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Valentine’s Day is a popular occasion celebrated across the world on February 14. For most people, it involves splurging on gifts for their lover or making travel plans. The weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day present golden opportunities for scammers. They often take advantage of consumers’ desire to buy gifts. Keep reading to know about some of the most common Valentine’s Day shopping scams and how you can avoid them.
Cashing in on the trend of Valentine’s Day shopping, scammers set up fake online stores to take orders for products that are never delivered. At best, an inferior product might be delivered well after Valentine’s Day. Either way, it is sure to put a damper on your Valentine’s Day surprise.
The most popular scams are fake florists, fake candy shops, fake gift shops and fake vouchers. The stores may be set up from offshore locations, especially China, but pretend to be located in the same country where they are advertising.
Always check the prices of the products you plan to purchase against those on reputed websites. If the price difference is vast, say more than 10% to 20%, there is a considerable chance that it may be a scam.
The ‘Rose Bear’ scam trapped many victims last year
This kind of scam is similar to the one above, but the main difference is that the scammers are looking to steal your bank or card information. The easiest way to identify this scam is to check whether you are entering your details in a secure payment gateway. Be careful about never entering your details on the website itself.
After entering your details, if you get a message such as ‘Your card was declined’ without going through the payment gateway, it is a huge red flag that your details might have been stolen.
Even if you order from a trusted website such as Amazon, another way scammers try to steal your payment information is by sending fake emails or messages saying that your payment has failed. The message will contain a link to a phishing page set up by the scammers to collect any information you enter.
This scam is similar to the ‘failed payment’ phishing scam, except that you will receive a communication saying that there is a problem with your scheduled delivery. The usual way this scam unfolds is by saying that your payment has failed and that you need to pay for the delivery again. Your payment or payment information will go directly to the scammers.
Unbelievable prices: The most common scammer tactic is to offer great items at extremely low prices. The item being advertised would usually cost two to three times the price compared to fake websites. As few people would bother to check the actual cost of the product, it is easy for scammers to mislead them into believing that the gift can cost so less.
Watch out for ads: Scammers attract traffic to their fake online stores by blasting ads on search engines and social media platforms. Look for tags such as ‘Ad’ or ‘Sponsored’ to know whether it is a paid promotion. Scam websites will almost never show up on the first page of search engines, except as an advertisement.
No or fake order confirmation: If you do not receive an order confirmation via email or text message soon after placing the order, there is a good chance that you may have been scammed. In other cases, you may receive a confirmation containing incorrect details such as the wrong company name or location.
Check the website quality: An easy way to tell if it’s a scam is to check for errors in spelling and grammar. If it looks like the website operators don’t even have a basic grasp of English, it might be wise to shop somewhere else.Scammers also regularly steal images from other online stores and social media sites such as Pinterest. If you zoom in on the images and they look blurred, it’s possible that the images are stolen.
Check the company information: Before making a purchase, take note of the information given on the website such as the contact information, About Us, shipping & return policies and more. Try to contact customer support to see if they respond. Unless you are fully convinced that the website belongs to a legitimate business, avoid giving them your money. You can, of course, check Scamadviser before you buy.
If you have already fallen for a Valentine’s Day shopping scam, there are steps you can take to get your money back from the scammer. If you think you have fallen for a phishing scam, contact your bank immediately to block any unauthorized transactions.
For payments that have already been made, only to realize later that it is a scam, follow our guide on How to Get Your Money Back From a Scam.
Now that you know about the most common Valentine’s Day shopping scams and the warning signs to watch out for, go ahead and celebrate love without fear of becoming a victim!
Read some of our other articles for more information about scams related to Valentine’s Day, such as dating and romance scams:
