To go with gift-giving season, scammers have a “crafty new con” for snaring online shoppers, according to Better Business Bureau.
It works like this: The scammer lures Joe the shopper to a website. Joe selects an item and purchases it. Shortly after Joe’s credit card is charged, he gets an email saying the item is out of stock and the cost will be refunded.
Joe waits for the refund to be posted to his account. It doesn’t appear. Joe sends email after email asking about the refund but never gets a response.
The most likely fact is that the item Joe ordered, and the shop he ordered from, don’t exist, according to BBB. Shoppers like Joe, who used a credit card and monitored his refund, usually can contest the charge and get their money back.
But scammers count on shoppers prolonging the deceit by not noticing their refund didn’t materialize and, if they do, not reporting the fake online shop. Either way, the scammers get money for nothing.
This holiday season, scammers are busier than ever, running all manner of online shopping cons and making a living at it.
“Online shopping expanded during COVID because more of our lives were online during the pandemic,” said Kristen Johnson, director of communications for Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut. “Scammers like to be where we are. They saw us doing business online so they hopped online and tried to take advantage.”
The percentage of online scams reported to the BBB…
