Silicon Mobile Technology’s scam tactics amount to out right "FRAUD".  The last time I checked, this was against the law. It starts with a call from Silicon's sales department.  They claim to be a manufacturer of high quality, low priced laptops.  The sales call is to make it look like they want you to become a Wholesale/Reseller vender of their laptops by sending you a industry standard "credit application" so that "if" you are approved, you can then purchase wholesale from them, in order to resell their laptops to the public at retail.  Retailer's receive sales calls like this all the time.  On the credit application, you are required to list a personal or company credit card and credit card number.  Silicon Mobile also requires that you send them a "voided check".  You also must "sign" the credit application.  None of this is out of the norm for the industry, so of course everything appears absolutely normal at this point.  However, once this is done, all of the necessary pieces to de-fraud you are in place and in the hands of Silicon Mobile.

You get sales calls like this all the time where distributors want you to fill out a credit application and sell "their" products in your retail store(s).  The "catch" here is, in order to entice you to buy their laptops for resale and fill out their resale credit application, they say they are willing to ship you one of their laptops, free of charge (if returned in a specific time frame).  You are told this is a DEMO laptop for you to "test", "evaluate" their quality and display in your retail store for your customers to "see" it.  You are assured by the sales person that all you have to do is return the DEMO/EVALUATION laptop after the 30-45 day trial period and you will not be charged for it.  You are told by the sales person that once you "see" or evaluate the quality of  their laptops, you will want to stock them and sell them to your customers.  This appears to make good business sense to "look over" the manufacturer's laptops before you start buying them to stock in your store(s).  After all Silicon Mobile doesn't have the name recognition as IBM, SONY, COMPAQ, HP, etc.   So you think "OK, I can look over their laptop, return it without being charged", and go from there.  So of course you agree to them sending you this DEMO/EVALUATION laptop, returnable at no charge.  You then fill out the credit application, sign it and fax it and a copy of a voided check to Silicon Mobile.  You then sit back and wait for 2 things: 1). to receive the DEMO laptop via UPS and 2). to see if your credit application is approved by Silicon Mobile.  This will most likely take a few days and you know that.

Now, here's what happens behind your back while you are waiting.  NO CREDIT CHECK is ever performed by Silicon Mobile because they never intended to check your credit.  The same day that Silicon Mobile receives your fax, they charge your credit card for the full price of the so called DEMO laptop.  Yes, the same credit card number you put down on your credit application.  If the charge goes through, they then ship out the laptop to you like as if it was a "sale".  They then write up a bogus sales receipt and forge your signature on it.  Remember, you gave them all the necessary information to write up a complete sales receipt including a copy of your signature when you signed the credit application.  The "terms of the sale" on the sales receipt says: "ALL SALES ARE FINAL".  Of course being unaware of what Silicon Mobile did, you sign for the laptop upon delivery by UPS and the fraudulent transaction is now complete.  Yes, you are now the proud owner of a sub standard, over priced laptop.

Silicon Mobile is fraudulently selling their laptops in this manner. 

What happens from here varies from person to person and company to company.  Will you get your money back if you return the laptop?  Do you return the laptop?  Do you keep it?  Do you call your credit card company to let them know you've been scammed?  Do you demand that they credit back the charges?  Do you call Silicon Mobile to find out what the **** is going on?  At some point you will find out that your credit card was charged for the DEMO laptop and you have been scammed.  You never authorized that charge, but whether you get your money back depends on your credit card company.  The "offer" for a 30 or 45 day DEMO/EVALUATION laptop is verbal over the phone so you can’t prove what they said.  If you complain to your credit card company, Silicon Mobile will try to make it appear to your credit card company that you intended to buy the DEMO and not merely accept the DEMO unit from them for a trial period of 30 to 45 days.  This was on their website (www.superlaptop.com) that they will send you a DEMO if your application is approved, but nothing about 30 or 45 days trial period.  If you return the laptop per the verbal agreement you made with them, Silicon Mobile will still keep your money and the laptop.  Not really a particularly clever or creative scam, just one that they feel like they can circumvent the law because they know it's to expensive for any individual to fight a legal battle against them.  How many other retail venders have they scammed this way?  Figure this: Get a sales department working the phones to call all of the computer retail stores in America with the same offer and even if they only get away with it 50% of the time, that adds up to a lot of fraudulent laptop sales and a lot of money.  

There is recourse thanks to the way in which our laws read.  If for example you can prove to your credit card company that you never intended to buy the laptop, you may get your money back.  One point of law, and there are more, in regard to a "sale" or "sales" concerns "intent".  An example of intent would be if you drove down to a store and bought something.  Intent is demonstrated by the act of you purposely driving down to the store and not exclusive to the fact that you bought anything.  If your credit card company refuses to give you your money back, then that's where they are missing this particular point of law, if they fail to determine your "intent".  The faxed copy of their application, for example, clearly demonstrates the lack of intent on your part because is shows that they contacted you for a "different" or "other" reason than to personally sell you a laptop.  It also eliminates your "intent" to buy a laptop from them for a couple of reasons.  One, clearly by them faxing you a application to become a "reseller" demonstrates that they initiated the contact, that two, it demonstrates that your intent was to get set up on "credit terms" and not to purchase a laptop from them.  Therefore, the criteria set forth by law, clearly is not met by your "intent" to buy anything from them.  That this was not a "normal sale".   If your credit card company does NOT give you your money back, then they are not taking into consideration "how" the information needed for Silicon Mobile to commit fraud is obtained.   In dealing with your credit card company, you need to make sure you are talking to someone with a tiny bit of knowledge of law.