Still do your own research. Pardon me if I published this article late since I utilized this blog as my primary back-up. Anyway, let's get started.
A few weeks ago, I get enticed to read Ate Sensaii's article about how she was scammed using the company Shopee for greed. Probably, I felt pity for her since the money that she lost in just a blink of a eye could feed you in a day or a week.
Conversely, it's been more than a year since I started to purchase my necessities at the online shopping platform called Shopee. So far, I didn't yet scam by the delivery man or what since I'm actually trying my best to evaluate the item first before checking out.
However, there were some instances that their product due to their low price. If you already read my article a few days ago, you will have an idea on some parcels that I thought that will be useful in my everyday life. As more than two years regular consumer on that app, I've been already learned a few steps though to avoid myself from inevitable scams crossing digitally. Although these tips are not 100% accurate and reliable since it only came from my humble opinion, maybe these guide could help you since scams and mistakes are inescapable or inevitable on our not such perfect environment.
1) Take the vulnerable risk.
If you were ordering online, it's not new to us that we will experience risks as we didn't see yet the product physically. Actually, we can regularly encounter various hazards in our environment, particularly in this pandemic. In addition, it's still better if you would initially evaluate your order properly if you want to prevent yourself from getting scammed. Anyway, the results if you will attempt that is still unclear.
Contrarily, I'm regularly making deposit on my ShopeePay wallet if I have enough money since I want to avoid hassle from paying miscellaneous fees singularly the freight. Moreover, I also want to accumulate discount, vouchers, and cashback, so I'm recently paying my parcels in account.
Although the payment of Cash on Delivery is a great option to avoid vulnerable scams, we can still imply that we could still get scammed. For instance, if we get the wrong order which we thought it's right according to the description of the seller. Scams are clearly everywhere, you know.
2) Observe the status of the buyer and it's product's reviews.
As a responsible buyer, I'm always checking the seller's status, so I can freely decide if that seller can be trusted or not. Furthermore, if I'll buy something on that shop, I'll always browse the products with preferred tag, so I can avail selected free shipping which they're giving oftentimes. On the other side, you can also avail on Shopee Mall which they're implying that their products are original. I suddenly remember the J&T service before, which sudenly became talk of the town due too their controversy upon collecting parcels.
On the other hand, you can easily verify the legitimacy of the product if you'll read manually the reviews. Although most of the sellers are paying other users to make fake reviews, you can still validate it by yourself. I mean, it's still up to you if you'll buy that product or not.
In my own opinion, it's still better if you will ask first your close co-buyer if that seller is legitimate or not since there has a less chance that you could get betrayed. Additionally, if you have an acquaintance that has already had an experience when they purchased that product at that particular shop, then don't be shy to ask. If it's for our security, then there's nothing wrong with that.
3) Check the price before clicking the sell order.
Based on my perspective, I would never buy an item if the price is too good to be true for it's desired quality and branding. Anyway, it's still up to you. For instance, you probably saw there has an ad of Twice album in your feed which you can only buy at less than ₱100. If I were you, I would not believe on it for over 100%.
Yes, there has a chance that then the product legitimate. But, are you really confident that you can see what you get? Probably, there has a chance that it's maybe a second hand or it's only premium copy which is simply not original. Likewise, expect also more dents and unaccommodating sellers which is selling by that price, especially if that seller has negative reviews.
4) Record it a video and a picture before clicking the Order Received button.
If you want to prevent yourself from something unusual, it's better if you would take it a photo and video first to realize if that product is legit or not. Certainly, I did it before when I was removing the box in my phone. My homies are my watchers.
So kahit saan talaga scammers really exist. Na scammed na rin ako before ng 10k but not with shopee. Sa crypto investment naman iyon. Na uninstall ko na shoppe and lazada ko para iwas budol na rin. Hehe