Scammers target Hydro Flask buyers
There’s a new scam involving a Central Oregon company. A website called CamoGym.Com is selling products that look like Hydro Flasks.
NewsChannel 21 heard about this scam from the Better Business Bureau. Apparently, an Oregon woman tried to buy what looked like a Hydro Flask online, but the seller was a fraud.
When you scroll through Facebook, you’ll see plenty of advertisements. Some might seem trustworthy, but as Pam from Newport learned, not all of them are. (She asked that we not use her last name.)
“I was cautious, the first couple of times I ordered stuff. I was, like, ‘Am I going to get taken?’ But the website seemed legit. I should have known. It should have registered right away that it was too good to be true,” Pam said.
Pam said she clicked on a Facebook ad to order what she thought was a Hydro Flask.
But the seller wasn’t the Bend-based company, Hydro Flask.
It was a CamoGym.Com, which had a very professional website and a scam the Better Business Bureau is familiar with, said Oregon’s Better Business Bureau Marketplace Director Stephen Mayer.
“These guys have a lot of free time on their hands, and a lot of them are very talented, unfortunately. So they can create these fake websites that look very legitimate. Oftentimes, they’ll even spoof a real website,” Mayer said.
Two weeks after placing her order, Pam emailed the company, asking for an update. The response she got said that the company is 100% legitimate, though there are several grammar and punctuation errors in the email.
According to the Better Business Bureau, that is a classic red flag.
Pam said she plans on disputing the $39 charge with her credit card company, but that for someone else, the situation might not be so easy.
“There’s some people that can’t afford a loss like that or bigger, and that’s the part that really kind of got me,” she said.
The Better Business Bureau said this is the third time it has received complaints about the company, CamoGym.Com, but the first time it’s involved Hydro Flask.
The BBBB said it has alerted Hydro Flask to the scam.
