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By Factchecked
Scammers are taking advantage of the shortage of formula milk and the desperation of mothers and fathers who need this product for their babies.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned that parents and caregivers are being tricked online into
paying high prices for bottles of formula that never arrive
.
To do this, they design false web pages or profiles on social networks
with images of the items and logos of well-known brands that make this product.
Alerts about possible scams
Not only the FTC, but also other organizations have warned consumers of potential online formula fraud.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB), a nonprofit organization that promotes trust in the marketplace,
explained
how these scams often work
.
An ad,
post
, or social media group posts that baby formula is available.
The buyer
contacts the seller via chat or direct message
and makes the payment through a platform such as
PayPal
or
Venmo
.
However, the formula never arrives.
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The New York State Division of Consumer Protection has published a guide to detecting illegitimate sales of formula milk on the Internet.
“Parents, feeling the pressures of shortages, may find themselves struggling to find alternative solutions, but in the end they could end up being scammed
online
by unscrupulous bad actors,” said Secretary of State Robert J. Rodríguez.
The North Carolina Attorney General's office, Josh Stein, or the New Hampshire Attorney General's office, John M. Formella, have also warned of this.
A nearly empty rack of baby formula at a store in Carmel, Ind., on May 10, 2022. Parents across the United States are struggling to find this product, due to supply disruptions and a massive health recall.Michael Conroy / AP
Scams and misinformation
Jessie Esparza-Wohlgemuth, a new mother, was the victim of a scam while trying to buy formula for her 6-month-old baby, she tells
ABC News
.
A person contacted her in late April and offered nearly two dozen cans of
Nutramigen
, a Mead Johnson brand product, for which she paid nearly $300.
Unfortunately the cans never showed up and
the fake seller stopped responding to messages
from her.
In social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, we can find more examples of users who warn of this type of fraud: false profiles that claim to have formula milk or pages that supposedly sell the product and that use photographs of the articles of recognized brands.
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The lack of supply has also given rise to misinformation.
At
Factchequeado
we deny that packages of six cans of Enfamil or Similac formula were being given away for calling the customer service of these companies.
A trick has also gone viral that recommends changing the
location
on
Amazon
when looking for formula milk and putting it in
Canada
.
Politifact
, an allied media of
Factchequeado
, explains in an article why this trick is tricky: the cans that Amazon sells and ships in Canada, or that a third party sells and ships the company in that country,
do not cross the border to reach a US address
, even if the search settings are changed.
And if we find a third-party seller that does ship to the United States from another country, "it will probably be more expensive" and, in addition, some doctors advise against it.
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Tips to avoid internet scams
The Federal Trade Commission presents a series of tips to avoid scams when ordering from an unknown online store:
✅ Do a
search for the alleged company
or product on the internet, along with the terms "review", "complaint" or "scam" to see what other people say about it.
✅
Look at payment methods.
Credit cards give you more protection as you can sometimes get your money back if you ordered an item but didn't receive it.
“Anyone who demands payment by gift card, money transfer, or cryptocurrency is a scammer,” says the FTC.
✅
Know consumer rights
.
If you buy online, sellers must send the order within a certain period or 30 days.
If the seller cannot ship the item within that period, they have to give a revised shipping date, with the possibility of canceling the order and getting a full refund.
✅
Find local resources
.
It is advisable to contact the baby's pediatrician to find out if formula is available.
If you are part of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), you can contact your local office.
If you suspect a scam, you can file a report with the FTC through ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
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The Better Business Bureau also offers a series of clues to identify a possible scam
:
Positive comments
on the website that have been copied from other pages or created by the scammers themselves.
The alleged company does not present a
physical address
or the address we see on Google is "a parking lot, residence or business not related to what is listed".
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Misspellings, grammatical errors,
or use of descriptive language "inconsistent with the product."
The seller advertises on social media and is communicative until payment is made and then disappears.
This is an article published by Noticias Telemundo in partnership with
Factchequeado
, a verification outlet that builds a Spanish-speaking community to counter disinformation in Spanish in the United States.