Cheating technique: why one should be wary of online "super sales"

Journalist Andrey Shipilov colorfully and convincingly described the methods by which fraudsters around the world cheat simple-minded buyers, while remaining virtually invulnerable to law enforcement agencies:

“A friend sent him a link to a super sale of dell laptops with a 91% discount.

- Buy faster, otherwise they will take everything apart, - he writes, - I bought four of them myself.

Next comes our dialogue, slightly abbreviated and literary edited.

Me: - If you are offered a diamond at the price of a glass, then you are offered a glass.

He: - This is advertised on Facebook, by the way, and there all advertising is strictly checked!

- Well, do you understand that there are no 91% discounts in nature? There is a completely new model. And you won't even find a three-year old 1000-dollar laptop for 80 euros.

- It also says that the laptop cases were damaged during transportation, which is why they are so cheap, but they are completely working.

- Doesn't it bother you that for technical support you pointed to the address of a free Outlook mail?

- This is fine.

- OK! But you do not mind that there is a bunch of admiring positive reviews, written as a carbon copy and all over the last week.

- It's okay, because now all SMMs are promoting stores.

- Aren't you embarrassed that the domain of the store in the com zone was registered only 10 days ago with a Chinese registrar and is hidden behind a private service?

- This is normal, laptops are from China and therefore the domain is also at the Chinese registrar.

- Doesn't it bother you that there are no company details at all, except for the contact mailing address, which for some reason is on mail.ru?

- Not "for some reason", but because I am in Moscow, so the Russian address was automatically substituted. Well, why are you digging! I wanted to help you buy a cheap laptop, but if you don't need it, I would say so right away, and not show here how smart you are.

The man was offended, did not continue to talk a lot.

You know what the coolest thing?

When he receives several bricks in the mail instead of laptops, he will sincerely believe that a terrible mistake has occurred.

And the point is not even my specific friend, but the fact that we have a whole people who not only sincerely believe in "at the behest of a pike," but made it a national ideology ... "

***

Further, Shipilov explains to his readers the mechanism of this completely legal swindle:

“If we ignore all sorts of MLM and Forex, then there are two fraudulent schemes widely used in advertising on Facebook. The criminality of the first is unprovable in principle, the criminality of the second is provable with such costs that law enforcement officers of all countries prefer not to get involved.

1. The first scheme is good old dropshipping. You are given a very professionally crafted advertisement for some cool thing for ridiculous money. A very important element, the product should not be widely known and used and should give the impression of being super-innovative.

Everything is traditional there, going to the site, you see the crossed out “old price”, say 50 bucks, and “discount price, on sale”, well, let's say, for 25 bucks. The description and advertising are such that you really want to buy right away and you buy.

The ordered item really comes to you, it really is of normal quality, you are happy to use it and you are very happy with the purchase. You will never know that on Aliexpress the same thing costs not 24 or 50, but 8 bucks. And that the seller, having taken your order, went to "Aliexpress" and bought this thing for you there, indicating your address.

Just before Christmas, a neighbor showed me a miracle cordless saw for sawing branches in the garden. I bought it at a discount, for only 28 euros. I did not begin to upset him that on "Ebey" this saw with delivery will cost $ 9.

Everything here is purely from the point of view of the law, you agreed with the price and received the goods of proper quality.

A good lawyer, of course, can make the court recognize such a transaction as fraudulent, but you yourself will not hire a good lawyer for 28 euros.

2. The second scheme is already pure fraud. You are being offered some super thing with an awesome discount. For example, a $ 1000 laptop for $ 87, as in my post. Or a 16 terabyte SSD for 40 bucks (as in the screenshot). Or an electric bike for 99 bucks, as one of my acquaintances bought. Well, something like that.

And if you make a purchase, you will definitely receive it. But instead of the promised laptop for $ 1000, there will be some kind of Chinese handicraft from fifteen years ago (which is sold at Alibaba for 8 bucks in bulk), in a box with the inscription 16 ΤΒ SSD there will be a regular flash drive for several gigs, and the electric bike will be real, during all details made with a toy 1:20 replica of the desired bike.

It's useless to run to the police, because, firstly, the amount will be too small for a serious case, and secondly, a fraudster somewhere in another country, like China, or "Abkhazia", and thirdly, he is in your correspondence or by phone he will gladly say that this is just a mistake, send the item, we will change it. Transferring, thus, the case from the criminal plane into an ordinary civil dispute.

Even if you decide to send the “product” back (and the cost of shipping will be comparable to the cost of the “product”), in return you will receive a tracking number of the allegedly new product sent to you, which will be fake, but the seller will answer all your claims “deal with the mail".

At this stage, with a certain perseverance and the presence of a good lawyer, you can push the police to open a criminal case. And then, in the presence of an already open case, Facebook will definitely remove the advertising of fraudsters on your complaint (and until that moment it will continue to spin, despite the complaints).

But your success in the fight against crooks will be limited to this small victory. After some time, your criminal case will be closed due to insignificant damage and this will all end..."