shopped for a dish network package and I purchased a promotion package that was offered through a Dish network authorized dealer. The package was valued at $22.95 a month. The sales person I spoke to (who refused to give me his full name) assured me there were no more charges except for installation fee which I accepted and was billed to my credit card. When I received my first billing, it showed something completely different; A bill for $107 (2 months worth) but even if you add it up it does not make sense. I contacted the billing department of Dish network to get clarification and they explained to me the package was actually $39.95 a month plus several other charges that were never disclosed to me or made aware of. Bottom line is that Dish Network could not explain what happened and want me to go back to the dealer. The dealer wants me to go back to Dish Network and I am in the middle of a shuffle to dispute charges. What to do? Apparently Dish Network has no control over its distribution or authorized dealers and no one is willing to get a supervisor on the line who can resolve the issue. This is a clear case of a fraudulent operation. Anyway, I do not waht to do; please help. by the way the distributor name is called Pronto Dish who does NOT have an e-mail system to register complaints and who gives imaginary addresses to clients to send complaints in writing. In addition, they do not have supervisors to talk to customers...
Comments
This man offered to pay a year of our service for their own pocket if we pay them 6 months and transfer this money over Western Union. My mother had asked them how they can afford this and they answered that they receive $100 vouchers from every sale and they use that to pay for our service. Though it didn't add up at all, my mother went with it. They requested the answers to some innocent sounding questions "account number, TV Reciever #, and a few other questions and they had ended up adding $600 to our account. He then planned on speaking to us a few days later about us sending him money through Western Union. Western Union does NOT easily refund which is why they use it. After providing the small amount of information the guy said that the password for our account had reset and suggested that we change it.
This guy was very easily persuaded to provide us all kinds of discounts and was happy to add another $20 to our account just to cover "tax."
Later while I talked to my mother about this situation had come to the conclusion that this was some kind of scam and looking at this thread confirmed my feelings. With a little bit of work we figured out what they do.
They start off the call offering an amazing deal which is very difficult to refuse. They explain that they're "Authorized Dealer" to build legitimacy. From there they begin to collect innocent sounding information from you enough to sound like they're trying to single out your account. What they're really trying to do is recover your account and reset your Dish Password. They have found some kind of vulnerability in the system which they only need a small amount of information to reset your password. Once they are able to reset their password they can access your account and add a false credit card to it. From that card they can purchase anything they want without having to worry about losing a dime. Once they finish purchasing everything that they had promised they give you some BS reasoning as to why the password was reset and tell you to fix it.
After you fix it, you can see that they have added however much they had promised to your account from their card and you think "Wow! They're legitimate!" You send them the money you promised them through Western Union and they pocket that. Now a couple of days later Dish Network realizes that the credit card on that account is bogus and removes all credit on your account which was paid with the bogus credit card.
Now you're stuck with paying however much they offered to pay and the amount of money you had sent them. And this is how these cowards make their money.
If you ever find yourself in a situation in which the deal is "TO GOOD TO BE TRUE," it probably is! Do NOT trust it. If you get a call with an offer like this say to them firmly "I know that this is a scam and do NOT call me again." Report them if you have the chance to your non-emergency police number.
If you have already sent your money, call Western Union and try to get the payment stopped if they haven't picked the money up already, because if they have picked it up the money is as good as gone.
Western Union and MoneyPak do NOT PROVIDE REFUNDS and do NOT verify who picks up the money. If someone wants to do a deal with you using these services, it is most probably a scam.
Be careful with the information you provide to strangers over the phone and the internet people behind a medium are not always who they appear to be.
Dear Xxxxx
Recently several DISH customers have reported that people claiming to be representatives of DISH have contacted them in an attempt to collect money for special promotions or upgrades. We have discovered that these callers are often asking for credit card numbers or requesting payments via Western Union or Green Dot.
This message is to remind you that DISH will never call you asking for this or any other personal information or information related to your DISH account. If you receive a call requesting a payment in exchange for a promotion or upgrade, we encourage you to disconnect the call and contact us directly at 800-333-DISH (800-333-3474).
As a reminder, the forms of payment that DISH accepts are:
•Credit card
•Debit card
•Electronic funds transfer
•Check by mail
•Cash through any retail store that offers:
◦MoneyGram Express Payments
◦IPP (In Person Payments)
◦PreCash
◦CheckFreePay
◦ACE Cash Express
◦Western Union Prepaid Services*
*If you make a payment through Western Union, you will receive a 10-digit Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN). DISH will never ask for this number.
Thank you for being a valued DISH customer.
I am glad, It will all come to an end this November.
I am reading your post after having been scammed for few hundred dollars. I think its same group of people who has been scamming all of us. I received the call from dish network. I mean the caller id said "Dish Network" and the guy had all my info. How would any one think it is not dish network.
These guys are operating with impunity. When I called them back and told I think they are running scam, they laughed and said "guess what! you have been scammed, Ha Ha Ha" and disconnected.
And they know the dish network's business very well. They know the boxes, technology industry jargon. But I have found something very interesting about them, that can expose their identity, I will publish it later.
Cheers!
Any suggestions?
IT IS PRETTY SOPHISTICATED SCAM. DO NOT FALL FOR IT.
SOMEHOW THEY HAVE ALL YOUR INFORMATION AND THEY TRANSFER MONEY INTO YOUR DISH ACCOUNT TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE LEGIT.
1) ability to hack Dish accounts
2) use of stolen credit card numbers
3) use of the above as a prop in a con to lure victims to send money by Western Union.
That is a level of sophistication beyond the usual Indian swindlers running these scams.
Please report this to FTC, ic3.gov, FBI, and Secret Service.
Probably BBB as well, as this is a new one.
That would cut off reports to law enforcement.
Still, at least notify BBB, so they can put out an alert.