Scams 101: Do Not Buy Things From The Internet Using A Wire Transfer!
The BBB has given us a heads up about a new scam that targets holiday shoppers — pop-up internet electronics stores that only accept payments via wire transfer.
The scammers have been setting up presumably fake electronics store websites that claim to accept credit cards and other forms of payment — but when the shopper tries to buy something they're informed that they'll have to send a wire transfer. Obviously, once they send the money the scam is complete.
“Anytime you’re being asked to pay for something by a wire transfer service, that should be a huge red flag,” said BBB Serving Southern Alberta and East Kootenays spokesperson Daniel MacDonald. “Once money has been sent, there’s no way to get it back – using a credit card to pay for items online provides a great deal more security.”
The BBB posed as a consumer to gather more details about how the scam works:
According to verbal complaints to BBB, which have all been lodged from the United States, the products ordered may never be delivered. Further, the organization seems to change its name and URL frequently: in recent weeks it has appeared as Bargain Town, Qbelam, Circuitown, and now Cesa Room with a Calgary address.
A BBB staff member posed as a customer and contacted the organization under the guise of buying a laptop – she indicated she wished to pay using a credit card, and received a message back indicating that “due to high rate of fraudulent activity” they would only accept a wire transfer from consumers outside of Canada. As the BBB operative had indicated she was a Canadian resident, it appears that the return message was automatically generated, intending to dupe citizens of other countries
Personal electronics websites too good to be true [BBB]
(Photo: hotrats1976 )
This is a test contextual ad for the SHOPPING category. It should appear on all SHOPPING entries, unless the subcategory has its own ad.
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Comments:
I was offered a Senate seat in Illinois, but he wouldn't take PayPal.
Toes?
Lets add to this...
NEVER USE A WIRE TRANSFER.... PERIOD.
These days there is absolutely no reason to wire money. Its well known that Western Union and the like are basically fronts these days to fraud and crime since they are completely untraceable to normal people and impossible to cancel.
@WilmerSlug: There you go...you hit the nail on the head.
There's a difference between absolute ignorance and consumer awareness. I'm glad there are sites like this but I'm tired of these "duh" articles. Use some common sense people! Your money is YOUR MONEY...be careful with it.
Who actually falls for this stuff still?
Wire transfers are a great way to lose your money.
My bank doesn't allow me to do wire-transfers.
And second to wire transfers is Money Orders. If they cash it, you have no recourse.
/learned this one the hard way
What kind of person is comfortable enough with wire transfers that they would even consider doing one?
I've never done one and would never consider starting for an online store. If a store gave me that crap, I'd take my credit card somewhere else. Scam or no scam, credit cards are the only safe form of payment online.
What strikes me is not just that people fall for this, but that they actually take the time to go to their bank and then the western union kiosk to send a wire transfer. Scams aside, how inconvenient is that? If you saw that on a website, wouldn't you just go to another website to get the same product and then use your cc?
Oh wait, I get it, on the scam website a 52" sony flatscreen is only $500. Okay, it makes perfect sense now.
ceasroom.com is still in business. Just now I placed an "order" for a Wii for just 189.00. The only payment method presented was "moneygram transfer".
No explanation of why VISA wasn't available.
How is this site still in business when they are known frauds?????
Wire transfers serve one purpose these days: To make the line at the grocery store service desk 15 minutes long, even though there's only one person in front of me.
@Marshfield: I wasn't willing to give out all my details for the sake of trying it, but good for you. Let's see what (if anything) happens.
And while we're at it, WTH do they require you to disclose your gender when you place an order? O.o The mind boggles.
Fotospirit.com and Zoommania.com have the exact same list of "Departments" on the left side of their homepages.
They also have prices that are too good to be true.
@RevRagnarok: What???? I was offered the same Senate seat. I had no idea there were other people bidding on it, too.
Does anyone else think it's highly comical the website's response to the BBB lady was "Due to high fraudulent activity" they could ONLY accept wire transfers, when wire transfers are known to be the LEAST SECURE payment method and the most favored by fraudsters.
Who wire transfers money to people they don't know? WHO?
Really it seems to me the only reason Western Union is still in business is due to scammers, when was the last time anyone actually wired money for legal purposes? I'm guessing at least 1993.
Face it... The more we try to idiot-proof things... the better the idiots become.
Whereas the falls were small trips and falls, they are now blossoming into pretty spectacular swan-dive-belly-flop-face-plants a la that lady that lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a scammer to greed...
Hey guys, I just got back from Western Union. Should get my new macbook in 3 weeks!
What did I miss?
Has anyone ever used Western Union for something that wasn't at least a little bit shady? The one getting the cash is usually a crook, a pauper or an addict. The one sending the cash is usually just a rube. If you have cash needs that can't be satisfied by your pocket, your bank card or a mailed money order then WU is part of the problem not the solution.
@Marshfield: But if you are SELLING something on say, craiglist, and all the scammers are emailing you always insist on an INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDER PAYABLE IN US DOLLARS. That rids you quickly of the "print my own check and send to idiot US citizen" scammers...
@Hooray4Zoidberg: Western Union is one of the main ways illegal immigrants sent money back to their "old country"... A semi-legal use I would surmise...
Some of the best Nigerian 419 scam baiting stories revolve around the baiters sending the scammers to the Nigerian Western Union offices with complete nonsense saying or insulting sayings to offer as the "code phrase" to pick up a supposed payment. This usually includes having the scammer travel many miles from his usual home base to a remote Western Union office becausse of a "address mistake"...
One story which even hit NPR's This American Life involved sending the Nigerian across country lines into the ultra-dangerous, war-torn country of Chad to wait for a payment at a remote Western Union office...
@Hooray4Zoidberg: my mom sends money to kazakhstan all the time to her aunts and some cousins. Western union is pretty nice to have around for legal immigrants that still wnt to send some form of support to their families in the "old country". That's how one of her aunts payed for surgery, and also for food a few years ago when she was going through tough times.
@prag: we send money to family in kazakhstan, and the branch that receives the money always checks passports to verify that the person who's supposed to recveive it is actually getting the money. It's safer than by mail (since in the former Sov Union mail is usually opened up if theythink there are some valuables.)
Awesome! I live right down the street from that picture! good shot!
@RurouniX & WilmerSlug: Wait, I totally disagree that you should never use wire transfer services. I would completly agree that a wire transfer should never be used as a commercial payment method. However, as a means of getting money from one person to another fast, it works.
@Marshfield: USPO Money Orders help, but a lot of it has to do with faith. In the end you just have to put some faith that the person you are dealing with is not a complete douche.
@katiat325: Hmmm, gotcha. Still though it seems they'd be more willing to help stop this kind of fraud it wasn't profitable to them.
Paypal anyone? I think its safer to use other services than wire transfer.
Maybe people think that since wire-transfer is one of the most secure ways (for the seller, the party most likely to get scammed on an in-person transaction) to pay for a car when buying in person, that it must be okay when you aren't doing it face-to-face?
Then again maybe they just aren't thinking.
i don't even freely give the irs access to my bank account and routing numbers. who gives a stranger that?
I love sending scammers to the western union office to pick up money I haven't sent. Makes me feel great when they come back hours later letting me know it wasn't there. that's when I let them know how dumb they are.... and to not use my social security number I gave them for fraudulant activities.
We accept wire transfers as forms of payment where I work, but we only recommend them as a last resort.
They usually only come into play when the customer lives out of the country, and our payment company won't authorize their CC. We always recommend they send a check after that, but sometimes even our bank won't process an out of country check depending on the customer's bank.
Then, and only then, it's wire transfer time.
We are, however, a company with a 25+ year history of excellent customer service and we have a brick-and-mortar location.
@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: That is SO TRUE. I worked the desk for many years, and my regulars knew to steer clear when I gave them the "Western Union" look.
It was so rarely a simple task. If the clerk had half a brain, it would take all of 2 minutes on their end (unfortunately, I was only one of three people there who knew how to input data in a computer), but then you get the customers who were either too stupid to know how to fill out the forms or so scammy that they think that they could talk their way out of providing proper documentation.
Western Union + Supermarket = FAIL. My thoughts are with those sorry bastards who have valid refund requests and plans for the evening.
@WilmerSlug: THANK YOU! I thought I was the only one who thought this. If the guy was my brother, thats a different story. But, paying for anything with a wire transfer/money order these days just seem stupid.
Okay, kids, one more time: Western Union is a money TRANSFER service. Credit cards are PAYMENT.
You TRANSFER money to family members. You use PAYMENT for goods and services.
As a former third-party WU agent (supermarket service desk), I cannot stress this enough, nor can I count the number of times I've had to talk people out of using code phrases in lieu of ID. If the company you're paying doesn't have valid ID, well, HMMMM. If the fact that they only take WU doesn't stop you from handing over your money, maybe that fact should.
haha... I loved that story! Though I never thought I would feel sorry for scammers, I couldn't help but feel bad for the guy they sent 500 miles from home into a Muslim country looking for "the TWAT MOHAMMED."
@RevRagnarok: I believe the preferred medium for such a transaction is a steel briefcase full of cash.
duhhhhh...........
Paypal's so easy to set up that it's inexcusable not to accept credit cards. There are plenty of other services as well that will do the same thing.
@WilmerSlug: You're exagerrating. Wire transfers are huge, to wire money to family members in foreign countries. It's often cheaper that transferring money to their bank account.
@Hooray4Zoidberg: yeah, probably, but for like every $100 someone sends they pay western union like $15 -- it was like that a few years ago, not sure now. But they provide a service, it's the people who fall for it that are really to blame for actually falling for scams.
@WilmerSlug: i believe the line you were looking for is "NEVER USE A WIRE TRANSFER SERVICE TO PAY FOR SOMETHING"
@Meltdown: Faster maybe, but never cheaper.
Bank to Bank transfers are almost always free unless you exceed a large amount of money.
I'm all for consumer awareness but these people ought to be strung up by their toes.