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Fake Goods and Offers

There are different ways of tricking individuals into transferring money or getting access to personal data. Criminals will often pose as sellers of highly desirable products or services such as event tickets, mobile phones, or designer sportswear. Here are some of the common scams.

Ticket Scams
Criminals often take advantage of ticketed events, especially if sold out, such as concerts, festivals, sporting events and live comedy. You buy your ticket online from a private seller or from what looks like a website or agent for the event. You pay your money but either the tickets never arrive or they turn out to be fake.

Miracle Products
Adverts selling miracle health or beauty products are common particularly on social media and through online advertising. They claim miraculous benefits and they offer you a free trial. All you have to do is to pay for post and packaging or for insurance, but once they have your card details you could end up paying for a lot more. In some cases you will receive nothing in return, in others you’ll receive a product but it doesn’t do what you expected and you find that you have inadvertently signed up to an ongoing contract that is difficult to get out of.

Fake Antivirus
There is a growing trend whereby criminals pose as companies offering antivirus or anti-spyware softwar5.3e. You may find an alert popping up on your computer or device saying that it is infected with malware and that you can download this software to fix the problem. In reality the software that is downloaded is the virus or spyware.

Mobile Phone Fraud
Beware of people selling highly attractive products especially if the prices are at too good to be true. Criminals tempt you to part with your money by posing as sellers of highly desirable goods. Having parted with your money you receive no product or at best a sub-standard one.

Key Advice

  1. Keep your computer updated with the latest antivirus and anti-spyware software, and use a good firewall.
  2. Do not click on any pop-up that advertises antivirus or anti-spyware software. Instead, go to a reputable and well-known brand.
  3. Do not download freeware or shareware unless you know and trust that it is from a reputable source.
  4. Only buy tickets from the venue’s box office, the promoter, an official agent or a well-known and reputable ticket exchange site.
  5. Pay with a credit card or PayPal because this allows you to dispute the transaction if you do not receive the ticket. If you transfer money via a bank transfer or money transfer service it is gone once you press send.