Enough fraud with fake shops – consumer advice centers and the State Criminal Police Office give tips for safe online shopping
During Advent and the run-up to Christmas, many consumers hunt for bargains on the Internet. But extreme caution is required: Behind some cheap online offers there are criminals who want to rip off buyers using fake Internet sales platforms, so-called fake shops. As part of the “Enough Fraud” prevention campaign, the consumer advice center and the Rhineland-Palatinate State Criminal Police Office provide tips and advice on how to protect yourself from this rip-off when shopping online.
At first glance, fake shops are difficult to distinguish from reputable online sales platforms. Really existing websites are simply copied by fraudsters. This means that the website often appears serious at first glance.
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With appropriate product images and information from the Internet as well as a professional appearance, fake shops gain the trust of online buyers and entice them to buy. Products are often offered that are out of stock in other online shops, or the goods are offered at a lower price than elsewhere.
Sometimes an exceptionally low price can be a warning sign. However, all fake shops have one thing in common: payment is made via risky advance payment. This is dangerous for consumers because they have to transfer the money before they receive the goods and from fraudulent retailers they usually cannot get the money back afterwards.
Some sites also offer a different, more secure payment method. However, if you want to select this, you will be informed that this method is currently not possible for technical reasons. In this way, consumers are then tricked into paying by bank transfer.
After payment, either nothing or goods of inferior quality are delivered. The dealers often even fake delivery problems and put those affected off for weeks in order to prevent them from taking further steps. In other cases, consumers report that the provider is no longer available at all and no longer responds to emails.
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Consumer advice center and the State Criminal Police Office give seven simple tips to protect against fake shops:
- Control imprint and contact options: Operators of online shops are obliged to maintain an imprint on their website and include, among other things, the company name, geographical address and an email address. Inconsistencies in the legal notice or missing contact details can be an indication that it is a fake shop. If there is no imprint on the website at all, you should definitely not order there.
- Critically question reviews: Before making your first purchase, it is important to find out about the company's reputation. Customer reviews can be fake. Here it is important to remain suspicious. Find out from various review portals and social media whether consumers have already had negative experiences with this shop. Get an opinion.
- Check the quality seal for authenticity: If the shop uses a quality seal, you can click on the seal emblem to check whether the online shop is using it legally. Be careful with fictitious, meaningless labels. Trustworthy seals are compiled at http://internet-guetesiegel.de/
- Choose secure payment methods: Secure payment methods offer good protection. The safest option is to pay after receiving an invoice or issuing a direct debit authorization, i.e. paying by direct debit. In some cases it is also possible to arrange payment via payment service providers after 14 days. Do not pay with risky payment methods such as advance payment if you do not know the online shop.
- Question cheap prices: If the product is offered noticeably cheaper than in other shops, skepticism is appropriate.
- Order button must be correct: To complete the ordering process, the order button must be labeled “Order with payment”, “Buy now” or “Book with payment”. If the order button only says “Register” or “Order”, be careful.
- Be careful with out-of-stock goods: Evidence that the goods are in stock and declared to be available for immediate delivery, even though they are no longer available on other sites or only after a long delivery time, are another indication of a fake shop.
Anyone who has become a victim of a fake shop should file a criminal complaint at the nearest police station and immediately ask their financial institution whether they can get the purchase price paid back. This is usually still possible a few hours after an online order. With other payment methods such as direct debit, the payment can be reversed up to eight weeks after collection.
See also:
Fake shop warning and prevention tips
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Article image: Shutterstock / By Popov Nikolay