Watch out for a Seniors Discounting scam that has a YEI look and feel

A YEI reader was scammed after ordering an online product, which she thought came via YEI.  Why?  “Senior discounting” was the name.  Orange was the colour.  Orange is one of YEI’s brand colours. 

Not YEI, we hasten to say…

In April, Ann, a YEI reader ordered a portable air conditioner online, after seeing an ad on Facebook.  Her immediate thought was that it was a You’ve Earned It/YEI ad because of the words “Senior Discounting” and the orange colour in the ad that resembled one of YEI’s brand colours.

Ann received an invoice before paying for the purchase on her credit card.  When she received her monthly credit card statement, she noticed that the amount had been debited to her account, but the parcel never arrived.  Initially, she never checked the credit card entry against the invoice but after another month or two when the parcel has still not arrived, she found the invoice and noticed the name of the supplier was different.

After tracking several leads that only led to dead ends, Ann received an email from a Coupons company, advertising the same portable air conditioner.  Ann advised the company that she had already ordered a portable air conditioner which had not yet been delivered.  She did not receive an adequate response from the Coupons company who said they only dealt with the coupons and had no part in the delivery of goods.  Shortly afterwards, Ann received an email from a courier company saying that the parcel had not been delivered as there was a customs fee of R16.13 due.  She was wary but thought that it could possibly be the reason for non-delivery, and as the amount was so small, she decided to send through payment.  She gave her credit card details and received an OTP (one time pin) for verification.  She immediately checked her transactional record on her credit card and no payment had gone through for the courier company. 

Ann then checked the website address sent by the Coupons company, and her virus detector blocked the check saying  “potentially dangerous information”.   She wondered if it was coincidence that one scam followed the other, and so changed her password on her banking accounts for safe measure. 

By the time that Ann got through to the Fraud Department at the bank, two items had been charged to her from an unknown source for just over R2000 worth of goods.  She cancelled her credit card and reported the fraud.

She then googled Scamwatcher, checked the Coupons company again and the first company from whom she had supposedly bought the portable air conditioner, and found that there was a suspected scam associated with this product.  The comments in Scamwatcher tell several tales but mostly of non-delivery, or in a couple of cases, products delivered but of extremely poor quality.

YEI members – the scamsters are so good at what they do – they are becoming so much more slick and professional as time goes by. 

Safeguarding yourself against fraudsters should become a top priority, especially when ordering goods online.  Fraudsters will scam you by advertising false deals that are very appealing.  They will put you under pressure to quickly make a part or full payment in order to secure the deal.  If the offer is false, you will never receive the goods. 

The old adage – if it’s too good to be true……..

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: Don’t be fooled by scammers this festive season

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: Seniors – beware of scams – protect your hard-earned pension