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/     

Fraud Case of A Baby Stroller

Here is a real case scenario of a housewife that happened to buy a baby stroller from an online seller on Facebook. 

The stroller was sold in a comparatively cheap price, and seller also offers a friendly service by being responsive towards messages from customers. Apparently, the Facebook page has over thousands of "Likes" too. Hence, the housewife sort of trusted the seller as genuine and proceeded with a full payment.

As the seller promised, the stroller would arrive in a week or two. After weeks of waiting, the stroller still hasn't arrived. At first, the seller claimed it was stucked at the customs, few days later claimed it'll arrive in a couple of days time. After another week passed, still no news from the seller. The buyer then called, texted the seller through Whatsapp and Facebook, yet there is no response at all. The seller still actively updates her Facebook page, reply to other buyers' comments, but solely ignores the housewife's messages. Messages posted on the wall of the Facebook page has also been deleted by the seller. 

The housewife started to sense something isn't going right and asked for a refund. Below are some of the snapshots posted by the buyer from the conversation with the seller.

Part 1: 
Buyer asked for refund, seller threatens that she would delay the refund if buyer continues to spread negative word about her business on Facebook.   

Part 2:

Seller mentioned to release a summon against the buyer for defamation.  

After weeks of disputes, the buyer decided to lodge a report to the Consumer Claims Tribunal by showing all the transaction details, threatening text messages from the seller as proofs. The seller then was intimidated and refunded back the money to the buyer. 

"It is a wise decision for the housewife to raise her case to the ears of the Consumer Claims Tribunal court instead of continuing the disputes with the seller. The seller couldn't sue the housewife for defamation because firstly, the seller isn't a public figure, even though posts were made to rant about the dissatisfaction, however the housewife didn't disclose the name, picture or any direct information about the seller. Those comments were also truths and facts on how the seller has been reacting towards the case. It is important especially being a buyer                                  to fight for our rights when we know we have been scammed."