This article serves to highlight some practical pointers to avoid being scammed, on CyberMonday, and CyberFraud generally:
Please have in mind that certainly in English Law, and in particular under Consumer Law, the onus is upon you as the buyer to check and consider what you are purchasing. The principle in Law is ‘Caveat Emptor’, ‘Buyer Beware’.
The wording used, ‘Sold as seen’, means exactly this. If you ask questions about the item, and you receive a response, that response is a representation made by the buyer to you, the seller.
Make sure that when you send questions, that you copy those questions and answers to another email address. Such representations could be misleading, false, innocent, or fraudulent misrepresentations, which dependant upon the type of misrepresentation, lead to various remedies in Civil Law, and in Consumer Credit Law.
Example 1:
You purchase an item, but it never arrives. You try to communicate with the seller, but they either ignore you, or say something to allay your fears, and still your item does not arrive.
Example 2:
You purchase an item, but it is not as described, and instead it is a knock-off/fake/copy/counterfeit of what you thought you were purchasing.
How did this happen?
1. Did you check the location of the item? Unusual places are known for producing counterfeit goods.
2. Did you check whether the name of the seller is unusual? Ambiguous names, are sometimes indicators of a scam.
3. Check what other items are being sold by the seller. Is this a usual item being sold? Is it unusual? Just because a seller sells thousands of pairs of socks, does not mean that a Rolex placed, is genuine.
4. Check the number of items sold by the seller and over what period of time. Recommendations of less than say 10, should be considered more carefully. If trading only commenced a month ago, with thousands of items sold from scratch, is this not peculiar? Does this raise alarm bells, and if not, should it do so?
5. Check the feedback. Any negative comments made? Check the comments to see precisely what is being said. Equally, check the positive feedback to consider whether it is genuine. If hundreds of people make recommendations with similar sounding names, or from similar locations, that could also be suspicious.
6. Check carefully the decription of the goods. If it is described as ‘like’, or ‘style/d’, it would be your problem if the seller said the goods were not the genuine article.
7, Check to see whether the Ebay Seller account has ever been suspended. This may be indicative of a Seller who takes risks and sells goods, or provides an unsatisfied quality of service.
David Rosen is a Solicitor-Advocate, Partner and Head of Litigation at Darlingtons Solicitors. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner qualified with eh ACFE. He is a working member of the Fraud Advisory Panel, and a member of the London Solicitors’ Litigation Association. David Rosen is a visiting associate Professor of Law at Brunel University.