UK-based agency's a scammer?

Question

There's this UK-based agency that helps international students prepare for their studies in the UK. I contacted them using a contact form on their website, which ends in a .com. The problem is that they replied using an email address that ends with googlemail.com, instead of one with their website domain (eg. @microsoft.com, @walmart.com). The payment details are listed on those emails with the googlemail domain.

My questions are:

Does a website or an email address ending with .com guarantee that the business really exists and is legitimate?

Should I report it to the US police as it ends with .com instead of .uk?

To whom exactly I need to report them if after paying the fees I find they've scammed me?

What should I do? Could they possibly be scammers?

Answer 1

The fact that they used .com instead of .uk is not a problem at all. Anyone can buy .com domains and use them in the UK. The fact that the email comes from a slightly different address again is not cause for concern- they may have a few accounts that are linked.

You may not have been scammed at all- it may just be poor customer service. Send another email  

Answer 2

To begin with I would not send payment to them. In the infancy of the internet web sites had the address end in .com for business .org for organizations (e.g charities, professional organizations, etc), .net was for groups that were not business. However with the explosion of the Internet websites this is no longer the case and anyone can get any extension on their web address.

In answer to your question can they be 'scammers'? Based on your posting there seems to a good chance that they are and I would be suspicious of them. If you are in the US I would recommend reporting it to the FBI and the FTC (Federal Trade Commission).  

Answer 3

It is not an offence to use .com if you are in the UK.

It is also not an offence to use google.mail for business.

I personally wouldn't use a business that used a free google.mail address.  You are very right to be suspicious and if you are uncomfortable about any of the practices  they should be reported.

There are countless millions of scammers in this world preying on people like you and me.

Answer 4

Concur with most the comments made so far.

Might be worth typing in the word "Scam"

into your Web Browser,

and running a "Search" as I did.

Like me, u may be lucky

Answer 5

Whats the website? Put it in the additional details bit. I can tell you if its most likely fake or not ;)

Usually the company would use their own domain for the e-mail address - a company using googlemail to contact their customers seems a bit strange. Like the guy said above, ANYONE can make a website and ANYONE can register to have a .com or .co.uk domain.