(Note - I am diverging away from writing about comics for this post. I came across this information and I thought it was important to get it out to save some people money and frustration, and this website is my best avenue for sharing information. I’ll get back to comics with the next post.)
There are bad people in the world.
We see it everyday on the news websites, but the crime and the criminals usually seem so far away. Unfortunately, the unrivaled connectivity of the web brings us all just one mouse click away from many of these criminals. These people spend a lot of time and energy figuring out how to rip off the rest of us. It is disturbing to discover people on the web as despicable and immoral as the criminal thugs seen on “The Sopranos”, but they are out there. Our best defense is to spread the word on how these scams operate so we recognize them early and avoid becoming victims.
(There are some people who would say that a post like this only serves to educate other scammers on new ideas. I disagree. The criminals would seek this information out one way or another. The potential victims are the ones who most need to be alerted.)
This particular scam revolves around digital cameras and camcorders. Here’s how it works:
The victim is in the market for a camera and does some research on the web, looking for the best price. When checking one of the price comparison websites that comes up in a web search, he sees a wide range of prices with a couple of web retailers advertising it as in stock with a very low price. Here’s part of the scam. The same scammers own many of the low price websites so that their extremely low price doesn’t stick out as much and helps keep a red flag from being raised. The budget minded victim clicks on one of the stores with the very low price. All of the stores have high customer satisfaction ratings which are completely bogus on the price comparison website.
Once at the scammer’s site, there is very little to suggest a scam. The site looks very professional and has a wide selection of merchandise. They’ll claim that their products are “Factory Fresh” and “Still Sealed in the Original Boxes”. They even provide ordering and customer service 800 numbers for your convenience. Everything looks good and the victim is in a rush so he places an order (using a credit card) for a camera at a great price.
A few days later, the victim gets an email asking him to call the customer service 800 number to “confirm” his order. This seems a little odd since the camera should have already shipped, but he figures he needs to call to find out what’s going on. Once the scammer has him on the phone the scammer asks which battery would the victim like with the camera. Does he want the expensive 2 hour battery or the really expensive 5 hour battery? The victim is surprised and says he thought the camera comes with a battery. The scammer tells him that it doesn’t and that he’ll also need to buy the battery charger and other upgrades. The victim is confused and the thug on the phone puts on the high pressure (even bullying) sales tactics.
At this point, one possible scenario is the victim stands his ground and insists that he only wants what he ordered, in which case the scammer will become verbally abusive and then hang up on him. The camera will suddenly become on perpetual back order and the order will eventually be cancelled. This is actually the best-case outcome.
Another possible scenario is that the victim decides that the whole thing stinks and decides to cancel the order. The scammer will tell the victim that he can’t cancel the order (because the camera already shipped or some other such nonsense). When the victim insists on canceling the order he is told he will be charged and exorbitant restocking fee, which is quickly charged to his credit card.
The third scenario is that the victim is stunned and agrees to the “upgrades” at an extremely inflated price. Many times victim will regain his composure shortly after hanging up and try to call back to cancel his order only to receive the run around spending huge amounts of time on hold. If he eventually gets through to the surly, mean and abusive “customer service representative” he’ll go through the order cancellation scenario above. If the victim decides to just wait and see what he gets he’ll end up receiving an incomplete order with a price even higher than the over inflated price he was bullied into. The invoice is not itemized so he has no record of how much he was charged for each item, or even what he is being charged for at all. Now the victim has to go through the frustration of disputing the credit card charge and returning the merchandise. All while feeling like a fool.
Now the bonus. In a couple of weeks, fraudulent charges start showing up on the victim’s credit card so he has to go through the trouble of canceling the card and getting a new one.
This is a variation on the classic “bait and switch” scam, and people need to be aware of it. A little due diligence and cautionary behavior are usually enough to avoid getting ripped off. If the price is much lower than the big retail outlets (even if other small retailers you’ve never heard of have competitive rates) that should be a red flag. Don’t trust the retailer ratings on price comparison websites. Check a reputable, third party retailer rating website like http://www.resellerratings.com/ for feedback on the store. Or better yet, check the Better Business Bureau for complaints.
It’s a shame that some people have to learn an expensive and frustrating lesson in criminal behavior by becoming a victim to a scam like this. But I think the biggest victims had nothing to do with the transaction. The biggest victims are the legitimate and honest small web retailers. The criminals make it almost impossible to trust a small time merchant on the web (even though I’d bet most of them are honest and trustworthy). As more and more people come into contact with these criminals, more and more business will go to the big name retailers, and more and more small businesses will have to close up shop.
Let’s all try to recognize these criminals early and avoid getting ripped off. And spread the word, so that our friends and families don’t become victims of these thugs either.
