Read on for the full gory details of how I lost $9,500 to Desmond Ong...

If you're considering doing business with Desmond, then please read on and make your own mind up whether to risk the money...

On the 13th of April 2010, I was the winning bidder on a "business making $11k/mth NET profit" advertised by Desmond Ong - you can see the original listing here.

Update 24th June 2010

Judgement against Desmond Ong has now been obtained by me in the Redditch County Court. This means that he has to pay me back the money he took from me - plus the court costs and a little bit of interest.

If he doesn't pay, then we have to search out some assets that he uses - such as websites, domain names, paypal accounts, email lists, digital products etc - and ask the court to make an order for confiscation of sufficient assets to cover the claim.

The court are also satisfied that they have jurisdiction to rule in this matter - great news!

If you want to see the full judgement/order - click this thumbnail:

To avoid confusion with anyone else sharing the same name, the Desmond Ong that I am referring to is the one that describes himself as an 'amazing young internet entrepreneur' here and was interviewed here.

This is what was 'included' with the business:

The entire website, blogs, the free content (which are famous for generating 132 success stories in 2 weeks) and the rights to everything.
You will also get my customer's email lists. (Which is worth twice more than any list out there -- and you can even convert them into affiliates to promote for you)
Rave reviews from customers.
I will even update new content in your members' area so your content will constantly be fresh.
My affiliates. I will mail out to my affiliates to get them to promote for you.
My sales copy. (I paid over $8,000 for this sales copy to be written that you can check out at http://emergencymoneyplan.com/sales.html)
My upsells. You will also get my bestselling products, Info Business Formula and Mini-Launch Secrets -- which have sold hundreds if not thousands of copies! (So, that means you get two more websites with this)
Mailing to my list so you can get sales instantly to your brand new website.

Now, without mentioning it to Des beforehand, I joined the email list on the website - so I could see what offers if any were sent out to 'the list'.

I sent the full payment over to Des on the 13th of April, but didn't officially get anything back from him until the 20th - seven days later. In the meantime however, I started receiving emails from him to the address that I had used to subscribe to 'the list'. I got messages promoting different products, on these dates:

13th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 22nd (2nd that day!), 24th, 28th April

4th, 6th, 7th, 11th (2 that day), 18th (2 that day), 19th (2 that day), 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 28th (3 that day), 29th (2 that day), 31st May

1st, 2nd (2 that day), 3rd (2 that day), 4th (2 that day), 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th June

Bearing in mind that I had 'won' the auction for the business on the 13th (of April), I believed he was now using the list to get some quick money in for his own benefit, before handing the list over to me. I asked him to stop doing this, as it would devalue the business and alienate the people that remained in the list. I needent have worried about this aspect - because up until now - the 9th of June (57 days later) - he hasn't handed over any list. Not one subscriber, never mind the 'little over 4k' that he mentioned in the auction listing.

Needless to say, I didn't get these other bits that I was supposed to get either:

customer's email lists.
Rave reviews from customers.
updated content in the members' area
mail out to affiliates to get them to promote for you.
Mailing to my list so you can get sales instantly to your brand new website.
Help To Make Sure You Make Back The Money You Paid For This Site In The Next 7 Days
my entire team will help you to grow your business into a bigger business that might triple your money back

To be fair, I should point out that Des did transfer three domain names into my account - and he asked for FTP and cpanel details. I understand that he posted some files on to my server, but has never told me anything about any of them. There are lots of directories that he created on 'the server' - but as to what is in them I would have no idea. When I try to browse through them, it just seems like a mish-mash of different kinds of files.

In the eight weeks that I have 'owned' this business, I haven't seen any evidence of one person joining any list - or of any sales. I assume that if either of these events are happening, they are boosting Des's coffers.

The payment was made through PayPal - and I tried to get them to refund the transaction - however, they say that because 'the item purchased was virtual or intangible' they have taken no action against the seller. So, I guess this needs to be an expensive lesson for me - not to use PayPal for anything other than trivial purchases, and not to trust amazing young internet entrepreneurs named Desmond Ong...

So, if you are one of the many people that have bought one of Des's products - or if you are considering buying a website from him - please take heed of my experience here, and hopefully some good can come out of my loss.