Men duped into buying cosmetics as part of online scam, committee says

• By Lo Chi and Jason Pan / Staff members reporters

An growing range of males this yr have been defrauded in a scheme in which a female befriends them on line right before convincing them to meet and purchase cosmetics, the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Safety Committee said.&#13

With far more folks staying inside of and paying out time on the internet amid a stage 3 COVID-19 inform, there have been more reports of adult males becoming specific as a result of courting web-sites and community forums, officers said.&#13

In the 1st fifty percent of the yr, the committee has acquired about 80 grievances linked to client disputes, matching the range of this kind of stories for all of last yr, they said.&#13

About 60 percent of these circumstances associated adult men getting cosmetic goods and providers just after meeting with females on the pretense of forming a personalized romantic relationship, they added.&#13

These conferences turn into product sales pitches, in which the target is tricked into getting cosmetics, and in some cases committing to payment contracts, they explained.&#13

Dependent on the problems, the plan commences with a female posting her photograph and profile on a courting web-site or a forum, with the implication that they were being interested in conference adult men, the officials explained.&#13

Following some dialogue on line, the male goal would concur to meet up with the female at a retail outlet for their cosmetic business for a demonstration or to exam a merchandise, typically the application of a facial cream, all through which the saleswoman would try to confirm the target’s money and finances, they reported.&#13

The saleswoman would endorse a precise solution, and eventually both open up it or have the concentrate on do so, then following implementing the item insist that they spend for it.&#13

If the goal was not able to pay the whole quantity, the saleswoman would encourage him to pay back by installments and signal a income contract, committee officials explained.&#13

“All the issues on such disputes have been filed by adult men. They imagined they have been building buddies with an desirable lady,” but as a substitute ended up victims of a questionable business practice, an formal mentioned.&#13

Less than the Buyer Security Act (消費者保護法), people today can return a solution in these a situation inside seven times of acquire or cancel the income agreement, the officers reported.&#13

They urged folks to physical exercise caution when conference strangers online, and to register grievances with the committee need to they fall target to fraud.