Mix Blog: If It Sounds Too Good to Be True…

I imagine that most of you, like me, are bombarded daily with emails from your favorite retailers announcing sales, deals of the day and deals of the century. I find it almost impossible to keep up with the onslaught, and in keeping with my efforts not to buy any more gear (!), I do my best to ignore them. Once in a while, however, I get one that piques my interest.

Such was the case recently when an email came in from a music retailer that I’ve done a fair amount of business with over the years. This one promised great deals on close-outs, “dent-and-scratch” and open-box items. Despite efforts to curb my GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), I had to take a look—just in case there was anything on sale that I couldn’t possibly live without.

I clicked on the link and it took me to the retailer’s page (or so I thought), where I found familiar listings. Some of the listings had prices that were typical retail, and others had prices that were a sort of ho-hum discount of a few dollars from what I might find from any retailer. Other listings were priced below the usual selling point, but not so far below the norm that you’d say, “Oh that’s too good to be true.”

One particular item caught my eye: a close-out listing for a stereo pair of microphones at a price that was around 30% off the typical street price. Lord knows I don’t need another microphone, but at the price, how could I pass it up? The listing even showed the quantity remaining in stock. I added it to my cart. Knowing that a friend of mine might also be interested, I sent him the link.

And that’s when things got weird.

Mix Live Blog: Put That Thing Away!

There was no place for me to log into the account I had established with this vendor, and the only option for payment was PayPal—no place to enter credit card info. Right around the same time I was seeing this, my friend texted me saying that he thought this might be a scam due to the payment options. He opted out and eventually received emails from a suspicious address practically begging him to complete the purchase.

Clearly this was starting to stink like four-day old sushi. Out of curiosity, I manually entered the web address for the manufacturer. When I arrived at the official page, I was able to find listings for many of the same items, but none at the prices shown on the counterfeit site.

A few days later, I read a post on Facebook telling a story of how this advertisement was a scam perpetrated upon customers of that retailer. What’s scary is how accurately the thieves imitated the original web site, using their name, logos and listing format. They used the same font for the descriptions and prices, provided the usual links for contact info and customer service, and—unlike the scam emails I receive from certain banks that I do not have accounts with—the scammers knew that I was a customer of this particular retailer. Yikes.

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It goes to show the lengths to which unethical people will go to rip you off. What can you do to prevent something like this from happening?

Beware of any “super sale on your favorite gear,” particularly if you see that ad on a social media site. Be skeptical of “epic” prices that sound too good to be true. If you have doubts about the legitimacy of an ad, manually type in the web address for the retailer, or, better yet, call them on the phone to verify. And watch out for phone or text scams where people tell you that a shipment is being held for pending payment of some sort. But you probably already know about that one….

Of course, if you’re still a bit wary, you could always visit a local retailer!