Online sellers & buyers swindle each other

The number of successful e-commerce transactions has been increasing rapidly, while the number of swindle cases has also increased accordingly.

Traps have always been existing on e-commerce websites into which any people may fall. The victims of the swindle cases can be both the sellers and buyers.

iPhone 5, the fashionable high technology product, proves to be the product most hunted on online markets. The Apple’s product now sells at VND15 million in the market. However, people think they may have to pay VND4-5 million only to possess an iPhone 5 if he successfully makes deal online.

On vatgia.com or enbac.com, the most popular online markets, one can see a lot of invitations to buy iPhone 5 at surprisingly low prices. However, this could be a trap.

Tuan in Ha Dong district in Hanoi said that in early 2013, after getting bonus from the boss, he decided to give up the black-and-white Nokia phone to buy an iPhone 5. Having not used iPhones before, Tuan tried to look for information about the products on Internet.

Since Tuan had only VND10 million, he decided to seek to buy iPhone 5 on e-commerce websites instead of going to prestigious shops. Tuan found an ad piece which offered to sell an iPhone at VND5 million only. The seller said he had the relatives who brought iPhones to Vietnam as travelers’ luggage, which allowed him to have the products at such a low price.

When Tuan contacted the seller, he was told that he had to remit VND2.5 million into the seller’s account before he got the delivery and that he had to pay the remaining VND2.5 million after getting the delivery.

Just half a day after the sum of VND2.5 million was remitted to the given account, Tuan received the product he ordered. Feeling excited about the opportunity to possess a super-product at such a low price, Tuan paid the remaining VND2.5 million to the deliverer and bought the product home.

However, just after one day of use, Tuan discovered a lot of problems with the phone: it’s very difficult to access wifi, the speakerphone was cracked, while the image quality was terrible.

When Tuan brought the phone to a shop to have it examined, he was told that the product was a counterfeit product, sourced from China. However, Tuan could not do anything then, because he could not contact the seller, while the ad piece on the website was removed already.

The owner of the shop said that there are many China-made mobile phone products which counterfeit iPhone 5 design. The products have low quality, but they look just like genuine iPhone 5s.

He said that the people who never used iPhones before, may mistake counterfeit goods for genuine products because of their similar design.

However, not only buyers who can be the victims in swindle cases. Trung Bao, a member of vatgia.com in HCM City said he was once the victim in a case, though he was the seller.

Bao had a loyal customer, named Hop, from Nam Dinh province. In principle, Bao only made delivery after receiving 50 percent of the value of the products and received the remaining sums of money after the delivery.

One day, Bao decided to deliver a product worth VND4 million, though he did not receive the 50 percent payment in advance, because Hop promised to make payment once. However, the buyer never paid the sum of money.

Vietnamnet