The surge in online shopping has come hand-in-hand with scams. Consumers often get attracted to fraudulent schemes via fake sites, unusually low prices and attractive offers. These are just some of the many activities scammers use to lure shoppers.
The problem is that these defrauders use fake online stores and apps, promoted through genuine platforms. These apps have the potential to misuse your credit or debit card credentials, once you type them while making payments for the products you purchase from here.
These apps will incentivize customers to download them by offering way too low prices. They make you think they are legitimate, and take money from you, just to deliver a counterfeit item or nothing at all. After this scam, these stores will disappear within no time.
Online platforms have developed what the Consumer Affairs Ministry calls ‘dark patterns’. You must have found yourself with notifications that push you to buy things or say you’re about to miss a “limited-time offer.” These manipulative malpractices constitute dark patterns, which nowadays are present in every e-commerce platform.
The Consumer Affairs Ministry has issued 13 guidelines that companies must avoid at all costs, violations of which will lead to legal actions under the Consumer Protection Act of 2019.
Regulators in the United States, the European Union, and the United Kindom have also taken strict actions to protect consumers from deceptive shopping practices that lead to unintended purchases.
Thus, even though online shopping is enjoyable and addictive, you need to identify hidden traps and avoid the resulting financial burden. Here are five misleading tactics you should avoid while online shopping.
Read More: Watch: Some Of The Most Expensive Shopping Streets In The World
What techniques do you use to identify misleading shopping tactics? Let us know in the comments below.
Sources: CNBC, Moneycontrol, The Economic Times
This post is tagged under: online shopping, shopping, comments, websites, mails, emails, delivery, shipment, payment, scam, subscription, URL, link, basket sneaking, exciting offers, dark patterns, United States, European Union, United Kindom, Consumer Affairs Ministry, limited time offers, customer, consumers
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