There are offers for cheap firewood on social media and also on sales portals. These are posted as posts, distributed in Facebook groups, and separate pages are created for them.
The offer contributions are always very similar or even identical, only the contact person or contact details vary. Often the same errors are included.
Anyone who follows current market prices should know that it is probably not realistic to get a cubic meter of firewood for well under 100 euros this year. Some of the wood is already sold out.
Police and consumer advocates warn
If something is too good to be true, it usually is. This also applies to offers for firewood. Numerous advertisements offer attractive prices. Contact is made via email or WhatsApp, payment is made in advance. However, the wood never arrives, police .
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... and it's not just Hockenheim or Germany that is affected here, as a case from Austria shows.
Unrealistically low prices as bait
A 66-year-old from Lower Austria was interested in an offer that was published on Facebook Marketplace. There were several advertisements with the same name here, the names of the sellers varied, NÖN in May.
The interested party ordered 30 cubic meters of firewood for 1,500 euros and transferred this amount to an account that was communicated to him during communication via Facebook. Shortly afterwards he receives information from the provider: He can now offer 50 cubic meters for just an additional charge of 500 euros. The customer accepted the offer and transferred a total of 2,000 euros.
One day before the agreed delivery date, the provider contacted us again with an offer: two full trucks with firewood for 3,500 euros instead of 5,000 euros. However, the 66-year-old did not react to this.
The delivery did not materialize and the man did not receive the firewood he had already paid for. The seller could no longer be reached, whereupon the cheated customer filed a police report.
“Schwarzwälder Bote” also reported on a similar case Here a man had ordered firewood for 350 euros and paid in advance. The delivery never arrived. Here too, the case ended with a complaint.
Advance fee fraud
These offers are rip-offs, or more precisely, advance payment fraud. The fraudsters lure interested parties and buyers with low prices and collect money in advance.
You can no longer see the money and there will be no delivery.
“Konsumerschutz.TV” warns of this scam and points out the unrealistic prices:
“Anyone who spends just 5 minutes studying the quality and availability of firewood knows that there are currently no such special offers in this industry. A cubic meter has to cost well over 100 euros - there is no other way in the 2022/2023 heating season.”
Source: NÖN , Schwarzwälder Bote , consumer protection.TV , Federal Association of Firewood Trade and Firewood Production eV , press portal
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )