Case of Online Supplier Fraud

According to The Star online news (2016, September 6), there is a group of students being scammed by an online supplier with a total amount of RM1 million. The online supplier sells the smartphones for this group of students at very cheap price and then these students resell the phone to their friends.

One of the victims Natasha said she got to know the supplier through the mobile application WeChat. Natasha said that the products shown to her looked authentic but were sold below the market price. 

The supplier asked those students to pre-order the cheap smartphones. After several orders and good response from customers, this group of students handed the supplier about RM45,000. In July, the business ran into a problem when the supplier said there was no more stock and did not entertain their calls. The case goes worse when they realise the supplier deactivated the website and could no longer be reached. They had handed few hundred thousand to that online supplier and threaten by their customers now because they are unable to return the money for customers. 

“There are a lot of newspaper reports and victims share their story of online purchase fraud to create public awareness. However, people still easily fall in this type of scam due to the cheaper price offered by the seller. The online business environment and advance in technology make those authorities difficult to track all these types of scams. In order to avoid these scams, consumers self-regulatory is very important.”

Source: 

Ng, S. & Rahim, R. (2016). Students left in the lurch after phone deal goes sour - Nation | The Star Online. Thestar.com.my. Retrieved 10 September 2016, from http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/09/06/students-left-in-the-lurch-after-phone-deal-goes-sour/