I uncovered a fake online store "selling herbal supplements" under the guise of:
elitemedicalshop.com (Do Not Buy From Them!) Read on: Here's some of the info that I found while investigating it with the use of ChatGPT:
Me: Try the search again:
elitemedicalshop.com/product… Cloudflare may not be letting you gain entrance to the site since you're not a human.
ChatGPT said:
E📷P📷N📷SourcesI tried the exact product URL again. You were right: the direct page is returning HTTP 403 (Forbidden), which is consistent with Cloudflare or another anti-bot layer blocking the web crawler.(Invalid URL)Interestingly, though, the search index has enough of the site's product data cached to make this more informative than my previous attempt.The price isn't actually as extraordinary as I initially thought
The indexed result for Elite Medical Shop identifies the product as HI-TECH PHARMACEUTICALS, Original Lipodrene, 100 Tabs, and the site's search result shows a price of $36.47. E📷Elite Medical Shop+1That's low, but it's not remotely 70% below the legitimate-market price I can find.For comparison:PricePlow currently shows the best tracked price for 100 tablets at $41.76. P📷PricePlow
NutraStop lists the 100-count at $39.95, although currently sold out. N📷NutraStop
Nutrition Arsenal has historically listed the 100-count at $34.95. N📷Nutrition Arsenal
Another retailer currently lists it at $39.95. S📷SVP Supplements
So if Elite Medical Shop is actually charging $36.47, that's only about 8–13% below the roughly $40–$42 prices I'm finding—not 70%.That's actually a useful piece of evidence in Elite Medical Shop's favor. The price itself doesn't look impossible. But there's something else I'd want to investigate
The search results are revealing that the site has indexed pages for a large number of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals products, including Lipodrene and other products. E📷Elite Medical Shop+1That makes me more interested in figuring out who is actually behind Elite Medical Shop, rather than focusing solely on the price. Your observations remain significant:
new domain + hidden WHOIS + Gmail address + no physical address + no phone + apparently established-business language That's still an unusual combination for an online retailer selling ingestible products. And there's a potentially important discrepancy we can investigate: whether the "family business" described on the About Us page existed before the April 2026 domain registration. I can investigate that
I'd like to trace the business backward rather than just run the usual "is this website a scam?" checks. Specifically, I can look for: The exact wording from the About Us page elsewhere on the Internet — which can sometimes reveal that the text was copied from an older legitimate business.
The Gmail address and whether it appears anywhere else.
The site's phone/address information in cached/indexed pages, even though it isn't displayed now.
The company name in South Carolina or other state business records, if one is claimed or discoverable.
Whether Elite Medical Shop appears to be an authorized Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals retailer.
Historical versions of the site/domain, where available.
The site's checkout/payment processor, which could tell us quite a bit about whether this is an ordinary retail operation.
Whether there are other domains/sites using the same text, images, product catalog, Gmail account, or business identity.
That would give us a much stronger answer than a generic scam-score website. I'd particularly like to pursue #1 and #2. If that "small family business" paragraph was copied from an older legitimate company, or if the Gmail address is connected to another business/domain with a history, that could be a major clue.
You said:
Here's the site's only contact: menesesi1981@gmail.com Maybe you can drill down in the webosphere and see if there are any other related email communiques?
ChatGPT said:
Yes. This changes the situation dramatically. I searched the exact Gmail address rather than just searching for the current website, and it has a substantial prior history associated with other apparently fraudulent/fake-shop websites. I would not buy from
elitemedicalshop.com, and I would not give them your credit-card information. The Gmail address is the smoking gun: The exact address menesesi1981@gmail.com appears in multiple independent scam-report databases and consumer reports, associated with numerous different online stores. Most importantly, these reports predate the April 2026 creation of
elitemedicalshop.com. So this isn't merely people reporting your particular site because they don't like it. For example: Signal-Arnaques has a dedicated page for the Gmail address with 50 reports and 92 comments. The reports associate the address with numerous sites selling everything from tools and medical products to supplements and consumer goods. S📷Signal Arnaques
One January 2025 report describes a medical/aesthetic-products site using this exact email, with very low prices, no identifiable company, no address, no telephone number, and no functioning customer service. S📷Signal Arnaques
Another January 2026 report describes a purchase from a supposed online pharmacy using the address: payment was taken, nothing was shipped, and the seller didn't respond to repeated emails. S📷Signal Arnaques
A separate report says someone purchased equipment from another site using the address, had their credit card immediately charged, never received the merchandise, and received no response to emails. S📷Signal Arnaques
ScamWatcher has a report where a customer says they bought from
GoodSeeShop.com, received nothing, and subsequently experienced unauthorized transaction attempts on the card. The report explicitly identifies menesesi1981@gmail.com as the site's contact address. S📷Scamwatcher
Another customer reported that a site using this address attempted to charge more than the original transaction amount after payment. S📷Signal Arnaques
That last point is particularly relevant to the concern you raised earlier about your card.And I found something even more interesting
There's a German consumer site, Seitcheck, that has an entire page specifically devoted to:"Fakeshops: menesesi1981@gmail.com – WARNUNG! Nicht bestellen"Its conclusion is that the address has been repeatedly used as the sole contact for fake shops, with no identifiable operator. It says consumers reported non-delivery and unresponsive customer service and specifically warns against ordering. E📷ERFAHRUNGSBERICHTEIt also says the same address was associated with a group of sites using the supposed business identity "Kleopatra Markt." E📷ERFAHRUNGSBERICHTEThat's important because it establishes a pattern, rather than an isolated questionable website.There's also evidence of copied website text
One ScamWatcher commenter searching the same Gmail address reported finding the same "family business" / About Us language on another unrelated site,
fineairsoftstore.com, while noting that these sites were selling products at extraordinarily low prices. S📷Scamwatcher And other reports associated with the address specifically complain about copied/pasted website text and fake shops with no legal/business information. S📷ScamwatcherT hat makes the wording you noticed—
"As having started out as a small family business..."—considerably more
suspicious.It may be generic boilerplate that's being recycled across unrelated fake storefronts.