Beware of Ebuyphilippines.com

Today we are celebrating our 46th monthsary. With a sigh, we cannot celebrate it like the way we wanted to because of the distance currently between us. I guess we have to settle for the usual Skype videocall bonding and occasional Logmein sessions.

But this month is a little stressful. Adding insult to the injury is the online shopping website where I planned to buy my gift this month. You see, as much as possible, it is my tradition to send a gift to my baby during special occasions. Today I wasn't able to because of what I believe is a phishing, semi-scamming online shopping website ebuyphilippines.com. Here's what happened: After checking out and getting my credit card number, my order still didn't push through. When I contacted their arrogant and lousy "customer care," he said that I should sign up for Paypal to complete my transaction. This is for "security reasons." My point is, why ask for my credit card info if you will not honor it in the first place? To make the long story short, I cancelled the order and as of now, the amount is not yet credited back to me. Since I felt my card details were compromised, I reported it to my card's issuing bank. The bank advised me to wait for 5 business days. We'll see what happens this week.

So to everyone, just be MORE (emphasis here) careful when dealing with online transactions. I was careful - I checked if they are secure and their website posted a verifiable certification from Network Solutions (a trusted name in internet technology) but if the scammers disguise themselves so convincingly that they themselves can believe their running a legit business, you'll definitely fall into to their trap.