Complaint Review: Avongate B.V.

A Wikilinks website advertised a PC CleanUP program that would speed up my computer. The download would cost only 23USD and change which I submitted via PayPal. After the download, I loaded two programs. The first was called something like "Tweakbit booster". The registration key was inserted as prompted and the thing scanned my computer advising that my system was in bad need of cleaning. The second program (another Tweakbit something or other) would clean up my system. But, unfortunately, the registration key they provided via e-mail for that part of the program ..."was not acceptable". I tried the copy/paste route and direct input a number of times and the program would not function. Incidentally, the registration pop-up also provided me the opportunity to purchase a much larger, more expensive program to do what I thought the original download was supposed to do! The larger program was called a "PC CleanUp Suite". I"m now getting the idea that I'm being not so gently led down the old garden path into the money-grabbing hands of less-than-nice people. A call to the provided 1-800 Support line number confirmed my suspecisions with very loud, nerve jangling noises emanating from the phone! I took some comfort from the fact that the provider assured there would be no problem, because if I wasn't satisfied, a full refund is guaranteed.

I terminated my connection with the website and contacted PayPal to dispute the transaction. I related my story to them which they would pass on to Avangate B.V. opening up a dialogue. The immediate response from Avangate was simply . . ."Claim is denied". The matter is now referred back to PayPal for further investigation.

I'm not all that concerned about the 25$, but I am concerned that PayPal (a good service I have relied on often) would associate with this kind of operation. And I'm concerned that I'm obviously not the only uninformed user that has run up against such on-line fraud.

I hope this is of some help to other trusting soles . . .