4/22/08 Update: The FreeNEzy.com website written about in this post appears to have been sold and under new management, as documented on this recent post. While this change in ownership does not change any of the events that have occurred previously with this site (and my friend never got his reward), there is currently no evidence we are aware of that the new owner has continued any of the fraudulent practices previously associated with the site. As always, use caution when dealing with this or any other site.
Long-time readers of this blog are familiar with the exploits of Mr. Vikram Jhaveri, founder of FreeNEzy.com. The whole thing started when Mr. Jhaveri decided to promote his site on the forums over at SlickDeals.net posing as an unaffiliated user. There is some question as to whether the site was actually ever legit or was a scam from the beginning, but after the posting of SlickDeals scores of users flooded the site, many of whom never received the items they had rightfully earned. A very close associate of the blog was one of those folks, which led me to post the story of the scam on this post in April 2007.
The posting went relatively unnoticed until September 2007 when someone purporting to be Mr. Jhaveri starting leaving comments on the original posting trying to justify himself. I posted a reply in the comments of that post which led to another reply, at which point I posted the string as a new post and left a challenge to Mr. Jhaveri to make my friend who is still waiting on his item whole by sending the item. The thought was that Mr. Jhaveri should have had all the information on past users of his site and know who he sent items to, so to fulfill the challenge he would have to make all the users whole since I did not divulge the user’s identity. Of course, still no item and no further reply.
I heard nothing else for about a month, when Mr. Jhaveri found my eBay username off a prior post and started sending me messages through eBay to lead me to believe he was offering other eBay users I had dealt with money for my identity and contact information, which I wrote about here. He pulled this stunt in early October, and then did a similar stunt in November.
Shortly afterwards he decided to list the site for sale on eBay, as posted about here. The asking price for the site at the time was $50,000. The listing I posted resulted in no sale, nor did a relist.
Well, this past week someone using the name Josh has started posting in the comments of the original posts both here and on the old Wordpress site the following:
I bought this website not long ago (freenezy). I definitely didn’t pay 50k for it. I paid much, much less. I wish I knew that it/it’s owner had this reputation before I bought it though, or I wouldn’t have bought it, obviously. Unfortunately, I didn’t come across this until now though, and it’s too late.
Anyway, it looks like I have a lot of work to do to rebuild the reputation of this site, and I intend to do just that. So for starters:
To the person who wrote this article, if you’d like to email me, I’ll gladly give you my phone number. You can then call me to confirm that I am not the previous owner, and that I have every intention to reward members when they complete the necessary requirements. I’ll even email you a scan of my driver’s license if that’s what it takes for you to believe that I am who I say I am.
An interesting development indeed, however I’ll be honest that I don’t completely trust it. Why? Several reasons:
- The FreeNEzy site looks exactly the same now as it did before. The page is still noted as being run by eJawab, Inc., which was/is Mr. Jhaveri’s company. The site also still notes that it is a California based student run organization and lists a PO Box in Chico, California as the mailing address for the site (Mr. Jhaveri was/is a student at a university in Chico).
- This person is inviting me to email him for proof of his identity. Considering that Mr. Jhaveri has tried in the past to learn my identity and contact information, this could very well just be a scheme on his part to get that info. Sorry, not gonna do it!
- Who in their right mind would buy a web site without even doing a Google search on the site’s name? My posts about this site are at the top of the second page of results for the term “freenezy.com”.
Here is what will convince me that the site was indeed sold:
- A scan of a signed document evidencing sale of the site from Mr. Jhaveri to a new owner.
- A copy of a canceled check or other proof of payment from the new owner to Mr. Jhaveri for the amount specified in the sales document.
- A scan of the ID of the new owner with the name matching that in the sales document.
- As new owner, what message you would like to give to those who are aware and may have been victims of the scams perpetrated through the FreeNEzy.com website.
If you have these things, you can reply back with a comment to this post. I have placed your IP and the name “Josh” on my list to hold for moderation, so any reply back would have to be approved by me to be visible on this site (Note: I did not do that on the old Wordpress site, so don’t post it over there). Place the document copies on the site of your choice and provide the link in your comment. You may black out ID numbers, account numbers, etc., but there must be enough information for me to have a reasonable certainty that you are who you claim to be. I reserve the right to post any documents provided as evidenced, however I will remove the names of individuals, account numbers, contact information, pictures, and the sales price before posting.
I will review any documents provided, and if your story checks out I will make a new posting stating that it is my opinion based on the documents provided that the site was in fact sold and that Mr. Jhaveri is no longer associated with the site. Additionally, I will post the message provided (within reason) in that post and provide a note on each of the prior posts where FreeNEzy.com is mentioned that the site was sold with a link to the new posting. I will not delete the prior posts because these are things that actually happened and there are lessons to be learned from those posts to protect oneself from other scams that may be out there, however each of those pages will have an explanatory note that the site discussed is under new ownership.
