As you know, I love a bargain. I also love a mystery box. A few weeks ago I spotted an offer shared on Instagram – a free mystery beauty box, just pay £1.99 delivery. Like many of you, I went ahead and purchased my mystery box. I haven't received my mystery box and I thought nothing more of it until some of my followers messaged me to say the website no longer exists. So have we been scammed by Mystery Box Direct? Is this a Mystery Box Direct Scam?
Who are Mystery Box Direct?
I had only heard about Mystery Box Direct on Instagram when I saw the offer for a free beauty box
There isn't actually that much on the internet about them.
The website is down – https://www. mysteryboxdirect .com/
Their website also can't be found on Wayback Machine, meaning it must be quite new.
A look at the Whois information for the domain name confirmed that.
The domain was registered on 31st July 2020.
The only other information I could find without the website existing was the telephone number is my order confirmation email.
That number is 01302985857.
Google gives us two other businesses with this phone number: Retail Shed and JG Photographic.
Both of these websites are down, which leads to the first suspicion: maybe they just haven't renewed their hosting and there is no scam here.
Retail Shed and JG Photographic
With Mystery Box Direct being down and emails bouncing back, I turned my attention to these other businesses.
The obvious first port of call was to ring the phone number, however I got no answer.
I then started delving into the two companies, but I couldn't find much for Retail Shed.
JG Photographic is run by James Gibson, and the area code for the phone number aligns with his address in Doncaster.
Interestingly, there is a notice for voluntary strike-off for his company, which is two month's notice, issued on 16th June 2020. You can see it here.
A quick look on LinkedIn finds him here, with a company of a similar name. Their website is down too.
Trying to make contact
As mentioned above, I have tried ringing the number on the order confirmation email.
I have also tried emailing all 3 companies I found associated with that address.
I have received no reply at the time of writing this post.
SOME people have received their boxes
After publishing this post I had a few messages on Instagram from people who HAVE received their packages.
However, in a lot of the cases, the make up was expired or unbranded stuff you find in discount stores. Not even worth the £1.99 postage!
Is Mystery Box Direct A Scam?
It is really hard to know if we have been scammed or not at this point.
I placed my order on 20th August and as of today, 2nd September, haven't received anything apart from my order confirmation email.
I also cannot get hold of anyone.
It could just be a simple case of the website hosting not being renewed.
It could just be a case of someone getting ill and being unable to do anything in regard to this.
We really don't know.
What now?
If you have placed an order with Mystery Box Direct then I think it is time to claim your money back.
You might have ‘only' paid £1.99 for a mystery box, but I know many people upgraded their order to include full priced mystery boxes.
Here is how to do that with Paypal and here is how to do it with your debit or credit card provider.
