Now that we have arrived in 2024, it’s pretty common to see promotions and mouth-watering deals everywhere. That includes both online and COD-related purchases. That said, scam cases are also at an all-time high during this period. That said, this is how you can prevent yourself from falling into COD scams.
According to Ninja Van’s report, 29% out of 1,504 shoppers surveyed in Malaysia identify as e-shopaholics, which contribute 50% to the total e-commerce volume in the country across various categories - beauty and healthcare, electronics, fashion, and so forth. As a result, this leads to a rise in fake carrier services, undelivered goods, and COD scams, among others.
Verify the Sellers
Before you make your purchase, always make sure that you are engaging with a legitimate seller and take the extra time to do thorough research on the website or company to verify its credibility. It is important to take note of the seller’s contact information, physical address, reviews, and history of their business.
The best way to determine whether it is a credible seller is by perusing through reviews and identifying negative comments by real-life customers. But there are other ways to confirm that too. This is how you can do it:
- Study the address bar and URL. If there are misspellings on the address, no ‘s’ in the ‘https:’, and an ending that does not end with “.com”, you might want to recheck the website. There should not be more than one ".com," ".org," ".net," etc
- Identify the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL certificate)
- Check for poor grammar and spelling errors. Credible websites rarely have such issues, especially on the home page.
- Check the contact page’s logo, design and branding on the front page.
- Review the company’s social media presence such as the number of followers and read through the content.
- Check for questionable links within the email.
Keep Credible Contact Details
It’s important to keep all the details of your seller. That includes their contact number and delivery tracker. If a seller is hesitant to provide these details, you might want to look elsewhere. We suggest authorised platforms such as Shopee or Lazada because these platforms have an active anti-fraud system for better protection.
Check Before Cash
If you have received the parcel and completed the payment, it’s best to check the content as soon as possible. Take some time to check the parcel, and take note of any irregularities or defects. If a parcel is excessively wrapped, the chances are your goods might have been damaged. It is also common practice to not accept items that you have not purchased and keep a list of the items purchased for reference.
Always double if not triple check
It’s always important to check if the parcel is meant for you. Especially when you have not made the payment yet. Always check if the name, address, and phone number are yours to ensure the parcel is meant for you. You should also check for the sender’s address, official stamps and verification for further details. If your parcel lacks one of these details, it could be a scam.
What you should look out for
If you receive an email, text message, or physical letter that claims to be from a legitimate seller or courier service and prompts customers to make payments upon delivery. That could be a scam. You should always verify the payment requests’ legitimacy, keep track of your purchases and cross-check information with the seller or courier service before making payments.
If the request is unidentified or the seller fails to verify this purchase, it is likely a scam. So, you shouldn’t follow their requests. Notably, if an item's price is too good to be true, that could be a scam as well. Hence, you should research your intended items thoroughly before you make a purchase.
In conclusion, it’s always important to recognise the roles of courier services like Ninja Van, DHL, J&T Express and so forth when it comes to COD scams. For more information and details, you can always check Ninja Van’s video here.
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