Fraud: shopping at online stores or at auctions

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Fraud when buying things in online stores or at auctions.

How to recognize an Internet scammer?
This question was sent to us by Svetlana Shishaeva from Shemonaikha. Advertising designer Suzanne Anfinogenova answers him:
- The well-known O. I. Bender knew four hundred “honest” ways of taking property from fellow citizens. But progress in the scam and cheat industry does not stand still - modern crooks are perfecting old ones and inventing new tricks of cheating. In practice, alas, it is rarely possible to distinguish an honest
person from a crook. Only vigilance, their own ingenuity and, perhaps, intuition help (look into his eyes - maybe you will understand that this is a fraud).
But it’s far from always possible to look a swindler in the eye: how do you view it on the Internet, which the most advanced citizens increasingly use to deceive their neighbor (and distant)?
Recognizing a fake when buying online is generally difficult. You cannot hold a thing in your hands, as in a regular store. However, the situation of online shoppers is not hopeless. They can take many measures to protect themselves from fraud scammers. So...
1. If the price seems too good to be true, then most likely it is. A Louis Vuitton bag cannot cost $ 20 (rather, it costs $ 200).
2. Use the services of trusted online stores.
3. Pay attention to how the store website is designed. If he looks unprofessional, there is no actual address or phone number of the seller, this is a cause for concern.
4. Prepare for your purchase in advance. Learn all the characteristic features of the thing that you will acquire.
5. Check the seller’s rating. A large number of dissatisfied reviews is a serious reason for refusing a purchase. As for other sellers, you can search the Internet for the name of the site or company and see if there are any comments from dissatisfied customers or buyers.

Photo for ... 5000 pounds!
Buying something cheaper is a natural desire of any normal person. And where, one wonders, is it easiest to do? For example, at various online auctions. Often, the starting price of lots displayed there is so low that it is simply impossible to resist the temptation
enter into bargaining. The benefit and the final cost is usually much lower than in a regular store, even if a commission one.

You can imagine the amazement of the respectable Englishman Tom Shed, when at one of the online auctions he saw a gift that his wife had been dreaming of for many years! It was a Rolex inlaid with diamonds watch.
New ones cost at least twenty thousand pounds, and well-worn - about twelve. Whereas at auction they were put up for ... 4717 pounds. That is two and a half times cheaper than in the cheapest thrift store. It’s just some kind of holiday, Mr. Shed thought, after which
immediately sent a bid to bid. And immediately won the lot, because there were no other people who wanted to buy a luxurious little thing. About a hundred dollars a happy buyer had to pay for sending the clock, as well as for transferring money from his account to the seller’s account. Already through
A few days the package was delivered. With trembling hands, Mr. Shed opened it and found ... instead of the clock, only a photograph of them. A naive person suggested that after some time the mail will deliver the clock itself, but he was mistaken. To the perplexed letter to the seller, a cynical response was received: "What else do you want for five thousand? A photograph of the watch was put on the site, now it is yours. Adios."

Needless to say, a good-natured upset citizen, who had bought all kinds of things through the Internet eighty-seven times without problems, immediately turned to the police. But what’s wrong with that? Yes, the FBI has already been contacted, but the likelihood of calculating a fraudster
although not so small, but still substantially less than a refund.
The question is, should we feel sorry for Mr. Shed and blame the malicious scammers who for no reason cheat honest people and undermine the basis of trust in online trading? No, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we should not regret Mr. Shed. It may seem to someone an empty viciousness, but still you need to live within your means. The aforementioned watch would be a grief for the buyer, as already mentioned, for the birthday of his faithful wife, who turned ... 54 years old! Just think about it, an adult woman has long dreamed of some watch. I remember such a wonderful film as “Courier”, when the main character gives his friend a coat with parting words to dream of something high. About the same thing can be advised to Mr. Shed. Sure, having a Rolex watch with inlaid diamonds is a pleasure, but is it self-evident? Somebody
it also has villas on the Cote d'Azur, and someone is huddled in a communal apartment. And if money for luxury is desperately lacking, is it really needed? A man who does not have enough money for the most necessary, but who nevertheless boasts of his Rolex watch for several tens of thousands of dollars, looks
just wretched. About the same as the average man who lost his head from the opportunity to grab for five thousand pounds that costs about thirty. Hence the logical result.

And yet, do not get us wrong - the thief should be in prison. And that fraudster who auctioned a photograph instead of the watch itself will surely suffer sooner or later the punishment he deserves. All that we say in condemnation of naive buyers is actually nothing more than
warning. I recall Pushkin’s line: “You wouldn’t chase, pop, for cheapness.” As you can see, in the era of online trading, it is no less relevant.
Nikolai Podstreshny, www.utro.ru

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Thank!