[TWIAR] Powerham.com is apparently a fraudulent company

[Greg Williams]

Apparently word is circulating throughout the amateur radio community that a
ham radio site advertising high-end radios, some not yet out on the market,
and selling them at "bargain basement prices" is nothing more than a fraud,
originating out of Romania rather than the advertised Washington State.

www.powerham.com started appearing on QTH.net mailing lists last week
claiming that the site is a scam site.  Some of the indicators included
non-secure transaction pages when they advertise secure payments, a WHOIS
lookup that originates in Romania (and expired earlier this month), and
broken english on what is otherwise a very professional looking site.

As of today (Tuesday) the site has been taken down, with a "Site temporarily
suspended" page in its place.  The WHOIS data has recently been updated and
the domain's expiry is now December, 2004.

It is unclear how many people, if any, were duped into buying any of the
radios advertised.

Greg Williams
k4hsm@lock-net.com

Tis often better to be silent and thought a fool rather than to speak and
remove all doubt.
No trees were destroyed in the sending of this contaminant-free message
We do concede, a significant number of electrons may have been
inconvenienced.