wow man because I am looking for information on this guy on this website because i have been ripped off!! i dont have a profile but i could make one! this is the only time i plan to use this site. I thought thats what this site is for. the site says it has security all over it check it out yourself: herbs4usa.com. why are you coming down on me saying im a troll, and have only used the internet for a half an hour in my life. you are very rude. i posted my email address in case somebody could help me. I dont want anybody else to fall prey to this scam.

mactastic isn't registered; he just picked a name. You can do that on this forum.

I clicked around on herbs4usa.com and finally did find a SSL page: https://secure.nutripay.com/herbs4usa/checkout.asp?

herbs4usa.com was registered two years ago for a five year period, so that might tend to offer false reassurance.

The site displays a BBB logo that doesn't link anywhere, and the BBB has no record of such a company. I'd say his money is gone.

Whether mactastic is for real or not, there is a lesson for other people who are new to ordering on line:

It's a good idea to start by googling the name of the company, the URL, the phone number, whatever they list, and see what you find. In this case the first page of a search for herbs4usa.com is full of ads they posted for themselves. Searching for "herbs4usa.com" and "scam" gives the same results. The word "scam" isn't on the pages anywhere; if you check the cached copy in Google, it says it only occurs in pages that link to that page. So someone googlebombed the ad pages using the word "scam" so that search results would still give their own sites before any that might contain complaints. That's pretty shady search engine optimization.

Seals from certifying agencies like the Better Business Bureau should link to those agencies. When you click on the seal, a page opens up and the page has the BBB's web address in the browser address window at the top of your screen, and it is the last part of the address before the first single slash "/" . So http://search.newyork.bbb.org/reports.aspx is for real but
http://bbb.org.serdg.at/reports.aspx is not, because there is other stuff between the "bbb.org" and the slash. The seal at herbs4usa.com doesn't have a link at all. You can go to http://search.bbb.org/ and find out what information they have about companies, whether they are members or not.

The secure ordering SiL mentioned is very important. When you arrive at a page that asks you to enter any personal information, it should say https://, not http://

A physical address and a phone number is important. This site has neither, not even a post office box to let you know which state's attorney general to complain to. If it does give an address, go to google maps and enter it. Look at the satellite view. Does it look like the kind of business they claim to be? In this case, an affiliate of an herbal company might operate from home, but we see sites that have pictures of beautiful multistory office buildings and addresses that show sod farms or strip malls.

If you check out the domain name whois (at sites like who.is) the registration information should give a valid name, address and phone. In general, real businesses want to be found, although again, a home business might not.

It's possible to have a great experience using the internet to shop for speciality items that you can't find in brick-and-mortar stores, but anytime you are ordering from a small company you've never heard of, you need to really check them out.

thank you alpha for the tips, and the hospitality, i have written a poem now
its not fun being burned,
but is a lesson learned
thats all...
yea the site looked legit, with all the BBB and other secure things but i should have payed better attention. people looking for cheap herbs will fall prey to this because health food stores jack up the prices alot.
so far ive found these sites with that fax number
homeherb.com
herbmd.com
herbs4usa.com
herbs-wholesale.com
nutripay.com
hep-forte.com
there are too many too list probably. they all have the same set up, some say free shipping above $69, some $79, some $89, some $99. they really are desperate at setting up these multiple businesses with these gimmicks.

That's another tip-off: multiple websites for the same brand. Real companies want to build brand recognition. They want one domain name that everyone will remember and visit the next time they want to order. Shady operators create multiple sites and open new ones as old ones shut down. They don't care about repeat business since they would never get any. In other cases, a company signs up affiliates who host identical sites, order product from the franchiser, and then fulfill orders from their homes. The franchiser is often more interested in lots of affiliates ordering housesful of product than in supporting their affiliates. They sign up too many for the market to support, so affiliates sign up and drop out rapidly. Then there is no one to help you if you have a problem with your order, just people pointing fingers at one another.

Don't be mad at SiL -- I was thinking the same thing when I read your post. Click the blue square and ask a moderator to change your email address so the bots that harvest them won't add you to a gazillion spammers' mailing lists. It was the combination of having ordered without doing research and then showing the ability to do competent research that made it look suspicious. Next time, do it in the other order

hey all an update after sending various emails to all the different websites, i finally got an email notification saying my order has been shipped. even though i placed it through herbs4usa.com, the email i sent to herbmd.com is the one that made it go through! after tracking down all his websites i finally got something!! so this is an actual business just a really bad one. but my order will be here august 26th. thank you all anyways, if i can help get rid of spam in the community I will do so, thank you site for being here, and alpha you were great help.
this whole "next day shipping" thing was wrong it was more like "next 2 weeks shipping" after you track the owner down.
-mactastic.

hey all an update after sending various emails to all the different websites, i finally got an email notification saying my order has been shipped. even though i placed it through herbs4usa.com, the email i sent to herbmd.com is the one that made it go through! after tracking down all his websites i finally got something!! so this is an actual business just a really bad one. but my order will be here august 26th. thank you all anyways, if i can help get rid of spam in the community I will do so, thank you site for being here, and alpha you were great help.
this whole "next day shipping" thing was wrong it was more like "next 2 weeks shipping" after you track the owner down.
-mactastic.

If you add WOT to your browser it will warn you of risky or suspicious websites: www.mywot.com - WOT rates sites with 4 components: trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy, and child safety. When privacy has a poor rating in most of the cases it is because the site is advertising with spam. WOT ratings are based on user ratings and trusted sources, such as Spamcops and Phishtank.

Consider checking nutripay.com at (McAfee) Siteadvisor.com

Siteadvisor graphic shows nutripay.com linking to Nutrovita.com--also registered by Absolutee.

Googling Nutrovita.com shows links to stores in Torrance, CA and an Amazon "Nutrovita" storefront selling vitamins and herbal stuffs.

Alexa (which has a caution Yellow rating by SiteAdvisor.com) traffic analysis indicates majority of traffic at Nutovita.com originates in Pakistan.

Okay mactastic, you have a mild apology from me, but I stand by my initial supposition:

If you don't do research, especially from a site you have never dealt with before, and you are that eager to plunk down your credit card, believe me: you are asking to get ripped off.

This site [CastleCops] is about investigating and exposing online criminals which happen to include operators of bogus pharmacy and "herbal remedy" sites. We can't help you get your money back.

I have seen several complaints over the past year or more, on several forums, regarding this particular entity, and they are generally considered to be a bit of a ripoff even if you DO receive your order.

Posting without an account is something I have seen spammers do on most forums I have been a member of. Thus my lack of belief that this was a legitimate complaint.

AC: my point about the security is: if you choose a product, and head to the shopping cart, at no point are you seeing a secure page until your final checkout page. By then your name, address, phone number(s), email address(es), etc. have all been captured without any encryption, able to be sniffed by anyone.

Given the sheer volume of illegally spammed sites hawking "herbal remedies" these days, I am of the opinion that you'd have to be a few fries shy of a happy meal to seriously consider ordering from any of these sites.

Another huge caveat: