03.18Gazhoo Scam ?
Many of our readers may have heard about a website portal called Gazhoo. It encourages users to post their resources for sale to like users. Items like contract templates, documents, images are then offered for sale by Gazhoo whom acts as the middle man (person). For each sale or transaction, Gazhoo takes a 30% commission and then reportedly pays the owner of the resource (in my case a contract document) the remaining funds. A $5.00 minimum is required for payout.
On the surface this portal appears to be on the up and up. They use SSL and have the credit card images in the footer to implore credibility, however, as someone that has tried this service our opinion is much different.
So far they have neglected and or failed to payout an outstanding balance due, they do not have a customer service phone number, do not respond to inquiries and no where on the site is there a physical address of their business….strike three. This site has all the elements or making of a scam portal. When you whois the domain name it is protected which means you cannot glean any contact information on the developer or owner of the site….strike four.
A credible business will post a physical or business address, phone number and contact information. Gazhoo has none of the above. Well if you are like me you simply chalk it up or write off the experience and move on…sort of moving on as writing this article to make others aware is my only recourse. The lesson was minor, yes they sold some of my information but they did not physically steal money out of my pocket, they only cheated me out of my intellectual property by reselling it to unsuspecting third parties and not paying the rightful owner. Be warned (caveat emptor) and advise your colleagues of the Gazhoo fraudsters as it is posts like these or reviews from credible people that help police the internet. If this article goes viral and puts Gazhoo on the right track it will discourage the scammers or ripoff artists from taking advantage of people. Help us make an example out of them, please forward or post this article on your site.
If anyone has had a similar experience let us know or if you have been paid in the last month we would love to hear from you.
UPDATE: April 4, 2010 Gazhoo finally made payment. We have opted to leave this post up in an effort to hopefully keep them honest.
Proof of scam..
Yes same with us. If you click their customer service icon your only recourse is to post a message …(ironic phone image on the icon and no phone #).
No responses…
March 18th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
How is the above proof… can see they owe you money.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Thanks Dez….we requested payout approx 10 days ago…see the request date. Payouts are to be made within 24 hours per their terms of use. They have not paid out and have not responded to inquiries.
Have more screen prints of my customer service inquiries, earnings report, etc. …just did not post them.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Was thinking about trying them out but think will steer clear. Thanks for pointing out the phone #, contact coordinates thing…they have nothing.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
UPDATE: Gazhoo has finally made payment…14 days later and without any explanation….
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:28 am
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June 7th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
If you guys are struggling with Gazhoo, don’t bother. Try Lillilooloo.com. They have 1000′s of FREE documents and a far superior portal to sell documents.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:11 am