Monday 14 December 2020

Upcoming holiday season ripe for scams!

 

Once again, that time of year is here. Gift giving season. With all the new restrictions, etc due to the COVID 19 pandemic, a lot of people have turned to online ordering.

Wether it is from Amazon, EBay, Etsy, or your local shops. These are all susceptible to scams of one form or another.

I’ve heard of quite a few people ordering items from the ads that appear on everyone’s Facebook page. These types of ads are basically a gamble, so don’t expect to see a high quality, awesome item, for a cheap price and even a “compare this” proclamation. Then you order it, and end up receiving a cheap plastic knock off of the picture. I’m sure this has happened to everyone at one time or another. A lot of these types of ads are “dropshipping” ads.

Dropshipping is quite popular, but lots of places are beginning to shun the idea. It is basically a man in the middle webstore. Whereas a person sets up a store website, then chooses a number of products from different manufacturers (90% of the time) are from China or elsewhere overseas. How it works, you go to said persons website, pick a product, purchase it (with payment) all through this persons site. They in turn make the exact order from the manufacturer with your shipping address and their part of the payment, and voila middle man makes a small profit, just for copy and paste.

Eventually your item arrives, and depending on who that person used as a distributor is how the quality etc of the product you receive is determined. Some have a great experience and get great items, others never see an item at all and those web stores disappear overnight. So once again, a little research goes a long way.

Here is a wiki-link that explains drop-shipping in more detail. Drop-shipping!

Even EBay, Amazon, and quite a few big box stores use drop-shipping to some extent. But it is with the popularity of the “get rich quick” side of things that have people smoke-screened into thinking it’s all legit.

It doesn’t take much time to research any seller, be it on EBay, Amazon, or a Facebook ad to find the info you are looking for. If you email the place directly and don’t receive a response, be wary! Also be wary of those sites that ask for “extra” shipping costs for faster delivery, not all of these are true!

Government Of Canada has some good links and tips as well regarding this topic and is an excellent place to report any suspected scams. Check it out here: Online shopping scams.

Another good way to stay safe while shopping online is by using pre-paid Visa/Mastercard cards, or one time use cards. These can be found just about anywhere, some banks even offer Visa/Mastercard online cards for those reasons only.

There are many ways to stay safe when shopping online, take a moment to read up on them! And stay safe this holiday season!

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