Say it with me. “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
As our loyal readers know, we recently blogged about the dangers of buying expensive watches on Craigslist (Click here for the original blog and click here for the follow-up blog). A brand new IWC Big Pilot for under $5,000? Not so fast. SCAM.
Fine. But what about other websites selling expensive luxury watches at hefty discounts? Are those sites legitimate? Short answer – some are, some aren’t. If you’re going to make an expensive purchase on the Internet, do your research. Even legitimate-looking websites could be pretty packaging covering up an ugly, elaborate scam. Want a real world example? Of course you do.
Over the weekend the eRelyx team was researching online competitors. As part of that process we uncovered a business called Windsor Jewelry with the URL www.windsorjewelries.com. They had amazing prices on watches – check out a screen shot of some of the amazing deals.
The prices seemed too good to be true, but I was comforted by the fact that the business had a brick and mortar location in Indianapolis. Windsor Jewelry had been serving the Indianapolis market since 1919 (notice the logo in the upper left corner of the screen shot below). How can a website with a store front be a scam?
Still a bit skeptical, I thought I’d call Windsor Jewelry to ask them a few questions. Unfortunately, customer service only accepted calls from 9-5 on Monday-Friday. I figured the brick and mortar location MUST be open on a Saturday, so I googled “Windsor Jewelry” to find their number. Here’s the site I found (notice the logo in the upper left corner):
Great! Windsor Jewelry does appear to be a legitimate business. One problem. The URL for this site is www.windsorjewelry.com. But the logo is the exact same as www.windsorjewelries.com. Maybe they just have different URLs for their web and brick and mortar business – not hard to believe.
Wanting to dig a bit more, I called the store. The phone was answered by a very nice, polite young lady. When I asked her if her store was affiliated with windsorjewelries.com, she said, “No. They stole our identity and we haven’t been able to stop them. They try to get you to wire money to the UK. I assure you that we’re a very nice jewelry store in Indianapolis. If there’s anything you can do to help us stop them, we’d appreciate it.” I could hear the frustration in her voice.
I told her that I’d blog about their situation and share it with our readers. So, now you know. Windsor Jewelry (www.windsorjewelry.com) is a very legitimate jewelry store in Indianapolis. Windsor Jewelry (www.windsorjewelries.com) is a thief – and while I can’t claim that they steal customers’ money since I have not done (and will not do) business with them, I do know that they’ve stolen the identity of legitimate jewelry business. I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in buying anything from an identity thief.
Say it again – “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Please share this story with your watch-enthusiast friends.
And as a quick update to the story, if you go to www.windsorjewelries.com, the Windsor Jewelry logo is no longer at the top of the page! I certainly can’t claim credit, but I’m happy for the legitimate business in Indianapolis!!
Tags: IWC Big Pilot, scams, windsor jewelry, windsorjewelries
Great story! Great detective work!!!
It’s unfortunate that there are scam artists out there…sad, but true.
[...] Earlier in the week we reported a case of identity theft. Windsor Jewelry (www.windsorjewelry.com) of Indianapolis had its identity stolen by, well, Windsor Jewelry (www.windsorjewelries.com) of cyberspace. The “too-good-to-be-true” prices were a dead giveaway. Read the full blog here. [...]
I noticed they stole jomashop.com’s home page banner too LOL
Yeah, I think this site is fraud. The ordering website is not even secure and price of the watch that I was looking was too good to be true. When you click on finalize order, they don’t ask you to enter your credit card number. They will send an email asking you to do a western union money transfer.
I fell for this site before finding the blog. I will not be sending a money order obviously, but I wonder if they can do anything with my billing, shipping, email, and phone information? Too good to be true for sure, just over $1900 for the 45mm Omega Planet Ocean.
When you order something, you will receive an email with an invoice that still contain the “Windsor Jewelry” (in Indianapolis) logo and contact info. And they will ask you to do a wire transfer.Cant beleive the website is still up after 2 months+ (created end of October).
I traced them down to Kuala Lumpur (MY) and forwarded all the infos to the ICCC.
I was stupid enough to wire them 3900usd via western union on Christmas day. Is there anything I can do to get the money back? I just tried to open the website again and the browser told me it couldn’t be connected…
Do you guys know if western union was noticed about this before the website went down yesterday?
I recently made a purchase with windsorjewelries.com. After reading this blog I am extremely upset with myself and these scam artists for tricking me to wire $4,000 usd to them via western union. If anybody has anymore information about this or has an open police report please contact me, I would love to do anything I can to take these blood suckers down.
Terry that is awful, unfortunately your only recourse for action is to go to the IC3.gov website which is the federal internet site to lodge an internet based complaint. Even if your case is taken there is no way you will be able to get your money back. If any retailer asks for Western Union then thy are a scam. Thats the bottom line. Hope this helps. Always use CC cards so at least you have the dispute process.
Thank youuuu, i was about to buy a cartier $500 off regular price. There is not much about this place in the internet except for you. Again thanksssssss
I checked them with the BBB in Dyer, IN, strange as it seems they have no complaints. It ran up a red flag when they priced a $5990 watch for $2456. I did not place the order. Thanks for the info.
@Randy – definitely a case of, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Glad that you didn’t get burned!
[...] No wonder it looks familiar. Several months ago we warned you of a questionable website called windsorjewelries.com. They stole the identity of a legit business in Indianapolis (we called the actual store to confirm). Read the whole story here. [...]