- The National Consumer Commission has published a list of scams that are selling products online for South Africans to avoid.
- It says that the companies on the list sell products to locals, but don’t deliver and then disappear without a trace and with your money.
- Most of the companies masquerade as car dealerships so take care if you’re buying a car this time of year.
The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has published a list of all the notable “companies” that run websites in South Africa that will offer products to locals and take their money only to never deliver on the purchases and then seemingly disappear into the void.
This as South Africans enter the busy December and holiday shopping period, where many top online retailers are offering specials on products.
“The NCC identified about 40 suppliers that seem to have either disappeared or cannot be traced at their addresses listed on the sales records or websites provided to consumers,” it said in a press statement.
Adding that these suppliers were found through “complaints received from affected consumers, who had either bought products online or instore.”
You can find the full list of dodgy suppliers below:
“The modus operandi observed is that these suppliers accept the orders, take consumers’ money and never deliver the goods or services as expected,” warns the commission.
“The suppliers would later abandon the websites or delink the sites completely. The list of these suppliers is available on the NCC’s website, and any of the suppliers on the list who have become traceable should contact the NCC to be immediately removed from the list.”
NCC is warning consumers to be “extra cautious” to avoid spending money on anything relating to the 40 suppliers on the above list. What is concerning is that many suppliers on the list are car trading companies, which means some South Africans have fallen to potentially online car trading scams and likely lost considerable amounts of money to these criminals.
There are also some suppliers that claim to sell tech items, including “EGadgets SA”, “Nyasa Computers” and “Easyern West Hardware.” Clothing is another popular scam ran by these companies.
“The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) requires suppliers to provide sales records with the correct physical address, contact numbers and websites to ensure that the consumers and authorities where required are able to locate the suppliers.”
Despite its best efforts, this list will likely miss some names, while others named by the NCC in the past are now non-existent. Such as Manicaa.com, which the NCC claimed last year was stealing from locals.
You can report an online shopping scam at any time through the NCC’s online portal.
