Finding a face mask was tough enough before the CDC recommended voluntary use of masks in public last week.
That’s made buying masks online very risky as an Orlando man found out -- who felt burned by a risky website.
He turned to Action 9 Consumer Investigator Todd Ulrich for results and he exposes slick sites that promise delivery now but can fail to deliver. And he tells us how to spot those sites.
LIVE UPDATES: Orange County transitioning to throat swabs at COVID-19 testing site, officials say
Dan Pedro couldn’t find any face masks at his familiar shopping sites. But he didn’t want to wait.
“My sister works at a nursing home so I was just trying to protect us all from getting sick (and) I couldn’t find anything.”
His searches landed on the site viraltechmasks.com.
It’s a slick-looking website offering masks to battle harmful products and breathe better.
But two weeks later he tried to ask about his $60 order for three masks and got bad news. Their website has no contact information. No phone number," Pedro said.
A guide to ‘crisis gardening’ as more people turn to backyards to grow produce during pandemic
Pedro says the company generated order tracking information that he claims didn’t track anything.
“It’s not like you go to UPS or FedEx and there’s a tracking number and you know where it is.”
At trustpilot.com we found other customers claiming they never got masks they paid for a month ago.
And Cyberbunkers calls it an untrustworthy website that could send counterfeit goods or nothing at all. We contacted the company five days ago without a response.
For them to be doing that at this time is the worst of the worst.
Just a few hours before our story first aired, the face masks arrived at Pedro’s home. It was a month after he ordered the masks, and he thanked us for contacting the company.
How does COVID-19 anxiety impact children?
Before ordering protective equipment online verify if the company is legitimate. Does it provide a real street address location? Is there a customer service number -- and someone who respond?
In that case, check online complaints -- with the BBB -- and other consumer websites that track complaints.
© 2020 Cox Media Group
