On Thursday 16th May we discussed the perils of shopping online in 2024. Chris highlighted a massive scam which had hit the news recently: Chinese network behind one of world’s ‘largest online scams’ A huge number of fake online shops touting designer brands took money and personal details from an estimated 800,000 people in Europe and the US. Some 76,000 fake websites “selling” designer goods had been created in many languages using a tool built by a group of developers in Fujian, China. Some money was stolen in the scam, but in many cases the scammers were interested in harvesting debit and credit card details, three-digit security numbers, names, phone numbers, email and postal addresses – valuable data to sell on for phishing and identity theft schemes.
How can we prevent the mis-use of our credit card numbers? PB noted that with Revolut, clients can get a card number which is valid for only one transaction. JP later posted this article on the JCC’s WhatsApp Chat group: Protect your privacy: 7 ways to secure your social media and email accounts
Shein has become the world’s largest fashion retailer, noted for its cheap clothes and rapid turnover of new designs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shein It is a legitimate business with a secure shopping experience. However, it is controversial because of its business practices and labour conditions.( Shein suppliers still work 75-hour weeks – report )while its fast fashion model sparks debate over sustainability and the environment.
Shein’s deliveries in Spain seem to be dogged by the courier they use which is CTT Express . A member’s daughter had to go all the way to Alicante to pick up an order and there are terrible reviews of this company on Trustpilot. Here are some Trustpilot reviews of CTT express in English: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/cttexpress.com We also checked Shein on Trustpilot. Although it also got some bad reviews, it did at least reply to complaints (boilerplate responses?) and the company asks for reviews : https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/shein.co.uk?stars=1 A member noted that people take the trouble to post bad reviews when they are unhappy, but don’t bother when things work as expected.
The online marketplace Temu is also in trouble: Temu faces legal challenge over ‘manipulative practices’ The consumer group Which? found weapons for sale on the marketplace and heaters that “could explode”. Some of its traders cannot be traced by consumers. This is against the law in the EU, but this is not the case under UK law. The site also urges shoppers to buy with messages like: “Hurry up! Over 126 people have this item in their shopping cart”.
This led us to Online Shopping Addiction which is now recognised as an official addiction which can lead to financial and mental health problems.
We then looked at Amazon returns. These goods cannot be re-sold through the normal channels but are available as second-hand products at a discount from Amazon Warehouse. There are also many sites which sell job lots or pallet-loads of returned Amazon goods at huge discounts e.g. 20% of the original price. e.g. Subasta Lotes.com There’s no guarantee that the returned items are in top notch condition, or even work – so you take your chances, though these job-lots seem to be popular.
We also looked at CamelCamelCamel – This site tracks the prices of goods sold on Amazon. “Our free Amazon price tracker monitors millions of products and alerts you when prices drop, helping you decide when to buy.” Simply go to Amazon and choose the product you are interested in. Copy the URL link to that product and paste it into the Camecamelcamel web page. Choose the maximum price you are willing to pay and sign up with your e-mail address to receive a notification when the product drops to that price.
Here’s the price history of an Apple iPhone 15 as an example
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JP told a story of how she bought a 55 inch TV from Amazon only to discover that the price had fallen a couple of days later by a whopping €300. She bought the TV again at the new, reduced price, and for a short while had two identical TVs. She returned the first purchase – taking a €50 hit for the cost of the return – but was still a nice €250 in pocket. It definitely pays to follow the camels !
Chris Betterton-Jones – Knowledge junkie