Facebook scammers force a change to retail sites

Facebook retailers are on alert after being targeted by fake profile scammers.

Police and NetSafe have warned the public about a rise in fake or hacked Facebook profiles which they say have swindled a number of people out of large sums of money.

NetSafe Operations Manager, Lee Chisholm, advised the public to be “wary” when shopping online.

“One of the things that people don’t realise is that anyone can set up a website with a .co.nz domain from anywhere in the world. They don’t have to be in New Zealand or a New Zealand resident to use .co.nz,” Ms Chisholm said.

For Facebook fashion retailers Walk in Wardrobe - Auckland and Oh Rent Me, the rise in scammers has caused a change in business practice.

The Facebook groups boast over 16,000 members collectively and page administrators have had their fair share of scammers both on their sites and personally.

Saejung Oh, founder of Dunedin-based Oh Rent Me, said she had been scammed three times on Facebook, and had lost a total of $300.

Miss Oh spoke of one incident she described as her “worst experience with a scammer” when a customer attempted to steal a rented playsuit and a pair of shoes.

Miss Oh decided to take matters into her own hands when the scammer was unable to be contacted.

“I showed up to the address that she gave me and when I showed up there, the home was empty.

“I knocked around the neighbors and asked how long the house had been empty for and they said about two months.”

After tracking down a different address that the scammer claimed to have been the home of a cousin, Miss Oh was able to claim her possessions.

In light of the incidents, Miss Oh created a website bound by "legal obligation" for Oh Rent Me which has been a step closer to preventing scammers.

CEO of Walk in Wardrobe - Auckland, Jason Wilkins has gone to great lengths to prevent scammers from entering his Facebook site.

Mr Wilkins checks profiles that request to join his site, saying he “wants to have the safest one possible”.

He tracks IP addresses to see a live location of potential scammers and names and shames the alleged culprits on a Facebook scammers list.

Both sites advise shoppers to be cautious when dealing online and to ask sellers to provide images of the items for sale accompanied by photo ID for verification before purchase.