Pitfalls from small retail items

The appearance of scammers impersonating delivery staff, calling to request a small amount of money back after people have received the goods, is becoming a new form of fraud. With the trick of playing on the subjective psychology and trust of customers, the goods are only a few thousand dong, but the price to pay can be up to millions.

Illustration photo.

In the era of e-commerce development, the delivery of goods takes place frequently and continuously. Taking advantage of this habit, scammers have come up with a new trick, impersonating shippers to call customers a few days after successful delivery, asking for a small amount of money back, usually only from 5,000 VND to 50,000 VND with the reason "system update error" or "payment confirmation not received".

Mr. Nguyen Van Nghia, Ba Dinh Ward, Hanoi said: "After paying for the goods, a few days later, someone called claiming to be the delivery person from the previous day, saying that the order had not been updated due to a technical error. He asked me to transfer 20,000 VND back so that he would not have his salary deducted. I felt sorry for him and it was lunchtime so I transferred it." Only when he calmed down and thought about it did he realize that he had been scammed because, according to him, no delivery system requires a refund after full payment.

It is worth mentioning that these subjects can provide a lot of matching information, customer name, phone number, especially the item, even the delivery time. That makes it easy for the recipient to believe that this is a real delivery person. With cheap items, from 5,000 VND to 50,000 VND, most people will not consider much, immediately transfer money to "get the job done".

According to Mr. Bui Manh Hieu, a cyber security expert, warned: “This is a very dangerous form of fraud because it does not use high technology, but takes advantage of the victim's psychology, trust, subjectivity and the thought 'a little money is okay'. But if each victim only needs a few tens of thousands, if thousands of people are scammed, the amount can be up to tens of millions of dong.”

In the context of many sophisticated types of fraud spreading, people need to be more vigilant, even with seemingly harmless requests. Do not transfer money if the caller appears to know you or has information that matches the order. Only pay through official channels, do not deal privately with individuals claiming to be "shippers" or company employees.

In addition, delivery units also need to step up propaganda to users, clearly affirming that there is no policy of collecting money after the order is completed. At the same time, before each order, it is necessary to send information to the buyer clearly about the amount, name of the delivery person, phone number and the itinerary of the goods. In addition, even if the amount is small, if there are cases that occur, people should report to the authorities for timely prevention and handling.

Duc Tung

Source: https://nhandan.vn/cam-bay-tu-nhung-mon-hang-nho-le-post915988.html