Original Message:
Re: GETTING THE FBI INVOLVED IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMMED (by KC):
to jeannette15:
My personal recommendation and advice, which you can ignore or adopt as you see fit, is to move past trying to deal with the company itself, which is a waste of your time and energy. They also don't care about any threats about "lawyers", since they already know that a lawyer would cost you more money than you have paid already. Instead, I specifically suggest:
1. Never mind the telephone calls. Write up and summarize your situation with all facts, dates (in order), all known names, addresses and phone numbers involved. Makes several complete sets of photocopies when you've finished. Keep all originals yourself.
2. Send one set of all of the above materials directly to your credit card issuer, disputing the charge on your card. There are time limits to dispute credit charges and you may already be too late, but it can't hurt to try.
3. You don't identify the location (i.e., state) of these entities, but it's usually Florida. Send another complete set of the materials you've assembled to the Attorney General's Office in the state involved. If it's Florida (as it usually is, but not always) you can find forum messages right here on RedWeek which provide links. Those links will lead you to the appropriate offices and addresses to which to send another set of materials.
4. The Better Business Bureau is completely useless, so don't waste time or enegy with them. You can file a complaint and the BBB will add your complaint to their statistics, but the BBB is otherwise powerless to do ANYTHING, having no legal authority whatsoever.
5. Although the FBI has been recently mentioned here, I can tell you from personal career experience that federal involvement in such matters is really VERY rare. There must be outright fraud, interstate activity, and/or corporate level legal misconduct --- and a sufficient dollar level threshhold (over $10k, minimum) --- before federal authorities will even consider touching these situations. The feds (appropriately and correctly) regard these matters as being a state jurisdiction matter until and unless large scale fraud and interstate activity and serious money (over $10k) is clearly involved.
You've indicated that you don't know what to do. While it certainly requires some effort to be exerted on your part, the above clearly describes what you NEED to do, in my opinion, in order to elicit any possibility of an investigative response or resolution. You've got some fact assembling and writing and photocopying and mailing to do. The sooner the better. Good luck.
P.S. You can also contact a legal "recovery" outfit like haufman-associates (see links right here in RedWeek forums). They may represent you, but they will also keep half of the funds recovered (if any). In any route chosen, you'll need your facts, names, dates and documents assembled to get your case considered.