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The popularity of online stores has given rise to a type of fraud known as fake sellers, who try to lure and deceive victims by selling them poor-quality goods or services. They also try to influence the buyer to purchase unnecessary items by offering exorbitant discounts, but in reality send completely unnecessary items, substituting them.
Therefore, when shopping on online platforms, you should be cautious and not immediately trust the seller, carefully analyze the situation and use critical thinking to avoid being pressured.
How to Recognize Fake Sellers
At first glance, it is difficult to recognize a fake seller; to understand if you are being deceived or not, you need to communicate. Often such communication occurs in online stores; if the seller is a scammer, they will suggest discussing the purchase not on the trading platform but in social networks or messages, supposedly for convenience.
Fake sellers also use methods of social engineering, mainly exerting pressure on the buyer:
- by offering cheap goods;
- telling you that the duration of promotions is limited;
- requiring you to immediately purchase the item at a favorable price, implying that if you don't act now, you'll lose the chance to buy at a benefit.
Scammers on Online Sales Platforms
On fake online sales platforms, there are often many positive reviews that do not fully disclose the buyer's opinion, but are phrased in general terms and include additional advertising.
When studying online sales sites carefully, attention should be paid to the content of the site and the date of its creation. Fraudsters often inflate the site's traffic and reviews. If it turns out that the site was created recently but has a high traffic rating and a large number of buyers, especially of promotional items, this should raise doubts, and a buyer following this link should be cautious, as it is likely a fraudulent site-platform.
Fake Seller Accounts
On trading online platforms, scammers create fake accounts, posing as sellers. In this way, they aim to obtain information about the buyer, interested in possible methods of accessing the buyer's personal data, internet banking, payment card details, and PIN codes, passwords.
Fake sellers use psychological pressure methods on the buyer, offering them advantageous deals, but for this, they may require entering card details or making a prepayment, and ideally for them, completely paying for the offered item subsequently. Such a bank card will not be secure, and the scammer can set up, for example, an auto-payment or charge more for an item than was indicated.
Having obtained what they wanted, the scammer cuts off all contacts and disappears from the online store, deletes all correspondence, and completely destroys their account. In such a case, finding the villain will be difficult, if not impossible. Subsequently, the scammer may contact you again, pretending to be another person, or pass the data to another scammer to commit a group fraud.
Signs of a Fake Seller
Scammers often use real sale ads, copying them from a site, only changing the payment details. And if you talk to them in detail and ask about the product, the fake seller is unlikely to be able to thoroughly describe the item being sold. They also change the price or list their item at a minimally attractive price, which may lead to the thought that the seller does not have this item, they are simply collecting money and enriching themselves at the expense of greedy users.
Online Shopping Safety
To purchase the desired items online and feel safe, as well as be confident that the purchase is correct and fair, you should adhere to several positions on the online store platform:
- pay attention to the record to ensure there is a security icon in the form of a lock;
- make purchases only on verified sites;
- create secure passwords for internet banking;
- regularly check card statements to track payments;
- avoid using banking apps on public Wi-Fi;
- update platform software;
- have antivirus software.
These simple rules will help avoid scammers and their actions when shopping online.
How to Avoid Being Scammed on Sales Platforms
Check if the sites have a security level and if the company's return policy is indicated. Pay attention to reviews; if they are detailed, they are likely real, and such a site can be trusted. Read information about the creators, familiarize yourself with the company's certificates and permits for conducting trade. If these are absent, the site is likely fake, as they say, a one-day site.
Alertness and caution are the main rules that will help avoid being scammed on sales platforms.