A growing number of South Africans are falling victim to online shops that pop up overnight, rake in thousands of rands by offering great deals, and then disappear with the money.
The South African Banking and Risk Information Centre issued a warning ahead of the Black Friday and festive shopping seasons last year, warning South Africans to only shop at reputable online stores.
“Be wary of unfamiliar e-commerce sites, especially if they do not redirect you to confirm your transaction via your bank’s 3D secure page or via your own bank’s mobile app before you pay,” it said.
One such online retailer that appears to have run off with at least R340 000 of people’s money is MrShopper.co.za, Carte Blanche reported. MyBroadband assisted with the investigation.
Clients ordered everything from pool cleaner to PlayStation consoles through Mr Shopper, only to be met with delays, excuses, and ultimately silence.
At the time of publication, review aggregator Hello Peter had 1,376 posts about Mr Shopper on its platform, most of them negative and describing that customers did not get the goods they ordered.
Based on the timestamps of the reviews on Hello Peter, Mr Shopper was in business from as early as August 2020 and did initially deliver items that were ordered through its website, albeit extremely slowly.
Early reviewers complained about constant delivery delays and lack of communication from Mr Shopper, but several reported that they did eventually receive their orders. Some complained that their items arrived damaged.
In the lead-up to Black Friday (27 November 2020) the complaints about Mr Shopper started changing — more customers reported that they have not received their orders and that they were struggling to get any feedback.
As of May 2021, 75% of HelloPeter reviews are 1-star reviews, the bulk of which are complaints about orders not being delivered and refunds not being processed as promised.
Mr Shopper responded to some of the reviews on Hello Peter in which customers accuse it of being a scam. In these responses it usually apologised for the inconvenience and stated that it had processed a refund.
However, most of the complaints on Hello Peter do not feature a response from the online store.
MyBroadband has seen a list of complainants which shows that at least 59 people have reported not receiving their orders from Mr Shopper with a combined value of R341,632.45.
[My Office News, Tech News May 2021]
