I believe that I have become the victim of an on-line fraud, which is staggering as I am normally quite cautious about such things. The company name is Elite Savings (http://elitesavings.co.uk - if the website is still there), a web outfit run out of north London, supposedly.

They have drawn a great many people to their website by offering to sell technology goods at remarkable prices. For me I went for an HTC Desire for £309 - thats at least £100 better than anywhere else I could find. But I was not alone and there is a huge discussion about Elite Savings on the MoneySavingsExpert.com forum here --> http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2517159

Basically, Elite Savings claim to be a 'broker'. That is, they collect a bundle of orders and then get these bulk-shipped into the UK. It can take up to 15 days for the orders to be collected after which they are sent to the shipper who then puts them all in a container and ships to the UK via an assortment of far and middle eastern countries. that could add another 30 days to the overall time. Then the goods have to clear customs before being shipped to the client.

All very well, so far. But when I find that the shippers website and tracking pages goes down with no holding page to offer an explanation. When I find that Elite Savings no longer responds to emails. And when I find that Elite Savings own website goes down - reportedly because of a malware infestation - I begin to hold significant doubts as to their authenticity. So to, apparently, do many tens of correspondents on the MoneySavingsExpert forum.

On Monday I am going to start proceedings to recover my money. I am not going to bother with Elite Savings who state that their card-handling company, MoneyBookers.com, will take 10% plus 50p refund handling charge. Under UK Distance Selling regulations Elite are in breach of contract by not supplying the goods within 30 days, leaving me entitled to a full, 100%, refund. But as they are not answering emails there is no negotiation to be had and so I'm turning it all over to my card company to recover and refund. They have much more muscle than me.

One final thing - Elite Savings T&Cs state that by making a purchase with them the customer waives their right to protection of the Distance Selling regulations. It is not legal for them to do this, and you are not able to waive your statutory rights. They're statutory!

I'll let you know the outcome. But my advice to everyone is to stay away from Elite Savings at all costs.