Greg's Corner

Even upscale sites can have scams

There are a handful of marketplace websites that only deal in high-end goods. We’re talking about brands like Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, Coach, and Chanel among others. Many singles items from these brands can cost you a few thousand dollars even if the item is pre-owned. You might think that such a posh marketplace may be free of scams but you’d be mistaken.

Recently in Ohio, a woman found a purse for sale on one of these marketplaces that she wished to purchase. The listing said to text the seller. The seller texted the woman back telling her to send $375 through the Zelle payment app. As you can probably surmise, the woman never received the purse and the seller made off with the money.

In the platform’s defense, this is not how payments are supposed to work. These high-end marketplaces work almost like eBay. You make the payment through the platform itself rather than to the seller directly. This way, there are certain protections afforded to the buyer if the item is not delivered. If a seller directs you to make payment off of the platform, it’s almost guaranteed to be a scam.

Also, for the marketplace and the items they sell, $375 sounds like an amazing deal for the items that are sold there. If an item online is being sold for well below market value it’s possible that it’s either counterfeit or it doesn’t exist at all.

Speaking of counterfeits, that’s another danger you have to worry about when dealing with high-end goods like these. There are probably more fakes than the real deal online. These counterfeits have been known to fund organized crime or sweatshops that use child labor.

If the seller is used to dealing with luxury items, they should have the receipt from the original purchase. Ask to see it. While it’s not a perfect way to prevent being ripped off, it does go a long way.