Trueler does not accuse deal55.com in scam, fraud, phishing or any other illegal actions yet. But there is a big concern that this “daily deals” website featuring brand name gift cards is not legitimate and just collecting e-mail addresses, credit card numbers, and other personal information. Customers, beware! Use it at your own risk! It may even charge your credit cards and disappear after with no gift cards provided. There is no information about this business at all.
(Summary of important updates after in-depth investigation is provided here in red. Details are given below in the article)
Please read an important update at the bottom of this post which proves that Deal55.com is a 100% scam.
Another update: Deal55 could also be implemented as a simplified financial pyramid robbing people! Please read through important update “Financial Pyramid” at the bottom of the article to see how this rip-off scheme works.
Deal55 has many things in common with Ontario Choice Window and Door, StubPond Inc., and UrbanDeal.ca (another daily deals website) – proofs are provided below as well.
There is also a privacy violation on deal55.com disclosing personal information of users to everyone.
Deal55 commits fraud – evidence provided.
Deal55 offers $100 value gift cards at the cost of $45 that is 55% in savings for major stores like Best Buy, Winner’s HomeSense, Victoria Secret, La Senza, BCBG Max Azria, Williams Sonoma, Shopper’s Drug Mart, Lululemon Athletica, Guess by Marciano. It is featured across Canada in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, London, Edmonton, Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Kitchener, St. Catharines
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The reasons to suspect that deal55.com is featuring not legit daily deals are:
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- Winners HomeSense is not aware of this running deal:
- No customer service. Deal55 does not answer serious questions in comment for a long time:
- Too good to be true. Daily Deals on deal55.com offer real gift cards which can be used towards anything in the store or online, even towards taxes and sale items. It has no expiration date. It is very different from what we used to see from other popular and legitimate group buying websites.
- The daily deals featured on deal55.com become valid only when 10,000 are sold! And the limit is 10,000. This can easily mean that 10,000 will never be “sold” and deal55 will be just stealing e-mails, names, phone numbers, credit card numbers and other personal information of people across Canada.
- Some customers already complained that it is impossible to make a purchase with any credit card
- Website is very fresh. Domain name has been registered about two weeks ago. There is absolutely no information in the Internet about this “Daily Deals” website. It has extremely poor rating comparing to other similar websites.
- When “daily deals” website starts, it operates only in one or a few cities. But deal55 started to operate in most major cities in Canada instantly! Usually it takes time to negotiate details with businesses in different provinces, because different laws may apply in Quebec and Ontario, for example.
Beware of deal55.com! Most likely it is a scam!
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Update as of March 11, 2011
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Almost entire day (March 10, 2010) deal55.com was down for maintenance telling the following:
Temporarily Down for Maintenance
Thank you for your support.Due to the overwhelming requests from all of you, our servers have received too many hits.Additionally, monkeys have ransacked our server closet and have swiped our extra RAM modules. Please be patient as we resolve this matter shortly. Check back in a few hours.
Why are they telling about monkeys?! They think it is humorous. It is, but not in the case when you are dealing with real money and sensitive personal information of thousands of customers. Will they write in a couple of days something like
“monkeys also grabbed all our hard drives with your credit card numbers and run away“?
As of morning March 11 deal55.com is online again…
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Lululemon Athletica confirmed through Twitter (http://twitter.com/lululemon) that they have no relationship with deal55:
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One of Twitter users (http://twitter.com/raintakahashi/) called HQ of Winners and La Senza and they could not confirm that their deals were legitimate:
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Trueler has received two suspicious comments on March 10 from “Sarah” and “Pat”. After tracing the origin of those comments and additional investigation, they appear to be fake and came from deal55 “co-founders” promoting this scam.
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Another two suspicious comments have been posted by “CathyB” and “flo97” on SmartCanucks discussion forum (http://forum.smartcanucks.ca) in “Save 55% on Brand Name Gift Cards Deal55.com” thread:
Both users registered only for the purpose of posting those comments within 10 minutes time range. I personally do not believe in such a coincidence. It is also interesting that all the commentators (on Trueler and SmartCanucks) claim that they already used gift cards for major stores provided by deal55. However, deal55 just started this scam several days ago, and “critical mass” to activate the “deal” has not been reached yet (and most likely won’t be reached).
Beware! Deal55 is a 100% scam!
Just because of two simple things:
- Deal55.com claims that it has partnership with featured retailers – that’s why they can offer such a big discount
- None of the featured retailers could confirm that they have any relationship with deal55 and none of them could confirm that deal55’s offers are legitimate
Proofs for the second statement have already been provided. Here is one more from deal55’s page on Facebook. They even did not bother to answer the question! It is one more evidence that it is a scam:
Proofs for the first statement are located right on the deal55.com website in Buyer’s Guide section.
This one confirms claimed partnership between deal55 and all the featured on deal55.com retailers (click on image to enlarge):
This one confirms claimed partnership with BestBuy (click on image to enlarge):
This one confirms claimed partnership with Victoria Secret (click on image to enlarge):
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Fake address of deal55 head office
The following address specified on deal55.com website as their head office:
Deal55.com’s head office is located at 400 Apple Blossom Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6A 3B4
There is no such address in Toronto. If we try to see what is located at this place – M6A3B4 – we will see Lawrence Square Shopping Centre. There is no Apple Blossom Drive nearby, and even in Toronto.
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Lawrence Farbman – founder of Deal55?
There were several posts at different discussion forums coming from deal55 founder or admin describing how this scheme works. However, given description just made people believe that it is indeed scam.
For example, post at RFD (forums.redflagdeals.com) from “Deal55com” looks like this:
Hello everyone, my name is Lawrence J. Farbman and …
…
Lawrence J. Farbman
1-877-912-7882
Fax: (416) 849-0581
In fact, anyone could sign a message as Lawrence Farbman, but who needs it? If you are Lawrence Farbman and have no relation with deal55.com, please let us know. May be someone is possibly pulling a scam on behalf of you.
Ontario Choice Window and Door / StubPond Inc. / UrbanDeal / Deal55
All these companies have the same origins and the same owner – Lawrence Farbman.
On the deal55.com website in Terms and Conditions in “Deal55.com’s Copyright Policy” section there is an address given to reach Deal55:
4101 Steeles Avenue West, Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario, M3N1V7
Here is a screenshot from Deal55.com:
Absolutely the same address is given in the Ontario Choice Window and Door job advertisement:
This is a Toronto based company with pretty bad reputation operated by Lawrence Farbman. Their website is down at the moment (March 2011). Even Better Business Bureau (BBB.org) canceled accreditation of Ontario Choice Window and Door recently:
They also advise consumers who had a business with the company with some unresolved disputes to look for legal advise because BBB were not able to contact the company at all:
The same address is given in a StubPond (which is just a registering name for one of the daily deals websites – UrbanDeal.ca) job advertisement:
All these companies and brands are operated by Lawrence Farbman.
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Extra expenditures of Deal55.com
Cost of the gift card is $100. Deal55 offers them for $45. There is no extra delivery expenses for Deal55, because $5 delivery cost is being added to you bill during purchase. However they promise $5 referral fee, so it is one of the additional expenses for Deal55. Therefor they have to “invest” even more than $55 per each gift card they deliver.
But there is one more, pretty expensive cost – Google AdWords! Yes, Deal55 advertises it. And it could be very expensive. Keywords which show deal55 ads on Google are very popular, like “BrandName Gift Card”. Here are some of the examples:
“Lululemon Gift Card” will bring you to this ad:
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“Best Buy Gift Card“:
“Winners Gift Card“:
“Victoria Secret Gift Card“:
etc…
How much does it cost to Deal55? How it can be covered? Do brand name businesses pay for it? Or do customers pay for it?
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Financial Pyramid
It is one of the possible scenarios how Deal55 can be set up. And it explains everything!
As far as I understand, this scheme might work in this way:
- Consumers purchase a number of deals
- Deal55 has complete control over counters of sold deals posted on deal55.com website, and can set any numbers they want for different cities and stores at deal55’s own discretion
- When deal55 has enough money to tip a deal for one of the cities/stores, they just declare it “tipped” by putting 10,000 on the counter and mark deal as “sold out”. Actually it can be 5000, 300, or even 15 people who actually purchased a deal for the particular city/store
- Deal55 sends out gift cards purchased from retailers as a regular buyer (as they state now, BTW) to all customers in the tipped city/store. They have enough money because other consumers had already purchased other deals, but their cities/stores have not tipped yet
- Deal55 has no money to purchase and send gift cards to those who paid but their cities/stores are not tipped yet. They can only issue imaginary credits into your imaginary “wallet” for future use. So these people have only a chance to get promised gift cards if deal55 will want to mark their cities/stores as tipped. It can be only in case if many more other customers will continue to purchase new deals
- There is absolutely no guarantee that deal55 will continue to keep this scheme alive forever when new customers pay for old customers. At any convenient time Deal55 can take all the money and disappear… when they think it is enough…
This is a screenshot from Deal55.com confirming that credit cards are charged immediately to purchase credits into your account wallet. It does not matter if the deal will tip or not. You will NOT get any refund in any case! This is how this scam is setup. Click on image to enlarge:
Deal55 will send out by mail many gift cards to the customers very soon, who will be very happy (unconditional 50% off for brand name stores is really unbelievable offer). And these happy customers may flood the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, other discussion forums) with happy comments and encourage other potential customers to buy new deals assuring that deal55 is safe and absolutely legit.
This is exactly what Deal55 wants – they have already asked to write comments everywhere:
But Deal55 can deliver only maximum of 40% of the gift cards purchased by customers.
They simply have no money for others! Or have they already invested over $40 million dollars in this project?
Guys, if you see a lot of positive comments from people who received their gift cards from deal55, don’t rush into purchasing more deals, or encourage other people! Next time you or others can be easily robbed.
Deal55 charges your card immediately after purchase of the current deal and just adds virtual credits to your wallet.
There is no any chance to get money back in case if the deal won’t tip!
There is only a chance to spend it on future deals, but will you like future deals?
Didn’t you spend your money to buy $100 gift card for $45??
Will future deals ever tip???
Will Deal55 grab enough money and disappear?????
Think about it!
Don’t even let people spread a word about this scam!
Beware! It’s just a long term rip-off!
So, the conclusion is the following:
If deal55 will send gift cards to the customers in the tipped cities/stores soon, therefore it is a pyramid ripping-off people.
If deal55 will NOT send gift cards, therefore it is just a simple phishing.
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Update as of March 30, 2011
STUBPOND INC. 8779127882 ON
If you see this charge on your credit card statement or in online report, it comes from Deal55 (or other services provided by Stubpond Inc. if you used any). Numbers are just their registered phone number. If you don’t see this charge, but purchased something on the website, the charge could be scheduled on some future date. Don’t relax!
Privacy Violation
Further investigation of Deal55 revealed that they do not make any effort to protect users’ privacy. Personal information provided by users such as first and last name, address, etc. can be easily viewed by anyone on deal55.com website. However they are telling in the deal55 privacy policy and everywhere else that personal information is protected very well. Here are several screenshots from deal55.com website showing personal information of users. I have masked part so it does not really show full names and addresses. Click on images to enlarge:
Providing your personal information to Deal55 also note that according to their Privacy Policy, they can (and probably will) share the information with merchants and third party service providers! As far as I understand, with anyone… Any spamming telemarketing company can be deal55’s third party service provider.
So, this case just proved that Deal55 does not respect personal information and is ready to sell it to anyone calling “merchant” or “third party service provider”.
What if the next time Deal55 will have as a “merchant” some criminals intentionally gathering such information to commit fraud?!
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Updates as of April 2, 2011
Deal55 claims that about 20 deals have been tipped with 10,000 gift cards sold for each deal in different cities in Canada. That’s about 200,000 gift card purchases or $20 million dollars worth. Everyone can speculate around these numbers and conclude that it is not possible at all.
Let’s take a look at the actual numbers. It may be very surprising for most of us…
Number of Visitors to Deal55.com
Trueler has figured out the number of Internet users who visited deal55.com website. During the month before they claimed that many deals tipped, only 25000 global internet users visited the website. Approximately half of them from Canada. Probably after that traffic has been increased. But are 12,500 visitors able to purchase 200,000 gift cards? Average conversion rate (number of sales divided by number of visitors) in the Internet is about 3-4%. For daily deals websites it is usually higher. For deal55’s unbelievable gift card offers from brand name stores it could be much higher. Let’s say even 20%. It is still only about 2500 gift card purchases! These numbers are approximate. It can be 1000, 3000, 5000 in fact. But it can’t be 200,000 or even 20,000.
Actual numbers of sold gift cards
Deal55 claimed that 10,000 gift cards have been sold in every tipped city/store and marked them as “Sold Out”. But the actual numbers are far away from there. Below information has been taken from deal55.com website. Let’s take a look city by city. I think people may be interested to see how deal55 works. Click on images to enlarge if you need:
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Ottawa
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Vancouver
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Toronto
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Edmonton
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Winnipeg
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Montreal
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London
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Hamilton
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Halifax
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Calgary
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Quebec City, St. Catharines, Kitchener
No deals have been tipped…
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Totally 782 gift cards have been declared by Deal55 as tipped (if I did not miss anything).
This number of gift cards deal55 can definitely purchase as a standard buyer. But what’s next?
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Deal55 commits fraud!
In the end of March deal55 decided to declare some deals as tipped at his own discretion in spite of real numbers of purchased deals by customers. Deal 55 informed all the people in the tipped cities/stores that gift cards will be mailed soon.
The reason for this was marketing trick.
People really started to believe Deal55 and some of the customers rushed into purchasing additional deals which were not tipped. Users started to promote this website again. Number of “likes” on Deal55 Facebook page flew up from about 300 up to 6000 in several days like never before for this page.
It is easy to conclude that now the numbers of purchased deals in “not tipped” cities/stores are bigger (probably much bigger) than those in tipped ones after excellent Deal55 promotion with 200,000 gift cards sold and mailed to happy customers.
Currently running deals are not going to be tipped because Deal55 has already spent money taken from customers who purchased these deals on 782 gift cards which they mailed (or going to) for promotional purposes.
Isn’t it a fraud already? It is!
Deals with fewer number of purchases have been tipped on purpose.
Claiming that 10,000 customers bought each deal when there were actually only several dozens (in some cases even 3-5 customers) is called false or deceptive advertisement.
Most of the customers will NOT receive either gift cards or refund, because Deal55 simply has no money to do this.
782 customers are awaiting for their gift cards now. Just imagine how happy they will be seeing gift cards from Best Buy, Winners, Lululemon, Pottery Barn, Victoria Secret in their postal boxes. Most of people will leave positive happy comments on Facebook, Twitter, etc… It would be another excellent promotion from Deal55 after which people will rush into purchasing more and more gift cards…
Stop the scam!
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Deal55 Petro Canada Gift Card Contest Winners
There was a deal on Deal55:
Deal 55 Gift Card Contest – 100 Winners Only: $1 for $50 at Petro Canada
They claimed that 707 purchases happened. That is one from each 7 people should receive the gift card. No… Actually there were only 110 purchases of this “deal”. Here is a proof from deal55.com website:
It means that more than 90% or people participating in this deal should receive their $50 Petro Canada gift cards. Only 10 participants should not expect it. Has anyone received it?
I just want to know how these guys can still keep the site up! Why haven’t any of the large brands used (or ripped off) by deal55 filed a “cease and desist” order against deal55 for the illegal use of their brand to promote another product/business. SO strange.
Maybe we’ll all giving them more credit than is due and the only traffic they have are people reading threads like this :)
If this isn’t a scam, it’s a desperate attempt to phish contact info for their other site urbandeal.ca or stubpond.com
This reveals a scary truth that you can get away with almost anything online before someone with a badge can tell you to stop.
.. Don’t take this seriously, IT’S A SCAM (and a poorly thought out one at that!)
***************
Important Update
***************
Additional investigation showed what Deal55 represents. Refer to “Updates as of April 2, 2011” in the article.
They have sold just several dozens of gift cards in each tipped city/store, or even less. But some “untipped” deals probably with much more sold “gift cards” are still running and looks like are not going to be tipped.
Regards,
Trueler
Just went into their site to delete my address. Also followed the link to “Suggest a Business”. I wrote:
The RCMP would love to hear all about you. I’m quite sure that they would offer you a deal – maybe on the time you will no doubt serve! LOL
Thanks Trueler. Wish there was a way to spread this further and faster so no more people get ripped off!
Thank you Kate!
Also note that they disclose your personal information to everyone. It definitely violates user’s privacy and can be used for fraud purposes.
For example, under your user name everyone may see your full name (as it appears on your credit card or PayPal, as required by Deal55), your full address, number of purchased deals, gender, date of joining deal55:
Name: K**** ****g
Address: 3* A**** Street E, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Postal code: *****9
…
I have put asterisks in order not to violate your privacy here. If you would like even this information to be removed from here, let me know please. I’ve put it here as an evidence of privacy violation by Deal55.com
Thanks,
Trueler
And finally, just posted on deal55.com website:
deal55.com/toronto/topic_discussions/index/265
Wonder how long it will stay on there!
I DO NOT like to be scammed and feel sorry for the poor company that tries it!
Woops, that’s info@antifraudcentre.ca
Also sent an email and filed a report with the Canadian Fraud Centre at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/english/home-eng.html and sent them an email at info@fraudcentre.ca.
This is what I sent to W5@ctv.ca and alert@ctv.ca:
“We all know about onsite coupon companies such as OneSpout.com. They provide an invaluable service to consumers looking to purchase coupons for discounted merchandise. I use OneSpout all the time and they are top notch.
However, recently I purchased through a site called deal55.com for coupons for $100 respectively for Winner’s and Best Buy. For $49.95 each, you would receive a giftcard in the mail. No one has yet received said giftcard, they are countless comments on this website complaining and upon further investigation, the charge that appears on my VISA card is registered to STUBPOND INC which “owns†both deal55.com AND urbandeals.ca , the latter of which is advertised through OneSpout. I have alerted OneSpout and they confirm that they have been hounded by Deal55 to take them on as a client but were extremely suspicious and said no. I made them aware of the link to Urbandeals.ca and they thanked me and said they were definitely going to investigate further. OneSpout, I repeat, is a good company.
If you type in stubpond.com, you will be redirected to urbandeals.ca . I have now been banned from both sites. There are countless consumer reports to be found by googling both stubpond inc and deal55 and there is a comprehensive report on the founder, Lawrence Fabram, and problems he has run into before.
I have alerted VISA to reverse the charges but am told I have to wait a further 16 days for them to investigate. Ithink this should be investigated as a matter of urgency as more and more people are getting sucked in every day. Here is a website link which tells the whole fraud story.
http://trueler.com/2011/03/10/deal55-com-legit-scam-beware-phishing/
and further proof at http://trueler.com/2011/03/10/deal55-com-legit-scam-beware-phishing/#comment-9290
Please let me know if you require further information.”
TO MAKE SURE WE HAVE THEIR FULL ATTENTION, I SUGGEST EVERYONE USE THE EMAILS ABOVE TO ADD FUEL TO THE FIRE!!!!!
Hi Binky
Just to let you know I was scammed by this company and have just sent a full investigative report to both W5 and CTV Consumer Alerts!
If anyone is going to receive a gift card he doesn’t want you to buy more as you’ll still only be one person saying you received them. He would want to spread whatever ones are actually being sent among as many people as possible to increase the chance of credible looking facebook and forum posts
I see he deleted most of the negative comments on facebook. Can’t believe there are still people (that look like real people) that still believe this is all on the up and up and he can actually fund $60m worth of half price gift cards
I signed up for an account and purchased my 1st two deals. I still haven’t received the coupon, despite being notified it was in the mail. Now when I log in, I go to buy something and it says my account is restricted. I am posting here because despite numerous messages to Customer Service via the Contact Us link, I have had no answer. Seems like they just want you to buy once, and then never again. Meanwhile they have my money from the first two transactions. Very disappointed with the lack of communication. Will advise everyone on FB that I recommended to this site!
I’m confused why do we have to put information again. If we already did when we bought cards?
Is that how it works with other orders on Internet?
Hi Spaz,
Thanks for the information.
There are many facts described in the article telling what deal55 represents. Maybe you will receive promised gift cards after supplying mailing address and your name as it appears on your credit card or in PayPal. In this case you will be one of the lucky winners picked by deal55 for promotional purposes only. Many other people won’t receive neither gift card, nor refund. It is a marketing trick from Deal55 to send gift cards to some people, so they will leave happy comments everywhere. Maybe you won’t receive the gift cards even after providing mailing address.
Deal55 violates user’s privacy by letting anyone to see personal information such as full name and address provided by the user.
Please also take into account that Deal55’s privacy policy says that they can share personal information virtually with anyone.
It’s your choice.
Regards,
Trueler
I’m one of those folks that purchased a few gift cards from deal 55, then started reading what people are saying after submitting my card info.
Anyway, I received an email from Deal 55 saying that my deals tipped and the gift cards are in the mail.
Then yesterday, I received an email saying that the cards are ready to be shipped, and that they need me to log back in and supply my mailing address – full Deal 55 message below. Should I log back in and do as they asked???
——————————-
You have recently purchased the Deal55: $45 for $100 To Spend at Winner’s HomeSense 55% OFF card in Toronto. This e-mail is to remind you to complete your Deal55 user profile in order to avoid delays in shipping your gift card. If you had used a credit card on checkout when you purchased the Deal55: $45 for $100 To Spend at Winner’s HomeSense 55% OFF card, please enter the exact same billing address information inside your Deal55 profile as we cannot ship to addresses that differ from your credit card’s billing address for fraud prevention purposes. If you had used a PayPal account to purchase the Deal55: $45 for $100 To Spend at Winner’s HomeSense 55% OFF card, please enter the exact same shipping address and name that is registered in your PayPal account.
They had 5 deals tip in Toronto alone thats over $2 million. Wouldn’t the purchase of 50 000 gift cards be news by now. When groupon did the gap deal they made headlines and same thing happened with dealfind and the butcher deal.
I bought one but after reading all of this got very scared. I opened a dispute in paypal requesting my money got refunded. I never got confirmation of my purchase or that the card would mailed.
I got the full refund back from stubpond within 24 hours. I feel a dodged a bullet. Would reconsider once history is established on the company. Will be more vary from now on.
As an aside, i think there are way too many of these companies now and its easy to get scammed.
The more scams out there the more people might stick with companies like groupon. I know that i’m thinking of cancelling/unsubscribing to the other deals (i subscribe to about 4 deals) and just going with the one that I know works and hasn’t scammed me (i bought something from wagjag – BnR cake – and it turns out BnR was just trying to get rid of stock and the cake is almost a year old and about to expire!)
I saw deal55 when it was posted to redflagdeals and the like – i signed up for 2 cards, so yes i’m a bit naive.
After a bit of google work I reconsidered and I called my credit card company. They reassured me that if deal55 didn’t supply me with what they promised it would be considered fraud. I logged into the website and cancelled the purchases – i also took screen shots showing that i had cancelled the purchases – whoever did this website atleast made it nice and user friendly.
Shortly after I got a mass email thanking everyone for tipping a deal, funnily enough the deals tipped were not the deals I bought. I also today got an email thanking me for buying the cards and telling me that it needed my address to ship the cards – even though I canceled the purchases.
I sent them an email saying that I had canceled the purchases and would consider any charge to my credit card fraud.
I have checked my credit card diligently and nothing have been charged yet.
I got a partial refund because I called them up personally to complain and asked for a refund before the deal tipped. Also I used paypal so maybe that is why I got a refund. But it was partial, they charged me some fee twice and I am still trying to get a full refund. I just have yet to hear a response. The website is very shady and unreliable.
Beware, Deal 55 is back up and when you visit you get a warning about the security of the site. Using a fake something or other? Perhaps something to look into?
I love the spelling errors in the email communications. Shouldn’t this be shut down already!?
I purchased a LuluLemon gift card from Deal55.com on March 23rd. The deal tipped a the next day. I never received a confirmation email, so I email them. They replied back fairly quiclkly, stating to wait until Monday and if I didn’t receive an email to contact them again. Monday morning, I did receive an email that contained a voucher for the deal I bought. It had one of those square bar codes on it, with instructions to print it off and use it at the store. So I tried that today and the store had no idea what it was and could not honour the voucher. I’ve called my credit card company and surprisingly Deal55 has not charged my credit card yet. I’ve email Deal55 asking them what the “deal” was. I’ll let you know if I get any response. Just as an FYI, my credit card company told me that if the website does turn out to be fraudulant and does not render the service they charge your for, then my purchase is complete convered by the credit card company.
Jessica,
Correct. You will NOT get a refund even if the deal expires not tipped. You are charged immediately after purchase. Deal55 does not wait for deal to be tipped. They grab money as soon as you type in you payment information.
Thanks,
Trueler
So I bought a couple of these so called “deals” and I received no confirmation email, I waited a day and still nothing in my inbox or under my account in deal 55. Found a number in the paypal transaction and called it. The guy said there is no info of my sale and will call or email me back in 48 hrs. 2 days later I get an email saying there is a record of my sale but still nothing under my account so I emailed them back to cancel my purchase. Then they go to give me a partial refund, lost $4-5 per purchase. I email them to complain and they say sorry, we like feedback and will look into posting something on our website about charges…
What I think…
WATCH OUT! Deals that are not tipped (and their website is poorly maintained so you don’t know if you really bought the deal and if it’s really tipped).. you do not get a full refund. This is where they make their money! The deals that are tipped… let me know if they actually send the gift cards
Hi Binky,
I have also noticed unnatural behavior of counters. And they are updated only every 24 hours (as it is stated on their website). I believe it is definitely done to have a control over numbers.
Right. Comparing cities with a huge difference in population and stores, there is a disproportion in the numbers of purchased deals.
Thanks,
Trueler
Also, there is no possible way he could ever acquire $1,000,000 in gift cards without having a deal with the stores. How could you even pay for that?
Of course there is no way to know if the “count” is real (I suspect not, not even close…there isn’t that many stupid people). Does it make any sense that Pottery Barn with a handful of stores in Canada was way ahead of Best Buy in the Toronto counts? No, its inconceivable
So you can add to the scenario above. If that is happening he could fake it “tipping” with only a handful of real customers, to get them posting how great it is….then go for the real money.
Bored lady, thanks a lot for your comment! This scenario can possibly be real.
If this “rob Peter to pay Paul” scenario is indeed implemented by deal55, we will hear a lot of happy people who received their gift cards very soon. It may be thousands of people! And everyone else who were in doubt if it is legit will read happy comments, will be assured that it is perfectly legal, and will purchase more and more gift cards from deal55! This kind of pyramid will grow very fast. And at the end it will leave more than a half of consumers robbed.
As I know, pyramid-type financial schemes are prohibited in most countries. So it can not be legit.
****************
IMPORTANT NOTE:
****************
Guys! If you read happy comments on Facebook, Twitter, RFD, or wherever from customers who received and successfully used their gift cards from deal55, do NOT rush into purchasing them! Read the above comment written by “Bored lady” and an update in the article “Financial Pyramid” and think again!
If this scheme is true, the probability you’ll get a $100 gift card purchased for $45 + $5 delivery is less than 45%.
Thanks and Beware!
Trueler
It seems to be working in a “rob Peter to pay Paul” style scheme almost pyramid style. When you sign up to purchase a deal you are technically purchasing virtual “credits” to go in your virtual “wallet”. If the deal tips then your credits go towards it. If it does NOT tip your credits stay in your “wallet” but your credit card has already and will remain charged for it since you technically purchased “credits”.
The way I see it is like this- right now on the Winnipeg site, 27375 people have purchased a “deal” meaning deal55 has made $1,231,875.00. Only 1 deal has tipped so they have to pay out $1,000,000.00 in gift cards from Best Buy. They state in their FAQ they purchase the gift cards like regular buyers. So in essence they would have $231,875.00 left over, until the next deal tips, after paying out the initial tipped offer. Considering they have numerous deals going at once and the max hit is 10k, it is not likely they would ever have to pay out every gift card at once hence “rob Peter to pay Paul”.
Not exactly sure how this could possibly continue, considering they would need numerous new members to continue paying out previous members. Unless they would be banking on people, who are trying to purchase a deal, forgetting about their “credits” in their “wallets”. As well as earning money through traffic on their site or marketing etc…
I would be interested in hearing if people, who got in on the Best Buy deal, actually received their gift cards.
I do have to add that although it could be legit, it doesn’t sound entirely legal/honest and is definitely NOT for me.
I just received this email from deal55. I’m one of those who tried to purchase a gift card but encountered an error. That was before I read about them possibly being a scam. I was hoping my order didn’t go through and my credit card information not stored in their system.
— ——-
From: admin@deal55.com
Subject: Conradulations! Buyers watch out for your $45 for $100 gift card in the mail.
Message:
Congratulations to all of you who have collectively tipped the 55% OFF gift cards in your city. Victoria Secret, Winners, Pottery Barn, Best Buy and Lululemon buyers watch out for your $45 for $100 gift card in the mail.
Please expect the gift card in your mailbox within 10 business days.
Forward-to-a-Friend
Customer Service: admin@deal55.com
Press: media@deal55.com
Toll-Free: 1-877-542-9259
Thank you for your support! We hope you enjoyed your experience as much as we enjoyed developing the program,
DEAL55.COM
Let the RCMP figure this out.
deal55.com states that gift cards can be used nationwide. Why then are the deals in individual cities, if same gift card can be used in T.O as well as London and Edmonton. Why don’t they do one deal so that ten thousand mark can actually be hit. Sounds like a classic case of phishing if you ask me!
Deal55 is most definitely a scam. They are claiming a purchase of over 60 million dollars of gift cards and none of the retailers they are claiming to be partners with are aware of it. They claim to be new and yet two gift cards have been supposedly mailed out, when they themselves claim that deal only tips at 10 000.
hey admindeal55, let just say, hypothetically, for arguments sake, that you are legit, and you are not ‘formally’ affiliated with the site, but you’ve found some way of buy these gift cards at a wholesale rate (’cause I do know that many companies will offer a wholesale incentive for giftcard purchasing, I’ve seen it in a few different incarnations)… wouldn’t it be in your best interest to come to some kind of agreement with the companies these gift cards are for, so that they are aware of what you’re doing? Makes sane business sense to legitimize, cross every t and dot every i. I’m sure if you would generate that much business for them, they’d be happy to cooperate and pass along the message to thousands of potential customers that they can trust you.
So far, the kind of traction you’re getting in forums is not the right kind and if anything will spread which will lead to one of either two things: (if your business is legit)it will sadly fail; or (if it’s not legit) many people will be aware and angered by the scam and you will be held accountable.
Hi Catherine,
I love Groupon and use their deals often. But I don’t like that sometimes they feature knowingly problematic deals like FTD flowers on Valentine’s Day (I guess you refer to that one) which was indeed a scam.
Thanks,
Trueler
This thread and another thread talks about even Groupon being a scam… What’s the deal here?
LOL at Justine not seeing what this is from the start.
Obviously no one is ever selling those gift cards at 55% off lol
LOL at Pat and Sarah
How can you already have recived the gift cards when there’a a 10,000 purchase requirement?
Justine: No, I’m not telling everyone. Your daily deals website was the only one featuring deal55.com (and still featuring!) I could find on the top of search results. So I advised you that it is a scam. I believe people trust information you provide, and seeing new “daily deals” on your website users usually think that the deals are safe.
Plus I give my opinion of what I think of the site in my post, and point out I have not used it on there too, my readers can decide on their own if they choose to use it or not. My impartial I mean that I have nothing to do with the company myself. Are you going around and telling everyone that has information on deal55 on their site this? I think you need to chill out.
Hey dude, I am not the bad guy.
Justine,
Continuing to feature an obvious scam on your daily deals website with referral link – it is not “impartial”.
Thanks,
Trueler
admindeal55,
1) Why do you claim formal relationship with retailers at deal55.com website? Now you say the opposite. Where is the truth and where is the lie?
2) Have you already purchased 10,000 gift cards from each retailer? It’s about 65 million dollars (an average of 5 running deals in 13 cities across Canada). Which discount did they offer to you for such a big volume? 60%??
Thanks,
Trueler
Trueler, I applaud you for taking the time to post this, you obviously feel very strongly about this. I am not so much advertising as just posting about it, people are talking about it and it interests many, that’s it, I am totally impartial.
You should take a look at the comment that deal55 made towards you on my blog.
I’m glad to see some traction in many forums regarding our new controversial launch of Deal55.com. Harnessing the power of buying through the use of the internet community, we decided to offer something very exciting to this new web trend. Unbeatable discounts on name brand gift cards.
Indeed we have no formal relationship with the retailers and merely purchase cards as standard buyer would. We purchase these gift cards from all major retailers across the country. We purchase high volumes when buying cards for groups, much like the travel industry offers discounts on group travelling. This process is combined with other affiliate revenue sources along with our contribution of funding to fuel this approach. Consider this as our cost per acquisition. This is where we want to be and stand behind our methodology. The result is our ability to provide our deal55.com users with these fantastic savings on all their favourite retailers.
Inquiries: 1-877-912-7882
Fax: (416) 849-0581
Justine,
If you could spend more than couple minutes to read through entire article, you will surprisingly discover that there ARE evidences that deal55 is a scam.
For example:
– Retailers (BestBuy, Shoppers DrugMart, La Senza, etc…) are not aware of this deal happening. They have no relation with deal55. It has been confirmed
– Absolutely no customer service. Deal55 does not bother to answer serious questions
– 10,000 deals to be sold in order to make it active
– Recently created website featuring major retailers in most different cities in Canada
– Many fake comments from deal55 “co-founders” at different discussion forums promoting this scam and lying about successful use of gift cards
– Outrageous explanation for “Maintanance”
Isn’t it enough? Do respected businesses work in this way?
The best thing you can do is to stop advertising this scam, or at least put some warning at the top.
Thanks,
Trueler
Uhh taking posts from Smartcanucks as some sort of evidence that this site is a scam? I wouldn’t use that place as any sort of legit research ground!
I posted this site on my deals site, I haven’t used it myself, don’t know if it’s legit or not, time will tell. And ya, all group buys sites work in the same fashion, a certain amount of people have to purchase the deal before it goes through, it’s a common practice.
THANK YOU,TRUELER!
Trueler’s note:
WARNING!!! This comment comes from deal55 “co-founders” as well as above one from “Sarah”
Original comment:
Hey all,
Honestly, I’ve had a great experience with Deal55 and wanted to share it with everyone so that they can get a different perspective on this new site. I big on a card about 2 weeks ago and waited up until March 3rd to find out that the deal had gone through… I just yesterday received the card in the mail. I can honestly say that the card is legitimate, I’ve used it. I will definitely be bidding on more cards from Deal55 considering the money I’ve already saved with them – I suggest trying it out for yourself, in my opinion it’s worth it!
Trueler’s note:
WARNING!!! This comment comes from deal55 “co-founders” as well as below one from “Pat”
Original comment:
Hey I got a couple of these gift card deals from this website and it’s legit! These are real offers from Canadian retailers. You know it’s not a scam bc if not alot of people buy them, then you don’t get the deal. WagJag works the same way no one is questioning them.