As of: February 14, 2024, 9:44 a.m
By: Philipp Bräuner
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Criminals are using a new internet fraud scam.
© Christian Ohde/Imago
Criminals are always thinking of new ways to rip off their victims.
A new scam used by fraudsters is particularly perfidious - and is often noticed late.
Munich - It's every online shopper's nightmare: the product you've been looking for for a long time is ordered online as a bargain, paid for, and the goods arrive shortly afterwards.
But a few weeks later, mail arrives from a debt collection agency: the invoice for this particular item is still outstanding, but from a completely different provider.
The money you have already paid is gone.
According to a report by
NDR,
this is what is happening to many users of large online shops such as Amazon or Ebay.
Fraudsters have therefore developed a new variant of the so-called triangle fraud, in which they can use a particularly perfidious way to get the money of unsuspecting Internet shoppers.
New internet fraud: Criminals use customer data to order goods
The criminals offer goods at particularly low prices via cracked seller accounts or specially created fake online shops.
When users then order from the fraudsters, the trap closes.
Because now the scammers own the customers’ data.
The criminals then use this data to order the new goods from a reputable dealer.
He in turn sends the products to users who had previously ordered from the fake shops.
Of course they are happy: the product they want is there, at a bargain price too, everything is great.
Until the reputable internet provider, who was also deceived, gets in touch.
The fact that the process seems so smooth is an important part of the fraud, says Andreas Mackenthun from LKA Hamburg to
NDR
.
By the time the scam is discovered, many more customers could be defrauded and the traces of it on the internet could be thoroughly covered up.
This is how users protect themselves from the new scam
In any case, deceived users would only have limited options for reacting.
So they could either pay for the goods – for the second time.
Or they could return the product, although they would be dependent on the goodwill of the dealer.
In any case, they won't be able to get out of the situation unscathed.
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According to NDR
, there are various options to protect yourself from such fraud
:
Before ordering, always look at the user reviews: How well is an online shop rated, how many reviews are there?
Who is the sender of my product?
Did I even order from this shop?
Is there an invoice in the package even though I have already paid?
Online retailers can be checked directly using the consumer advice center's fake shop finder.
And of course: Be careful with particularly cheap offers!
If they seem too good to be true, they usually are.
After all, being vigilant when shopping online also helps all other users.
According to the report, such fraud could also increase the real price of the products, as retailers often price in their losses due to fraud.
(pkb)