Blogshopping is susceptible to scams. Here is how it has occurred big time with a blogshop spree.
From the Safe Blogger site: http://www.safeblogshopper.com/2010/04/03/announcements/35000-in-online-shopping-spree-orders-go.html
$35,000 in online shopping spree orders go ‘missing’
April 3, 2010 by safeblogshopper
Netizens file over 40 police reports and 2 online petitions against teen organiser.
By Liew Hanqing,
But with online shopping, you often don’t even get to meet the seller.
Naomi Kurashige, 17, had a good reputation for getting discounts from overseas suppliers for local buyers.
Most of her customers had never met her but they had no qualms about wiring her hundreds of dollars in orders.
Today, there are over 40 police reports against her because $35,000 in orders went “missing”.
Police said they are investigating.
People like Naomi are the middlemen in an online shopping method known as spree shopping.
Her job is to hook up with overseas suppliers and then send out alerts to potential buyers here enticing them with discounts.
Customers like shopping this way because they save on shipping.
That’s when things go well.
For a few months, Naomi made a profit. Then things went horribly wrong.
She claimed that after receiving money from customers here, she wired $35,000 to a UK supplier. But he went missing, and so did the money.
Ignored
She now has two petitions against her and has been flamed on several blogs on Livejournal.com and forums, including Cozycot.com and Hardwarezone.com.
Some online shoppers have accused Naomi of collecting money from them, but not delivering their purchases.
Naomi had organised numerous online sprees under her online nickname, Insert-itemname. In just a few months, she collected about $35,000 for the sprees.
Then her customers waited. But nothing was delivered.
One shopper, Miss Michelle Goh, 23, a project manager, said she paid Naomi about $600 in September for clothing orders from various online retailers such as American Apparel and Urban Outfitters.
She said: “Before I placed an order with Naomi, I did a search about her online. I checked feedback about her and it was okay at the time.
“I don’t know how things turned so nasty in just a couple of months.”
When nothing was delivered, she claimed she wrote to Naomi but her e-mails were ignored.
Miss Goh added: “I got worried. Then she started sending mass e-mails about refunds, but the refunds never came.”
Another participant, Miss Pearlyn Yeo, 23, joined another spree organised by Naomi last December and spent $60 on her order.
She said: “She organised a Topshop spree. I thought it would be a good deal, so I decided to take part.”
Unlike Miss Goh, Miss Yeo said she did not do any checks on Naomi.
She recalled: “I waited three weeks (for my purchase) but nothing came, so I e-mailed Naomi but didn’t get a reply.
“I searched for her name online and I found many complaints about her, so I immediately asked for a refund.”
Most of her e-mails, she claimed, went unanswered until several weeks later, when she got an SMS from Naomi saying her order was on the way.
Said Miss Yeo: “It never came even after I called and texted her repeatedly.”
Yet another online shopper, undergraduate Soh Cailing, 20, said she participated in three sprees organised by Naomi between July and September last year and spent $177.
When nothing came, she wrote to Naomi whom she claimed merely offered excuses.
Both Miss Yeo and Cailing lodged claims at the Small Claims Tribunal, but said Naomi never showed up in court for mediation.
Naomi does not dispute this.
Angry
So shoppers have turned to venting their anger online, warning others about Naomi.
One netizen collated a list of more than 10 police reports lodged against Naomi and also posted screen captures of e-mail correspondence with her.
The pressure finally got to Naomi.
In a mass e-mail sent to spree participants last October, Naomi wrote: “I have scheduled transfers for the next two weeks, with $500 being transferred every day… “I’m having a big family crisis with this going on, so I will settle these by the next two weeks.”
In the e-mail, Naomi said she would not entertain any phone calls nor reply to any more e-mails.
She added that once she had “settled” all outstanding orders and refunds, she plans to stop organising sprees for good.
The spree participants just want their money back.
Said Miss Soh: “We gave Naomi so many chances, but she’s disappointed everyone so far.”
Miss Goh added: “I asked her to return me $200, but she insisted she was really broke, so I didn’t want to push her and waited.
“True enough, I got back nothing – and now, she won’t even reply to my texts.”
Teenage organiser : I’m a victim too
THAT’S what Naomi Kurashige told The New Paper.
The teenager said she had placed orders worth about $35,000 on behalf of spree participants with a UK-based supplier, who also runs a handphone business.
She claimed he disappeared without a trace in October last year. v She said: “I found this supplier online and he was offering big discounts on several popular brands – between 30 and 70 per cent – so I decided to try ordering from him.”
She said that between June and October last year, she organised a number of sprees and placed a few mass orders from the vendor worth “a few hundred dollars” each time.
She said: “For four months, it worked really well and I managed to make a small profit too.”
Naomi said she would buy the items at a discount from the UK supplier and then resell it to the spree participants at a small profit.”I admit that I got greedy, so I started placing larger and even larger orders. But one day, the site disappeared and I could no longer contact him,” she added.
“I am underaged, so I don’t have a credit card, which meant I couldn’t pay the vendor through Paypal.
“I had to make payment with a money order so I just mailed the vendor the money.”
She added that she did not know she could have insured the order.
She said: “I wish I had known about it. I didn’t even know there was a chance of this happening. I just knew that it was fast money and that I liked doing this business.”
She said she had done some background checks on the UK vendor and they had been favourable.
She said: “He had a verified Paypal account, so I thought everything would be okay.”
She claimed that she has given refunds totalling about $24,000 to some spree participants.
“I’ve had to pay the refunds out of the money that I made earlier. Now, I am broke,” she claimed. “It’s my fault. I started with small orders but I got greedy and I have lost tens of thousands of dollars.”
She said her family knows about her predicament and has “already helped as much as they can”.
She added that she has been told by the police to pay back all those who have placed orders with her.
“The police said I have to pay everybody back, or be prepared to go to jail. Even if I do pay people back, there is no guarantee that they will drop the charges against me,” she said.
“I have to find a job that will allow me to save enough to pay everybody back.
“I am trying my best. I just didn’t expect things to get so big so quickly.”
Case: Exercise caution
Mr Seah Seng Choon, Case’s executive director, said consumers should exercise caution before carrying out any online transaction.
He noted: “Should there be a dispute, a consumer may be unable to take any action against the seller, especially when there are no contact details, or if the seller is from another country.”
He said there are several precautions online shoppers can heed:
Do research about suppliers before making any purchases.
Be wary of companies which do not reveal their address and contact details.
Shoppers should try, as far as possible, to deal with registered businesses or businesses that are certified to be trustworthy. Shoppers can check if a business is registered by using the online directory on the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority website,www.acra.gov.sg
Always get contact details of the sellers or spree organisers and suppliers.
In cases where bulky items such as bags are purchased from blogs, ask for a meet-up to receive the items and pay the remaining amount on the spot rather than paying in full upon ordering the items.
If consumers suspect something is amiss, a police report should be lodged.
Consumers should transact with accredited sites, such as those that show the “TrustSg” Trustmark or the CaseTrust Trustmark as such businesses are assessed to have met a set of required standards.
Figures from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s website show that, of Internet users aged 15 years and above who have used the Internet in 2008, 36 per cent shop online, an increase of over 27 per cent in 2004.
PayPal said the volume of online PayPal transactions made with overseas-based stores by consumers in Singapore has been growing by over 70 per cent annually.
Source: http://www.digitalone.com.sg/news/article/11058
Use Tompang the World to hold your money in escrow- that way this will never happen again
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