Sono D.

PAKGAMERS AND JSHAK FRAUD / SCAM REVIEW:

If you've been to Pakgamers.com, chances are you already know JShak AKA Junnaid Sikander Khadbai. For those of you who don't, he is the CEO and Administrator at PakGamers. In his line of profession he has been working with the Govt for the last 15 years in the following departments: Security and Breach Regulatory, Pilot Programme to National Security and Disaster Allocation, Credit Policies to Regional and Provincial Planning Infrastructure Module, Civil Human Resource Management, Crisis Prevention and Management and so on.

On PakGamers, he is popular for providing payment services to people wanting to shop over Ebay, Amazon and other such online stores, which is what what we are going to discuss here:

At first glance, his profile at PakGamers.com shows him to be a very honest and trustworthy person offering hassle free Payment services for purchasing items online. As stated here in his [WTS] Paypal service page: http://bit.ly/1c3zpse he claims that his profit from offering this service is hardly in the range of 500-1000 PKR. All this is more than enough to convince a person in to believing that this actually is the cheapest and most reliable service being offered in Pakistan. And since he is backed up by PakGamers there is no way he would scam anyone as reputation matters in this business... right?

Unfortunately, this is what has lead many people (including myself) to fall victim to his scam service. This article was prepared in a time frame of almost 4 months during which I researched and got in touch with the customers he had scammed to hear their experience, all of which has been detailed below.

News of Jshak's fraud goes as back as 2008, when he used to scam people who weren't accustomed to how online shopping works. At that time he he did not provide evidence for the purchase of a customer and at the same time threatened the administrators over wcck.net, abusing his position as a Government employee. Since wcck was hacked and closed down long time ago, most of the information has been lost over the subject thus hiding his fraudulent past but a thread over wwftech still exists that should be validate this event, it is labelled 'JShak is a Fraud'.

To summarize the conversation that was held in that thread: A veteran member of the website wccftech bought a Xbox 360 on PakGamers that Jshak was going to import from abroad but after receiving the money he denied that such had dealing ever occured. He did not hand out his contact number or address to the buyer either. When the members at wccftech started doubting his service's legitimacy, he created a False ID to prove himself innocent, which went by the name of "fleetlord" and which he used to shamelessly post the following comment in his favor: http://bit.ly/1cKB3wV after which he used his actual ID to post a reply in his defense: http://bit.ly/1esgZl3 all of which could have gone as planned for him if only he knew a thing or two about IP Addresses. One of the admins pointed that out: http://bit.ly/1hca82T and that is where he started threatening the members of the thread albeit indirectly. As previously mentioned, he was also banned from wcck.net (an old community) for threatening one of the admins with bodily harm.

Most of his negative feedback and angry customers have been removed/banned from PakGamers. Instead of offering a proper medium to resolve the problem, he deletes anything that might risk his positive reputation in the community. One veteran member by the username 'Devastator' also lashed out on him and claimed that he scammer who stole his money but like for all his customers carrying a negative feedback, he deleted the thread and banned the user. Usually threads at PG go in the archives but in this case it could potentially lead to damaging his fake reputation so wiping it out of existence is his way to go.

A DETAILED EXPLANATION ON HIS POLICIES (Link: http://www.pakgamers.com/forums/f116/ordering-stuff-ebay-paypal-transactions-*******/):

From my own experience, here is how his policies actually work. He wouldn't go into any details until you send the payment and I guarantee you that if you send him an email asking a bit too much he'll simply deny service.

[Quote]: "I just pay for the item and that is all, I DO NOT REFUND THE AMOUNT OUT OF MY POCKET... The responsibility of the item being shipped to your home, etc is strictly from the shipper, transaction details will be furnished upon request"

[Explanation]: For starters, the item wont be reaching you directly, I recently contacted him with another ID and insisted that he ships the item directly to me but he denied and said he would first have it shipped to his own address then send it to me. Unlike other middleman services, JShak clearly states here that he won't give you a refund out of his own pocket. Rest assured, he won't refund the full amount even if the seller refunds the amount and I can guarantee that.

[Quote]: "Now easily buy the item from anywhere you like. If the item does not reaches in 45 days, you will be only be deducted 20 percent of the base value + shipping and the remainder will be refunded back on the 47th day( this only applies if the item is shipped to my address and if it does reaches)"

[Explanation]: So now you know he won't even be refunding you the whole amount. Before you start thinking 'It's because of his Credit Card charges' you should realize that Credit Card companies charge 2.5% to 4% of the amount and not 20%. It's obvious he will be keeping the rest of it along with whatever extra you paid for the shipping, which is indeed a big loss if you ordered using EMS or Priority Mail International.

[Quote]: "Drop Shipping on a local USA address and re route it to Pakistan is going to cost you. My services are strictly based on experience."

[Explanation]: If he really did mean it then in all honesty he should go back to the drawing board and conduct a more thorough research as so far I haven't been able to find a single middleman service that surpasses his hidden charges.

[Quote]: "Shipping is available to Pakistan on the rates provided and the amount is going to be charged according to the forex charges with 3.5 percent bank and International swift charges"

[Explanation]: So apparently he can't get his belly full from charging too much for the items. Hence over here he explains he will also charge separately for the shipping and attempts to fool everyone into believing that he will pay separately for the shipping and so you'll be charged 3.5% of the amount.

[Quote]: "Shipping to any address, is not in my list of worries. I can help you pay for the item. I'll try to help you at the maximum to see where your item can reach at your desired address. But cannot hold any responsibility for the address you are liable for"

[Explanation]: First he claims to refund your cash if the item doesnt arrive in 45 days and then here he denies taking any responsibility if the item doesn't reach you. This makes his refund policy sound even more shady.

[Quote]: "Courier/Shipping damages are not covered in my refund plan and cannot be taken as responsibility. You pay and get the services for what you paid for."

[Explanation]: Which means even if your item is insured, it doesn't really matter as being held responsible, is not in his list of worries.

[Quote]: "Once I paid for your item, I am not going to be held responsible for anything. As my duty was to pay."

[Explanation]: I wonder if anyone ever asked him that if his responsibility was just to pay, why does he want the item to be shipped to his address first? The reason behind it is simple, so he can ask you to pay for the custom duty which wont even be half of as much as he'll claim it to be. I have explained this in further detail in my experience below.

MORE HIDDEN TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

Aside from these terms and conditions, once you send him the money he will email you another set of policies that are as follows:

[Quote]: "Do not contact the vendor directly for any reason. If you are found doing this, please consider this deal over with the amount being non refundable. I will not hand over the tracking number either"

[Explanation]: I will tell you why, there are several reasons. If you paid for a better shipping service, he doesn't want you to contact the seller and find out that JShak chose to have the item shipped using a lower class service so he could keep the rest of your shipping money to himself. That is also the reason why we wouldn't send you the tracking number. During my experience I insisted that he should hand me over the tracking number and he did! Only for me to find out that the parcel was shipped using a lower class service when I had paid for Express Mail International.

[Quote]: "Insurance is added to protect the item from damage, the vendor said that refund is not applicable to Pakistan and i was under the impression 80 percent will be refunded. If you are not satisfied, i will do the communication to share what went between us ( if need arises)"

[Explanation]: This is what he writes to almost every single one of his customers. That the vendor denies refunding to Pakistan and the amount will not be refunded if the item breaks or gets lost. Since he has refrained you from contacting the seller, there is no way to verify this either.

[Quote]: "I pay for the item and share the legit proof, it the item is lost of damaged or anything, i am dependent on the vendor for its compensation. If he provides it or not, i cannot do anything clearly nor will be responsible for the payment refund out of my pocket."

[Explanation]: It's funny how despite my constant emails, messages and calls he refused to share this so called 'legit proof'. In the end he just stopped accepting my calls and never replied to my emails.__________________________
MY EXPERIENCE WITH JSHAK:__________________________

Based on several recommendations by my friends and people looking for a legit way to purchase merchandise I decided to try out JShak's payment processing service. I contacted him via email with a link to the item that I wanted from Ebay, which was worth 170$ and the shipping charges were 70$. He was quick enough to reply and copy/paste his policies from PakGamers, when I asked him to send me a quote for the item he didn't, instead he called me the next day and let me know the amount over the phone, which was 28,000 PKR. I sent him the amount and that's when he sent me those new policies that I mentioned above. When I asked him why he didn't mention all that before, this was his reply to my email:

"Look friend you get what you pay for. The policy just makes sure that I dont get stuck up with some nasty customer as I have in the past. I wont refund the amount if the deal breaks off from your interference"

After this I informed him that I changed my mind and needed my cash back. To which he replied:

"Dont get started. I have already paid for the item."

When I had checked for the item and it was still unsold. I called him and politely asked him to hand me over my cash as the item is still listed. He replied in a very harsh tone and told me that once I pay for the item I should leave the rest to him. Which I did without any choice despite the fact that he denied taking any responsibility. Now all I could do was wait for the item to arrive, or so I thought as in about 4 days he got back to me and informed me that the shipping specified was for Priority Mail and since I wanted the item to be shipped via Express Mail Priority International, he thought he should let me know. I asked him to let me know the cost for that service and he informed me I will have to pay 9000 PKR extra which would make the total amount I paid 37,000 PKR. I sent him the money the other day under the condition that he would reveal to me the tracking number (since the first two initials vary for different shipping classes). He agreed to it at first but after sending the amount he kept denying handing it over. Finally after a whole week of me insisting, he handed it over to me although not without slamming his "I am not responsible" catchphrase. When I received the tracking number, I realized my suspicion to be true. The item had been shipped via 70$ Priority mail service. Outraged by this act of his I contacted him and asked him why wasn't my desired shipping method chosen when I had paid for it. He said that the seller didn't ship using that service on his own and there was nothing he could do, nor could be refund the remaining amount even though it was lying in his Paypal account. After this event I quietly waited for the item to arrive and it did arrive to his address. He called me and let me know that the custom duty imposed on the parcel was 10,000 PKR which is insane. I knew it was useless to ask him to provide evidence so I instead told him I will be heading to Karachi and will meet up with him and have the parcel picked up to make sure the amount he mentioned was actually imposed. To this he replied by handing out a free long lecture on custom duty although what he didn't know was that I wasn't completely unaware to how customs work. He had nothing to say in his defense except for "don't teach me about customs as I have been in this for 10 years". This whole dispute lasted for a week and since not paying for customs meant loosing my stuff altogether, I had to pay the price. This made the total amount 47,000 PKR (around 435$ for a 170$ item). However he wasn't done here as after custom charges came shipping charges for which he asked me to pay him another 5000 PKR to have the item shipped to my city. I had to have the item picked myself by visiting the city, he didn't seem very happy but eventually handed over the stuff. That was my experience with JShak and PakGamers and as of yet has been the worst when compared to other middleman services. Now lets calculate how much money he made:

Item cost: 170$
Shipping cost: 70$ (9000 PKR into his pocket)
Customs Duty: 3-4000 (6-7000 PKR into his pocket)
His own charges: 3000 PKR
Total amount he made from all this: ******* to ******* PKR! (150 to 190 USD) and if the item wouldn't have arrived then he would have had the seller refund the amount via Paypal's buyer protection policy and kept all of it to himself as he clearly states that he wouldn't refund anything.

Once you get to experience his fraud, you realize his "My profit is hardly in range of 500 - 1000 PKR" line is just bullcrap.

Aside from my own experience there are several others who have complained in the same way about his fraudulent services. The only problem is that JShak AKA Junnaid Sikander Khadbai is backed up by PakGamers and since he has the authority there, any complaint filed against him is deleted and the user gets banned from the forums. That is how he has been able to maintain his false positive feedback. Please feel free to try his service at your own risk, if your order exceeds 100$ then you'll most likely end up paying a lot more than you had imagined.