The scammers have been setting up presumably fake electronics store websites that claim to accept credit cards and other forms of payment — but when the shopper tries to buy something they're informed that they'll have to send a wire transfer. Obviously, once they send the money the scam is complete.
“Anytime you’re being asked to pay for something by a wire transfer service, that should be a huge red flag,” said BBB Serving Southern Alberta and East Kootenays spokesperson Daniel MacDonald. “Once money has been sent, there’s no way to get it back – using a credit card to pay for items online provides a great deal more security.”
The BBB posed as a consumer to gather more details about how the scam works:
According to verbal complaints to BBB, which have all been lodged from the United States, the products ordered may never be delivered. Further, the organization seems to change its name and URL frequently: in recent weeks it has appeared as Bargain Town, Qbelam, Circuitown, and now Cesa Room with a Calgary address.
A BBB staff member posed as a customer and contacted the organization under the guise of buying a laptop – she indicated she wished to pay using a credit card, and received a message back indicating that “due to high rate of fraudulent activity” they would only accept a wire transfer from consumers outside of Canada. As the BBB operative had indicated she was a Canadian resident, it appears that the return message was automatically generated, intending to dupe citizens of other countries
Personal electronics websites too good to be true [BBB]
(Photo: hotrats1976 )
I never got my wii. but then again I never paid for it either.
]]>In the UK, wire transfers are common place.
]]>Last year, I was shopping at Shopzilla. And they had listed a few of these scammer sites! I emailed them and said, hey, you highlight scammers. It took 2 weeks, YES 2 weeks for them to respond to my email That was the last time I looked at Shopzilla.
]]>@econobiker: Yeah, semi-legal. Which means that illegal immigrants, drug dealers, jihadist front organizations, and all the rest get to send money out of the country for their own purposes.
Well, at least they're paying high user fees, right?
]]>Sure, how much is that gonna cost to send $3000 via money gram?
]]>And it even has a bogus UPS tracking number attached. We are trading bogus info back and forth.
These guys are 100% scammers, I have no doubt that nothing is getting shipped to anyone.
Still didn't like the feeling of walking across the front of Kroger (from BOFA to the service desk) with $1000 in my pocket....
]]>A scammer has your credit card information now, even if you don't send the money via Western Union.
]]>Bank to Bank transfers are almost always free unless you exceed a large amount of money.
]]>@Hooray4Zoidberg: yeah, probably, but for like every $100 someone sends they pay western union like $15 -- it was like that a few years ago, not sure now. But they provide a service, it's the people who fall for it that are really to blame for actually falling for scams.
]]>haha... I loved that story! Though I never thought I would feel sorry for scammers, I couldn't help but feel bad for the guy they sent 500 miles from home into a Muslim country looking for "the TWAT MOHAMMED."
]]>Okay, kids, one more time: Western Union is a money TRANSFER service. Credit cards are PAYMENT.
You TRANSFER money to family members. You use PAYMENT for goods and services.
As a former third-party WU agent (supermarket service desk), I cannot stress this enough, nor can I count the number of times I've had to talk people out of using code phrases in lieu of ID. If the company you're paying doesn't have valid ID, well, HMMMM. If the fact that they only take WU doesn't stop you from handing over your money, maybe that fact should.
]]>@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: That is SO TRUE. I worked the desk for many years, and my regulars knew to steer clear when I gave them the "Western Union" look.
It was so rarely a simple task. If the clerk had half a brain, it would take all of 2 minutes on their end (unfortunately, I was only one of three people there who knew how to input data in a computer), but then you get the customers who were either too stupid to know how to fill out the forms or so scammy that they think that they could talk their way out of providing proper documentation.
Western Union + Supermarket = FAIL. My thoughts are with those sorry bastards who have valid refund requests and plans for the evening.
]]>They usually only come into play when the customer lives out of the country, and our payment company won't authorize their CC. We always recommend they send a check after that, but sometimes even our bank won't process an out of country check depending on the customer's bank.
Then, and only then, it's wire transfer time.
We are, however, a company with a 25+ year history of excellent customer service and we have a brick-and-mortar location.
]]>Well played, my friend.
]]>Then again maybe they just aren't thinking.
]]>@Marshfield: USPO Money Orders help, but a lot of it has to do with faith. In the end you just have to put some faith that the person you are dealing with is not a complete douche.
]]>@RurouniX & WilmerSlug: Wait, I totally disagree that you should never use wire transfer services. I would completly agree that a wire transfer should never be used as a commercial payment method. However, as a means of getting money from one person to another fast, it works.
]]>@prag: we send money to family in kazakhstan, and the branch that receives the money always checks passports to verify that the person who's supposed to recveive it is actually getting the money. It's safer than by mail (since in the former Sov Union mail is usually opened up if theythink there are some valuables.)
]]>@Hooray4Zoidberg: my mom sends money to kazakhstan all the time to her aunts and some cousins. Western union is pretty nice to have around for legal immigrants that still wnt to send some form of support to their families in the "old country". That's how one of her aunts payed for surgery, and also for food a few years ago when she was going through tough times.
]]>Some of the best Nigerian 419 scam baiting stories revolve around the baiters sending the scammers to the Nigerian Western Union offices with complete nonsense saying or insulting sayings to offer as the "code phrase" to pick up a supposed payment. This usually includes having the scammer travel many miles from his usual home base to a remote Western Union office becausse of a "address mistake"...
One story which even hit NPR's This American Life involved sending the Nigerian across country lines into the ultra-dangerous, war-torn country of Chad to wait for a payment at a remote Western Union office...
]]>@Hooray4Zoidberg: Western Union is one of the main ways illegal immigrants sent money back to their "old country"... A semi-legal use I would surmise...
]]>@Marshfield: But if you are SELLING something on say, craiglist, and all the scammers are emailing you always insist on an INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDER PAYABLE IN US DOLLARS. That rids you quickly of the "print my own check and send to idiot US citizen" scammers...
]]>@Marshfield: Umm...I thought Visa was everywhere I wanted to be? There advertising is full of crap.
]]>Hey guys, I just got back from Western Union. Should get my new macbook in 3 weeks!
What did I miss?
]]>Whereas the falls were small trips and falls, they are now blossoming into pretty spectacular swan-dive-belly-flop-face-plants a la that lady that lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a scammer to greed...
]]>Who wire transfers money to people they don't know? WHO?
]]>They also have prices that are too good to be true.
]]>And while we're at it, WTH do they require you to disclose your gender when you place an order? O.o The mind boggles.
]]>Wire transfers serve one purpose these days: To make the line at the grocery store service desk 15 minutes long, even though there's only one person in front of me.
]]>No explanation of why VISA wasn't available.
How is this site still in business when they are known frauds?????
]]>Oh wait, I get it, on the scam website a 52" sony flatscreen is only $500. Okay, it makes perfect sense now.
]]>/learned this one the hard way
]]>Who actually falls for this stuff still?
]]>There's a difference between absolute ignorance and consumer awareness. I'm glad there are sites like this but I'm tired of these "duh" articles. Use some common sense people! Your money is YOUR MONEY...be careful with it.
]]>NEVER USE A WIRE TRANSFER.... PERIOD.
These days there is absolutely no reason to wire money. Its well known that Western Union and the like are basically fronts these days to fraud and crime since they are completely untraceable to normal people and impossible to cancel.
]]>I'm all for consumer awareness but these people ought to be strung up by their toes.
]]>