Olena-Kristina Lebed spoke about a tough scam

Olena-Kristina Lebed, host of the  project “Scammers in the Networks” on the New Channel, analyzed in detail the current fraudulent scheme that can be found on free classifieds sites

Ukrainians’ struggle for victory continues, but fraudsters do not hesitate to “cheat” people. They set their nets everywhere! Luckily, Olena-Kristina Lebed, an expert in exposing fraud, host of the project “Scammers in the Networks” (New Channel), knows about this. So, keep reading for another current scam so you don’t get caught and lose all your money.

“This is a scam when buying goods on free classifieds sites. The scheme has two stages,” Olena-Kristina tells kp.ua.

1. “God, I let you down! I’ll return the money!”

The victim orders goods on the website. The scammer seller confirms the availability and asks the buyer to pay through a “secure transaction” for peace of mind. This is a button on classifieds sites where the buyer pays, but the money hangs on the site until the person receives the goods and confirms that the purchase is okay! Only then does the website transfer money to the seller’s card. So, the victim pays through this function, but an hour later the seller calls and says that they made a mistake in the warehouse – the goods are out of stock. He apologizes a million times and guarantees a refund to the card. The buyer, of course, is impressed and pleased that everything is so honest and transparent.

Scammers in the networks Olena-Kristina Lebed

2. “My partner has this product!”

Suddenly, the scammer seller offers to buy the same product, even cheaper, but from his partner. It turned out that he had as many as 200 more in stock. The buyer is pleasantly surprised, because they will get what they want, and even cheaper. The fraudster offers to negotiate with his partner via Viber. It sends the victim a link to a supposedly “safe deal” that the buyer already trusts because he or she has checked it out and received the money back. In fact, this is a link to a fake! It’s just very similar to the original classifieds site. But, of course, the buyer already trusts and pays for the goods. When paying, he enters his card details and loses all the money from it in just a few seconds. It was useless to write to the support service of the original website, because the transaction took place not there, but on Viber. They are not responsible for this.

Tip: Never transfer a dialog with a seller to Viber/Telegram/WhatsApp. If you do communicate there, never click on a link that a scammer may send you. Write it like this: “I will place all orders on the official website!”

Watch episodes of “Scammers in the Networks” on the website and on TubeYouNew channel!

Photo: press service