Post and Packing scams

Tis the season to be shopping, tra la la la la but don’t get had.

I’ve stumbled upon a scam where search engine product listings are being (ab)used for the classic (“#1 auction site”) +postage scam. Most auction sites have some jokers with good value items with ridiculous postage or compulsory insurance to even the score. Credit where it is due, the big boys are clamping down on unfair charges, but it’s still pretty common for listings to include excessive additional charges; £13 to post a memory stick locally (almost twice the price of the item itself), or £38 to post a Wii.

The scam works like this:

You search for a gadget on your favorite search engine’s products section and as normal you’ll see those highly relevant and usually high commission links on the first page. Like most people, I’m sure you’d have gone to the high street to pay hight-street prices, so the first click is to sort by price. Scrolling past the pages of adapters and cases (if you wanted a case or adapter you’d have searched for it after all) you’ll eventually find the holy grail, the page containing the lowest price actual product you searched for.

It is not uncommon to find many web-based storefronts for the same white label box-shipper, so new stores with juicy offers crop up every day. Since you’re an astute shopper, you’d investigate the first couple of links, knowing that your about to save about 20% or so.

When visiting the site indicated we see that the price is invitingly lower still than the one displayed by the search engine. Bargain!

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…along with the somewhat unusual text “Subject to change”, anyway £4.20 is £4.20 so we decide to click to buy now.

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£300 is the total, right up there in the top right of the PayPal page. If your PayPal credentials were stored in your browser that login button would be your destination. If you happened to be logged in to PayPal the blanks in the form would have been all filled in too. If you were in a rush (and who isn’t at this time of year) I’m sure that would have been easily missed.

“Subject to change” hardly covers this one. Just to pour salt on the wound, the actual Post and Packing sting comes on the last page, and after you’ve logged in.

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£1200! Caveat Emptor people…”Let The Buyer Beware”
- Merry Christmas one and all.*