#WeekendWisdom 054 Online Shopping Scam

Welcome to #WeekendWisdom number 54. This week we’re going to talk about an online shopping scam.

Why is this an issue now?

I was speaking with my post man the other day and he was telling me that they are gone really, really busy with delivering packages and parcels to people all along their route. So obviously the Christmas shopping season is in full swing and with us being in lockdown, people are ordering online much more.

What is this Online Shopping Scam?

But I became aware of a new online shopping scam there late last week. What happened was that the person was on Facebook. They saw an advertisement for a product that is associated with their hobby and the price was really really good. So they clicked on the link. They were brought to a website of a well-known retailer and the price was there. The product was there. They placed an order and sometime later they got delivered something like a magazine. Something that had no real value and wasn’t the product they ordered.

So they disputed the transaction but because the fraudsters had actually gone ahead and delivered something, the bank was reluctant to reject the transaction because there had been something delivered. So it was difficult to resolve that issue for that person.

How did they manage that?

What had happened was the fraudsters had set up a clone of the genuine retailer’s website, which is something that’s really simple to do. They looked exactly the same, just those prices were ridiculously low.

How can I not fall for that?

So the tip here folks is that if you see something online that the price is just too good to be true, it probably is. So don’t fall for it. Don’t go and purchase anything like that.

So that’s it for this week. Let’s be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next week.


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