Those using convenience stores’ e-commerce platforms to sell goods should be cautious, police said yesterday, citing two recent cases where sellers were defrauded of large sums of money.
Scammers who target sellers through e-commerce platforms operated by convenience stores claim that they are unable to place orders or are having trouble making payments through the platform, police said.
The scammers then send the seller a link that appears to be from the platform’s customer service center, but actually links to a fake site, police said.
In one recent case, a seller surnamed Huang (黃), who runs a beverage shop, put a bread mixer up for sale on 7-Eleven’s e-commerce platform, and was contacted by a buyer surnamed Chang (張). Chang later said that he was unable to complete the transaction, and sent Huang a link that he said went to the platform’s customer service page, police said.
Huang then contacted a woman he believed was a customer service representative using the information provided in the link. The woman asked Huang to provide his bank account information and a photograph of his bank book to authenticate the account and activate the cash transfer function for the online transaction.
Huang was then instructed to transfer NT$93 through links the woman provided to verify that the account matched his identity, but later discovered that 11 transfers were made from his account totaling nearly NT$780,000, police said.
In another case, a woman surnamed Liu (劉) put an advertisement on Facebook Marketplace for items she wanted to sell. A buyer asked her to sell the items on Family Mart’s e-commerce platform, saying that this would make the transaction easier, police said.
The buyer later said that they were having trouble completing the transaction, and sent Liu a link that they said went to Family Mart’s customer service page.
Liu then contacted someone through the link who said that her seller’s account was not authenticated, and asked for banking information to activate online banking.
Liu received a call from someone claiming to be a bank manager, who told her that she would need to provide personal information to verify her identity before the functions could be activated.
Liu later discovered that the scammers had linked her bank account to a Line Pay account, and had defrauded her of nearly NT$660,000, police said.
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