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Laine was browsing Instagram when an ad caught her eye – the pair of running shoes that she had been wanting to buy but was out of stock for months is available!  She clicks and rushes through the order and payment process and was so pleased that she got the last pair on a discount.

Two weeks later, she finally admitted to herself that she was scammed.  

"I used to think that this would not happen to me, and I would not fall victim to scams.  Now I realized anyone can be a victim if one ignores all the warning signs.”

In hindsight, Laine concedes she should have checked the website of the seller.  She simply assumed that Instagram has vetted all of its advertisers, and so it was safe.  Then to have a hard-to-find item on sale should have been another clue.  The item has a strong demand and resellers are listing it for 3x the retail price.  Buying it was also a breeze with no need to register an account, waived shipping fees and just to proceed to the payment page for the items on the shopping cart.

Scam epidemic across Asia

It’s not just Filipinos falling victim to scammers, but also shoppers from across the region.  In 2023, Milieu Insight surveyed 2,500 respondents from Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia to look into just how widespread scams have become in Southeast Asia.

More than half of the respondents (54%) confessed to losing money from fraud.  With the rise of online shopping, it’s no surprise that buying/selling scams were the highest at 37%, followed by investment scams at 31%. Interestingly, in Thailand and Vietnam, many of the victims fell prey to scams through social media channels, while in Malaysia, 1 in 4 victims were conned by email scams.

7 signs to spot online shopping scams

#1 Check website and site security.  With a physical store, it’s easier to spot red flags, such as location in a not so nice area, and even just the state of the store e.g. dirty floor, unprofessional sales staff and more.  With online shops, you need to pay attention to two things: one is the website address and the other is HTTPS.  Bogus sites tend to use similar website addresses of the reputable retailers with a slight twist.  They also usually do not have HTTPS with a padlock next to it.  Personally, I never shop with any website that does not have this, as HTTPS indicates that the website uses SSL encryption, which means nobody between the website and the user can read any data shared.

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#2 Verify the domain history.  This is something new that I learned and found to be quite useful.  Some website names are too good to be spotted as fake, so the next thing to do is check how long they have owned the domain name.  Fake shopping websites are usually registered only for a short period of time, unlike other reputable sellers and brands that have been around for quite a while.  To check the age of a website, you can use free tools online, or try to tap Google’s free safe browsing transparency search. You just need to type the URL into the search bar, and Google will give you an assessment of the site.

#3 Prices are way too low.  When a website is selling items at skewed prices, that’s fishy.  Remember the warning “If it’s too good to be true, it likely is?”  Many victims will tell you they were lured by bargain prices but simply lost their money.  No retailer can afford to sell at very low prices especially for items in high demand, as Laine painfully discovered.  If you are tempted, check the reviews and ask around for others you know who have shopped there.  And when I say check the reviews, don’t limit yourself to reviews on that website which may also be fraudulent – go to the World Wide Web and ask.

#4 Are those stolen images or videos?  Some websites are quite bold in that they use stolen images and videos from legitimate retailers and social media influencers.  It shows the websites are likely put together by amateurs who are in a rush to set up a reputable-looking online storefront.  To spot original images, simply take a screenshot and use Google Lens to check similar images.  The more that pop up, the faster you should run away from that website.

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#5 Need to call Grammar Police? This is common for all fraudsters, whether they are texting you, or sending emails, or setting up websites.  You will note misspellings, grammatical errors, and the copy just does not sound right.  Maybe English is not their primary language.  But it’s more likely that just a bunch of amateurs put the site together.  A reputable store will take time to review everything they upload, and they have people who check on people who do the real work.  

#6 Can you contact the seller from the contact page?  Before you check out from any site, even if they passed all the other tests, try to contact the seller from the contact page.  The harder it is to get through, the more you should reconsider.  Many things can go wrong with an online purchase, including delayed delivery or double charging.  You want to be able to reach out to someone and resolve these issues if they happen.

#7 Read the Returns Policy.  We don’t always like what we bought, and reputable sites have detailed terms and conditions when it comes to Returns.  Fake or not, any website that does not allow Returns is a no-go for me.  With no possibility of return, that is already a “scam” for me, as it means I have to keep the item when it arrives, whether it’s the wrong size, wrong color, or defective.

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Do your part in cleaning up cyberspace

Most people who became victims of online scams chalk it up to experience.  They may try to recover their money but when they realize, like Laine did, that it is almost impossible, they walk away from it and try to learn their lesson for the next time.  

First and foremost, you should try and recover your money.  If you used a credit card, some actually have a Purchase Protection policy which means if you ordered an item and did not receive it within 30 days or a similar window of time, you can get a refund.  Second, try and file a report with the relevant government agency.  This could be the police or the National Bureau of Investigations cybercrime division.

Finally, you can report it to Google or Microsoft using these links.  I don’t know how efficient they are in purging the cyberspace of fake sites, but doing something is better than just letting them get away with it as they wait for their next victim.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aneth Ng-Lim returns to writing after more than two decades of working as a communications specialist in the government and the private sector. Her advocacy for financial inclusion and personal finance began when she served as head of Consumer Education during her stint at a multinational bank.