Orlando man runs into trouble after buying mask from risky website

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.

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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.

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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.

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​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.

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