Buying from abroad: how to avoid risks?

Shopping through online shopping sites and then shipping to Vietnam is no longer a new thing.

However, the risks from these transactions are numerous and increasingly sophisticated. How to avoid them?

Double billed

Christmas and New Year are coming, this is the time when foreign shopping websites massively sell off their products, offering deep discounts to increase sales. However, consumers are not always lucky when shopping on foreign sales sites.

As a frequent shopper with experience in foreign goods, Ms. Nguyen Hong Trang (Ngo Tat To apartment, Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City) was recently "swindled" out of more than 10 million VND. Ms. Trang said that during her shopping trip to the US, "like every year, on Black Friday, I took the opportunity to buy whatever I needed to use. This year, I also searched for cheap items to buy."

Finding a noise-canceling blender, priced at $400 (over 10 million VND) on sale for $99 (over 2 million VND), Ms. Trang decided to buy one for her family and buy another of the same type for her friend.

"This machine looks very nice and sturdy, the price is really attractive, I also learned more about this type of blender so I decided to buy it." However, after choosing to pay, Ms. Trang was shocked when the amount deducted from her bank card was nearly 10 million VND, which is double the actual amount to be paid.

"The bank message sent back shows that the payment unit is located in China, the exchange rate is from USD to CNY (Chinese Yuan), if so, the difference in the amount will be larger, however, doubling is unacceptable," Ms. Trang was upset.

Immediately, with her shopping experience, she emailed the shopping site to request an explanation and cancel the transaction. Two days later, the email system notified her that the website did not confirm receipt of the email. "At this point, I had to notify the bank to conduct an investigation, hoping to get my money back," Trang said dejectedly.

The solution for the average consumer is to shop at trusted locations.

Not falling into the same ironic situation as Ms. Trang, however, Ms. Bao Tram (Huynh Van Banh Street, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City) encountered problems with the quality of goods. As a sophisticated shopper, also on Black Friday, Ms. Tram invited her friends to buy watches to use.

"After searching for a while, I found a website that sells watches at a discount of up to 70%, for only 10 USD. The important thing is that they guarantee the quality as well as a two-year international warranty, so I was a bit subjective," Tram said. When I received the goods, I was shocked: "The product looked like Chinese goods, the design looked very boring, I had to spend nearly 1 million VND... buying an unreliable product," said this customer.

More and more risks

According to many experts, buying goods from abroad is no longer risky in terms of product quality, service or shipping, but is becoming more and more "sophisticated" with many tricks and payment methods being abused for profit.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc, a technology engineer providing online payment solutions, said that as technology develops, risks related to payments are increasing. The solution for ordinary consumers is to shop at trusted addresses.

Solution to avoid risks of online payment.

Distinguishing a trusted address is not necessarily through the name of the shopping channel such as Amazon, Walmart or the brand name, but need to observe on the toolbar, trusted shopping sites will have a padlock symbol. "This is a website that confirms that information will be protected, especially account information when provided to the shopping unit," said Mr. Duc.

In addition, according to Mr. Duc, it is necessary to equip computers with security software, use difficult passwords instead of simple ones, and use credit cards (visa debit) instead of debit cards (credit) to avoid maximum withdrawals if information is leaked.

Meanwhile, according to Ms. Hong Trang, the experience in solving payment-related problems is to immediately contact the card-issuing bank for guidance and appropriate handling. Vietcombank's card transaction processing department said that customers should first contact the shopping website if they see that the transaction amount is incorrect.

After receiving feedback from the seller, the bank will conduct an investigation. The investigation period can last up to 6 months. "The investigation causes many problems, even requiring the cancellation of the card, so customers should proactively research carefully to avoid risks," said the representative.

According to Tuoi Tre Newspaper