I almost made a purchase online last week. I say “almost” because I stopped the order short before releasing payment from my Paypal account. Although I try to source purchases locally there are many things that are either more convenient to purchase online, much less expensive or just plain unavailable. In this case it was a sports jersey that I saw through a Facebook ad. The price was half of what I had seen this shirt for on the official team site and it advertised free shipping to boot. The website looked professional with secure encryption and they had a multitude of products for sale at great prices. My question about the product was even answered promptly by a fellow named “Jason” from their customer service department. I browsed the site for a while before making my selection and customized my order with my favourite players number on the back. A couple of clicks and my order was placed, all I had to do was check my email and login to Paypal to complete the payment. This is where it started to look fishy as ultimately I was instructed to release funds in U.S. dollars to “Pang Loo”. Now this in itself would not be so suspect if his contact info was a generic web based email address. At this point I started to question the authenticity of the product as well given the inconsistencies I was seeing. Sending someone
In the end, I did not buy the jersey and hopefully saved myself some aggravation (and possibly 48 dollars!). Maybe I would have received a great deal if I had gone through with the purchase but visions of trying to track down Mr. Loo with desperate unanswered emails to nowhere seemed all too possible. Granted Paypal does provide some recourse for fraudulent transactions but I had no interest in going there. Although I purchase a few things online this experience just confirmed what we should all practice when doing business, online or in person. Buyer Beware.
by Tim FairhurstBiz X Magazine
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