it's true mrbill, maybe he didn't know, but he did find them online(i don't think there could be any doubt of that), so he must have done some little bit of research finding them, and if the rest of that post has any truth to it, such as "When you Google there name it comes up with lots of scam warnings.", and I suspect it is, he stopped his research in a very silly place.
I've run into websites and found no warnings at all, and been scammed. Trouble is, after the fact, there is no financial return, there's only sinking more money into the pit trying.
I agree, that is a hard lesson he's learned there, but hopefully it can serve to be a warning to others.