DTV Retailer uses Scam 'Smoke and Mirrors' Tactics

Analog TV users must purchase a DTV converter box before broadcasts go digital in 2009, and the US Government is offering $40 coupons to support the transition. Coupons have a 90 day shelf life and lose their value after 90 days ... this has led to unscupulous tactics by one DTV coupon program retailer, namely, Mosquito Productions. The coupon program requires retailers to become certified by the NTIA (the Government body running the program) before processing orders for the boxes. Apparently the certification program is still a bit lax, as the frenzy to purchase DTV boxes using these coupons seems to have drawn unscrupulous fraud artists into the mix. Orchestrating the scam, Mosquito Productions, via its web site freedtvshop.com and its lack of legitimate hardware supplier relationships, apparently is selling backordered converter boxes to unsuspecting consumers and capturing consumers $40 coupon information at the same time. A majority of the products on their website indicate "On Backorder", yet they continue to use the pictures of the products as a means to convince customers to reveal the coupon data to the company on what appears to be an insecure databasing scam, locking in customer interest and keeping their victims 'on the hook' while they scramble to make things right. Thousands of coupons may have been improperly revealed to Mosquito Productions as the result of what some are calling a massive internet 'phishing' operation." Read on for details of the scam claimed by this anonymous reader.

Fact: Mosquito Productions and freedtvshop.com together are promoting and selling products that are not in stock or available for sale. This practice of selling 'backordered' products is against federal contractor regulations and has drawn public interest and even coverage by 3rd-parties. Investigators attempted to reach the company to no avail.

The scam website freedtvshop.com continues its practice to take pre-orders for the DTV converter boxes that are NOT in stock, and promises delivery in the future without any guarantee they can deliver the equipment. The company immediately collects the information from Government coupons (in violation of the program rules, which prohibit back-ordering) and charges customer credit cards with an authorization for future purchases. Early-adopting consumers were willing to overlook these practices, feeling they would eventually own a converter box on the market. The scam also pulled on the heartstrings of Americans by tying in a Support Our Troops message alongside each scam sale. Federal investigators may be notified to see where the money actually went and to what charities the donations, if any, ever made it to the troops. Further investigations are imminent and it is now known in certain circles that the Company may face the possible of heavy fines and may force bankruptcy. This would surely leave customers that do not take immediate action in the dark when their TV sets go blank forever come February 17, 2009.

As an example, several weeks ago, freedtvshop.com announced that they would not be shipping the Maxmedia MMDTVB03 at all. They were forced to take the product off their website when it became known that the supplier, Maxmedia had never agreed to supply them equipment in the first place. Investigators later learned the MMDTVB03 that appeared on the Mosquito website in fact, would never even make it to market and would be renamed and not available until June. It appears that Mosquito Productions, through its freedtvshop.com website posted converter boxes for sale to unsuspecting customers without actual supplier commitments or relationships and without known availability of shipments from the suppliers. Mosquito Productions now attempting to legitimize what began as a complete 'smoke and mirrors' operation. They seem to still be an approved NTIA retailer, however, it should be known that concerned customers should immediately call the NTIA if they believe there may be a victim of the 'smoke and mirror' tactics employed by Mosquito Productions through its www.freedtvshop.com web store.

Anita L. Wallgren
Program Director
TV Converter Box Coupon Program
Anita Wallgren (202) 482-6266

Consumers are outraged by Mosquito Productions 'smoke and mirrors' tactics but are having difficulty finding out what remedy is available to them when they decided to buy a converter box that may never be delivered. The Company, Mosquito Productions publishes no physical addresses on their website, only a PO Box. Consumers are now resorting to their own detective work to protect the coupons that may have been harvested by a Company that goes by the name, Mosquito.

As of April 24, 2008, the freedtvshop.com website is still accepting and processing orders for the "backordered" CECBs — in what appears to be in clear violation of the NTIA program rules, which only allows coupons to be applied to DTV boxes on its approved list that are in stock.