Recently, an individual in Morden was the victim of a scam that saw him pay an exorbitant amount for empty boxes.
“An individual ordered some items online from a company that he thought was out of Minnesota and thought was a legitimate company,” says Morden Police Chief Brad Neduzak.
“He purchased the items for over $7,000 in US funds, and when the packages arrived at the Amazon site, the boxes were empty.”
A frequent occurrence
Chief Neduzak says that, unfortunately, occurrences like these are “very, very frequent.”
“You really don't know who you are dealing with online. There's no way of identifying these people, and obviously you don't get to see the items or anything that you're purchasing like you do when you do it in person,” he says.
Chief Neduzak advises anyone making online purchases to research the legitimacy of businesses before buying online.
“There are ways of checking before you give your banking information,” he says.
“If you're not sure, you can call us. You can also call different organizations to check on the legitimacy of a business or an organization before you go forward with the purchase."
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The police chief also recommends checking if family members or friends have heard of the organization before taking any steps.
‘These scammers are very good at what they’re doing’
In Chief Neduzak’s experience, the frequency of cases like the empty box incident is linked to a few things.
The first is the growing proficiency of scammers.
“These scammers are very, very good at what they're doing. They're professional scammers, and they get more cunning with each scam that they do,” he says.
Chief Neduzak says that people are also “vulnerable” when searching for a good deal. He has advice for this scenario, too.
“If it looks too good to be true, it probably is, so if it's looking like a really good deal, step back for a second,” he says. “Think about it and do some checking before sending any funds.”
Chief Neduzak notes that scammers are “very, very difficult” to track down because they often change addresses and phone numbers or hide behind fake ones.
In the end, it's best to do everything possible to avoid falling into the scammer's snare.