Christmas fraud: iPhones, PlayStation 5s & puppies targeted in ‘deeply disturbing’ scams
Christmas this year is expected to be unlike any other in recent memory, with coronavirus affecting the festive season in ways few would have imagined. Given the restrictions, many consumers will be forced to shop online but this could bring with it a heightened scam problem.
Indeed, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau recently revealed that over the 2019s Christmas period, there were 17,405 reports of online shopping fraud, with £13.5million reportedly lost.
This equated to around £755 per incident and the corresponding figures for this year could be even higher.
On this, Besedo, the AI and human-powered content moderation company has reviewed data from six popular UK marketplaces to find out whether there is an issue with fraud on their platforms.
The company analysed 3000 listings over the course of November, which included the recent black Friday/cyber Monday shopping events.
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Besedo’s experts went on to highlight some of the most in-demand Christmas products are particularly risky.
This can include the recently released PlayStation 5 which quickly sold out and beyond this, Besedo found that 22 percent of the product’s listings are now likely to be scams.
Additionally, iPhones, another prominent Christmas gift, are also a cause of concern, with 19 percent of listings on marketplaces were found to show signs of being scams.
For fashion items, the buyer’s lack of physical contact with the product means that fake items are much more common, with 15 percent of listings found to be counterfeited.
In what is likely to be the most heart-wrenching concern, however, listings for puppies are also proving to be problematic.
Out of the 604 listings for puppy purchases that Besedo reviewed in November, 23 percent were found to be scams.
Petter Nylander, the CEO of Besedo, commented on these findings and urged consumers to take extra care: “This holiday season really is a one-two punch of risk for shoppers. Fewer gifts will be bought in physical retail stores, as we all work to limit the spread of the pandemic, leaving online retail as the main source for gift buying for many.
“At the same time, anticipated slow deliveries will give scammers more leeway to string along their targets, making it that much harder for victims to know that they’ve been caught out and take the appropriate action.”
Petter continued: “We should all be taking additional care while buying presents this year, triple checking that prices are realistic, that the seller seems genuine, and that the goods are what they say they are before pressing the buy button.
“Of course, we should also expect much more of the marketplace platforms that we are shopping on in terms of protecting users from potential harm.
“While it is certainly a challenging process to quickly identify and remove problematic listings, it is deeply concerning that we are seeing such high rates of scams and counterfeiting in this data. Powerful technological approaches, using AI in conjunction with human analysts, can very effectively mitigate against these criminals.
“Ultimately, it should be the safety of the user, and not the profit for the platform, that comes first.”
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