10 December 2009
Buyers beware!!
 In the week that is set to be boom time for online Christmas shopping, experts are warning consumers to watch out when they shop.
It is predicted that Christmas shoppers will spend £4000 every second buying presents on the Internet, making mid December the busiest time of the year for online shopping.
So it’s good news for shoppers that in the same week, the Metropolitan Police’s e-crime unit has closed down 1219 websites which were operating fraudulently.
The sites were run by criminal gangs in Asia who opened websites with a .co.uk domain name to pose as genuine UK companies. They then offered Ugg boots, Tiffany jewellery and other fashionable items at knockdown prices to lure Internet customers into handing over their bank and credit card details.
At best the customers received counterfeit goods; at worst they received nothing at all and are now at risk of identity theft and further fraud as a result of giving confidential banking information to the criminals.
Said John French, consumer law expert at Band Hatton: “If the price is too good to be true it probably isn’t. Counterfeiting goods is a crime comparable to theft and consumers need to think about who they are giving their bank and credit card details to. In this particular case it was criminal gangs in Asia, who had apparently managed to get merchant services to take credit and debit cards.”
He added: “It seems that in some cases the fraudsters had also obtained genuine SSL certificates so they could display a golden padlock on the supposedly secure area of their sites”.
The consumer is given all sorts of protection to try and make Internet shopping a safe and convenient experience. If the consumer is dealing with a trustworthy trader, the first line of protection is the insurance normally provided by the credit card company.
Under Articles 13 & 14 of the Brussels Convention 1968 and incorporated in UK law by the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 a consumer can bring a claim against a bogus trader based in any EU Country either in the UK or the EU Country. If the trader is based outside the EU however then Article 5 of the Rome Convention 1980 may be applicable although a claim may ordinarily have to be brought in the outside country which can cause difficulty.
Added John “Buyer beware - or caveat emptor - has been the seller’s defence for centuries but consumer protection legislation over the last century has weighed things more in favour of the consumer. Now, Internet shopping has introduced new dangers for buyers and they really must beware.”
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