Retail/Auction Fraud
By April Buys
Oh No! What happened to the laptop?!
Nothing happened to the laptop. I fact, there never was a laptop. Retail/action fraud is when you buy something online but don’t receive the item you bought. Someone will post an item online, 'sell it', then take your money and give you nothing back. For example, you could have bought a laptop but then have a brick end up being sent to you.
That's horrible! What do I do to stop it from happening to me?
That's easy. Researching the institutions you're considering buying from and/or looking at the customer ratings. Amazon is a good place to buy from because it makes sure that the product your buying and the seller of the item is legit. If you were to shop on eBay, you could check customers ratings to see that the person is good about delivering the item.