The Wish.com Marketplace

Wish.com is an online marketplace, well-known for offering unusual, quirky items such as Presidential toilet paper, fake teeth, 12 foot long pool floats etc.

It is very successful and claims to be one of the world’s fastest-growing marketplace apps operating across the world.

As with other marketplaces, it doesn’t make any products, but connects sellers and buyers and takes a percentage on the sales (around 15%).

People sell all sorts of items, from jewellery to shoes, fancy dress to baby nappies to smartphones, and much more.

All marketplaces try to regulate the items sold but it’s difficult for them to keep up, so you may find some counterfeit products, fake items and items that claim to have been reduced by large amounts but when you check elsewhere the exaggerations show up.

Do check around on other sites before buying anything significant.

The prices are generally very low on wish.com but many people find that even with such low prices, the products when they arrive turn out to be not worth the cost.

As with many companies that operate on very tight margins, their customer service is rated as very poor. You can only contact them via a chat app.

On Trustpilot, wish,com is rated as 3.7 out of 5 and on sitejabber as only 2.39 out of 5.

Trustpilot currently has more than a hundred thousand reviews of wish.com and a quarter are very bad.

People complain that orders are full of mistakes and cannot be rectified as Wish.com tell them to accept the order then return them, but that leads to endless attempts to get a refund and many are refused without good reason. Often wish.com tell people to try to get a replacement product or refund from the product supplier despite the customer’s contract being with wish.com

Perhaps you can find the bargain you want on wish.com and will be happy with the product, but for many it’s a disappointing and frustrating process that costs too much.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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How to Pay Online Safely

There are many ways to pay online, depending on which payment providers each retailer chooses to allow.

You can pay by credit or debit card and that has the benefit of a bank to complain to if you are ripped off by a retailer. However, there is also the risk of the retailer having access to your card details and the risk of a data breach at the retailer.

If you choose a service such as PayPal instead then only they have access to your card details and any retailer you buy from using PayPal will not see the details.

1. PayPal

You register with PayPal and connect your card or bank details then use PayPal for online payments. When you make a Purchase with Paypal the service takes the money from your card or bank account.

It is a good idea to use 2 factor authentication with services such as Paypal so that any scammer would need more than a login and password to gain access to your account.

2. Alternatives to Paypal

There are many online payment services similar to PayPal and many are cheaper to use than PayPal.

  • This is Business News Daily’s choice for the best online credit card processor for online businesses. Stripe is one of the most popular PayPal alternatives, particularly for online businesses. The service is easy to integrate into business systems and to customize using their simple API.
  • This started as mobile point-of-sale transactions, but can be used for online payments via invoice or website.
  • This for service-based businesses with a high volume of international transactions. It is known as a cheap way to send money internationally.

3. Prepaid Payment Cards

If an online shop only takes credit or debit cards and you don’t want to use those cards, then a prepaid card can solve that problem. You can buy a prepaid card from a reputable supplier and use that instead.

These cards hide your identity as they are more like cash.

4. Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay is a service that lets you use the payment methods already associated with your Amazon account to make payments for goods or services on third-party websites. This reduces 3rd party costs.

5. Amazon Cash

Amazon cash is similar to the Paypal cash option and you can buy the cash card and use it just like cash on Amazon.

6. Mobile Phone Payment

Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay are all highly secure and available on your smart phone. Whichever you choose has to be linked to your bank account or card then can be used for pay for a wide variety of goods and services online.

You can also use mobile payments when you’re shopping in-person. Just select the payment method on your device and scan it with the card reader instead of swiping a physical card or using cash. When done properly, there’s no need to touch anything besides your phone, making it a safer way to pay during a pandemic.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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The Secret Sister Scam

Gift exchanges are common on Facebook and other social media platforms as a way of connecting and brightening up people’s lives. The idea is that a group of people buy each other small gifts and these gift exchanges are most common in the run-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But, scammers create their own fake Gift Exchanges and ones that target women are generally known as  “Secret Sister”.

The scam works by getting people to post the Secret Sister on Facebook and this can be done innocently by women not realising they are part of a scam or can be done directly by scammers using stolen identities.

The proposition is something like ‘Ask your friends to get involved. You send out one gift to the name at the top of the list and in return you will get between 6 and 36 return gifts anonymously”.

You can see this is a simple pyramid scheme.

The person at the top gets free gifts from those below then those below have to recruit more members who will send them gifts and so on.

As is usual with these schemes, a small number win more than they put in and everyone else loses.

It’s a simple proposition that has been used by criminals for hundreds of years in various forms.

The offer is that you join and send one gift to a person at the top of some list then delete that name and add your name at the bottom of the list, then recruit 6 more people to also go on the list.

When your name reaches the top of the list you will be inundated with gifts, in theory!

However, it is very obvious that for each winner there must be a lot of people who get nothing as adding six times as many people to a list constantly means even the entire population of the planet would soon run out. These schemes usually collapse after some dozens of people have won and they typically leave many thousands out of pocket.

There are plenty of legitimate gift exchanges on Facebook and other online communities – ones in which you get tied to particular people who you know, and where you promise to send just one gift to each other – and your time and money is much better spent on those.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Stupidest Spam of the Week Okinawan Tonic

Another email with a magical weight loss method that takes no effort.

This one claims to have been leaked by a doctor and was kept secret by the people of Okinawa who are very long lived.  Supposedly they have a pink tonic that melts belly fat like butter in a frying pan.

It is claimed to be so powerful that it activates a very rare hormone that eats fat.

Now, it is true that the people of Okinawa are very long lived and have extremely low levels of obesity.

But the reasons behind this are well known – certainly no magical drinks.

A large part of the effect is genetic as Okinawans who move away from the island are still long lived.

The rest is environmental factors – their diet is fruit and vegetables – they eat more sweet potato than rice unlike most of the rest of Japan. Most work in agriculture or fishing – good healthy outdoor activities.

The traditional Okinawan diet is dense in the essential vitamins and minerals – including anti-oxidants – but also low in calories.

No magic drinks – just a healthy diet, lots of exercise and good genes.

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Surrey Use The Banking Protocol

Surrey Police and local industries stop £2 million of fraud by using the Banking Protocol scheme.

Surrey Police worked with branch staff at local banks, building societies and Post Offices to stop £740,000 worth of fraud through the Banking Protocol rapid scam response in 2020.

Launched in 2016, the Banking Protocol is a UK-wide scheme, developed in partnership between UK Finance, local police forces and National Trading Standards. The protocol oversaw the training of branch staff to spot the warning signs that suggest a customer may be falling victim to a scam, before alerting their local police force to intervene and investigate the suspected fraud.

In 2020, the Banking Protocol was invoked 164 times in Surrey and there have been 20 arrests in the county and £2 million saved since the protocol began.

The banking industry is working with law enforcement to build on this success and expand the scheme to telephone and online banking. These proposals would deliver a police response to the homes of vulnerable victims who have attempted to make a payment via online or telephone banking that has been flagged as potentially being part of a scam.

Customers would first be asked by the bank to visit their local branch to complete the transaction, enabling branch staff to carry out additional checks and use the Banking Protocol if necessary. If the customer is unable to visit their bank branch, for example if they are vulnerable or have a disability, staff would be able to directly alert the local police who will make a visit to the customer’s home and assess whether they have fallen victim to a scam.

An Example from The Police

This is what happened to a 47-year-old man in Surrey recently:

The man was approached by two men on his doorstep offering to clear his gutters. The man declined this service and the men left.

The following day, the man was approached by the same two men from the day before, claiming they had cleared his gutters and required payment of £2,000. The victim offered to pay by cheque but they refused and demanded cash.

The man visited his bank branch to withdraw £2,000 in cash. Bank staff were concerned that a scam may be taking place, so refused the withdrawal and called police, evoking the Banking Protocol.

A police officer attended the branch and spoke with the man, confirming he had been the victim of a scam. Thankfully, the bank’s actions meant that no money was lost and the victim received the appropriate safeguarding.

Well done the Police and the banks.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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