As more and more people normalize shopping online, cybercriminals are finding opportunities to steal money from unsuspecting shoppers. They set up fake stores in such a way that they appear legitimate and sell legitimate stuff.
By the time you give out your credit card information, the scammers will already have gotten what they wanted. Imagine a scammer in possession of your credit card number, the expiry date, your full names, and details of your bank including locations. Just pause for a moment and think about what a scammer is capable of doing with all this information. They can take over your entire bank account and wipe out all your money within a day.
How Online Shopping Scams Arre Executed
Here are some examples of how scammers pull off online shopping scams:
Stores that mirror established brands
Some scammers can go a notch higher and create online shopping stores that mirror legitimately established stores, word for word, product for product. They only trick you on the domain name, taking care to choose a name that is very close to the legitimate website names. Whether you are a regular shopper on such popular stores or shopping there for the first time, the scammers can get you if you don’t take time to verify and ensure you are on the legitimate website. Scammers can actually make lots of money from many people within a short time then bring the fake store down and disappear into thin air.
Overcharging or mischarging
Other scammers use other clever ways that involve playing the longe term game. They will indeed create a website that truly sells real items. They will act all legitimate, take your orders, pack your purchases and deliver timely. They can do this consistently for a couple of purchases from customers until such a time when they feel they have gained enough trust among their users.
Then one day, they do the unthinkable. They will suddenly start overcharging or charging for extra items that you did not purchase. Of course, you might never notice this especially if you are not the type that checks your card balances immediately after purchase to verify the charges. They can continue doing this for as long as you don’t notice. Then when you notice and rush to follow up, they will pretend to be all shocked and issue all manner of promises plus commitments to look into the problem to refund your money. You will never receive the money back and your best option is to use a funds recovery agency like Scam Help.
Some can decide to ramp up thousands of dollars of customer purchases over a few days. Of course, as the buyer, you are always comfortable knowing it takes a few days to deliver your items. Then boom, it dawns on you that they have taken longer than they usually take to deliver. You rush to check the website so that you can contact their customer care, only to find the website no longer exists.
Prevention Tips for Online Store Scams
- If the store is new, search on the founders and dig deeper into their history. If there is nothing you can find that is legit enough to convince you, please run.
- Check the business with agencies such as the Business Bureau
- Lookup for reviews from past users if any
- If it’s too good to be true, then you have every reason to hold onto your money and find alternatives you can trust
Scam Help is a licensed funds recovery agency that has helped many victims of fraud to get back funds lost to scammers of all sorts. If you have lost your funds, please get started by taking our free consultation to access your chances of recovering the lost funds.
