The Internet is rampant with products, services, free offers, discount coupons, so on and so forth. When you buy online, you pay from your desk and wait for the product/service to reach you at your doorstep.
When you buy a product/service, and are cheated into believing that you are sold an authentic product/service, but delivered a lesser quality product or no-product, you become a victim of online scam/fraud. In brief, online shopping fraud/scam is a clear cut case of cheating wherein you are fooled by an online seller/website.
How do Online Shopping Scams/Frauds happen? Scammers pretend to sell a product/service very cheaply to lure customers. Unsuspecting shoppers or first time buyers often fall into the loop and end up giving their credit card or bank account details. Scammers often misuse these details and loot money from customers. There are several ways in which online frauds happen:
1. Online Credit Card fraud: Many customers fall into this. Most scam websites get all your credit card details promising to deliver a product at your doorstep. What you often get is a lesser quality product or no product at all. Most of the time, the address and phone number of the seller maybe wrong and you may have no customer desk to inquire about the status of your purchase too. Sometimes, the scammer takes control of your credit card details and squanders the money in your account.
3. Free stuff: Beware of anything that comes for free on the Internet. In the name of “free” stuff or discount prices, people are fooled into buying what they don’t want, without their knowledge. This is often the case with movie ticket discounts or any other free iPod or iPad offer. Often, you become a victim who signs up for a monthly subscription for the entertainment discount club thinking you are just availing one-time discount tickets.
4. Sign-ups, fake sites: Some sites say that if you sign up or take a survey, you are liable to receive a discount or a free trip or an exciting new gadget. In most of these cases, the bigger the prize or deal, the more fraudulent it is. Phishing happens in which companies try to steal your bank account details masquerading as web giants like Amazon.com or eBay etc. Often this phishing happens through emails warning you of an account shutdown and suggesting you to click the link embedded in the email. Clicking the link takes you to a scam site similar to big online shopping sites.
5. Counterfeit goods: Counterfeit goods – from music, medicine, consumer and retail products to electronic gadgets or other services – are part of the Internet market. If you are not careful, you can be lured into buying a product with the cheapest price tag and delivered the worst counterfeit product on earth.
For information on the meaning of scam you can check Tutorvista scam definition.You can get the clear idea of what exactly is the meaning of scam.
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