Smart Consumer: Safe shopping on the web
Related Articles
Browsing on the net for cameras, you see a slick site, flashy pictures and keen prices, so you go for it.
This is what Robert (not his real name) did and he ending up spending €1,600 on camera equipment with a UK online retailer. Nothing was delivered.
The web trader didn't respond to his subsequent emails but there was another problem; he had paid by bank transfer rather than credit card meaning that he was not entitled redress from his bank.
He had used that method of payment because the web trader had a novel way of dissuading customers from paying by credit card; they charged a whopping 17.5% surcharge for the pleasure.
Another Irish customer spent €789 on camera equipment on the same UK website. He also became concerned when no goods arrived and when the trader stopped replying to his emails. Put off by the 17.5% credit-card fee, he too had paid by bank transfer.
They weren't the only ones. Ireland's European Consumer Centre (ECC) received several other complaints about the same site over the last two months.
After investigation they concluded the worst; these customers were the victims of fraud.
In addition to the punitive credit-card fee, which had the effect of leading customers to pay by an unsafe method, another warning sign appeared when the site's registration was checked. The site was registered in June, but the information provided on the site claimed they had operated for 15 years.
"Consumers need to be extremely vigilant when shopping on newly established or unfamiliar websites," says the ECC's Caroline Curneen.
She advises consumers "to avoid paying for goods online by these means and to use a secure payment method such as a credit card.
"If this is not possible or is prohibitively expensive, then avoid and shop elsewhere."
This website, in operation for less than three months, has since disappeared and the company cannot be contacted.
But in a case of alarming déjà vu, the ECC was recently contacted by a consumer who had purchased a €400 TV on a UK website with a different name and address, but the exact same thing happened.
The TV wasn't delivered, the website had only just been registered and the customer had also paid by bank transfer due to a high credit-card fee.
If the trader is a fraudulent seller, there is little chance of negotiating a remedy with them. If you haven't paid by credit card, then you can't ask your credit-issuing bank to authorise a charge back to your card when the worst happens.
All you can do is to report it to the Gardai, but you are unlikely to see your cash again.
Irish Independent
