Please rate the bogusity of taxsmart dot myshopify dot com

[808Pants]

Attracted by the too-good pricing of a store that's under the Shopify umbrella (and thus seemed to perhaps have legitimacy) I got here looking for input on this site - taxsmart dot myshopify dot com .  The AI assistance wasn't of much help, suggesting only that I should see if there's a secure-payment method.  So I went back to the site to see where it would take me, put a product in the cart, and after preliminary clicks, to my surprise, found that I had COMPLETELY checked out - without ever ENTERING any payment info. 

There's an email now in my inbox confirming the purchase, yet also showing that I've paid $0.00. 

So...WTF?  Just a really bad scammer?  

[Shay]

Hey there! Great question. In this case that means the store has set the product price to $0.00, which is why you didn't need to add any payment information to complete the checkout. 

We generally recommend always trusting your gut and don't be taken in by deals that seem too good to be true. We always recommend checking for active social media accounts, legitimate contact information and a well designed and well branded website. If you believe a store on our platform is fraudulent or malicious in nature you can report it here: Shopify Acceptable Use Policy. We are always happy to investigate. 

[808Pants]

Sorry Shay, but "...the store has set the product price to $0.00..." sounds like a really bad AI response.

I can say with near-certainty that this was indeed a failed scam.  Very similar site came up, same products, same low prices, only this time they'd figured out how to take payment - which didn't include any secure payment platform, and rejected my 'virtual credit card' number, so...yeah.  Bogus.

Why not prohibit listings from those who refuse to provide secure-payment methods, eg PayPal, Venmo, or virtual cards?

[Ollie]

Hey @808Pants.

Thanks for the response regarding this. 

Since each business on the Shopify platform operates independently and we cannot view any store or account-specific information from the Community forums, we are unable to confirm the available payment methods for the store in question. With that being said, if you suspect that the online store is not legitimate and is operating on the Shopify platform, you can file a report against the store here. 

Let us know if you have any questions.