The energy crisis in Europe has led to an increase in demand for almost forgotten sources of energy, such as firewood. With energy prices skyrocketing, consumers see wood as an alternative to gas, electricity and coal. Fraudsters are also on the alert: the Dutch police have already received more than 500 reports of fraud when buying firewood in online stores.
The police have already identified more than sixty fraudulent online stores, but more and more sites continue to be created to deceive customers. Criminals are always on the alert, and the energy crisis has opened up new opportunities for them. The scheme of fraud is simple: a client orders a batch of firewood through an online store, pays for it ... and receives nothing. Of course, it is not possible to contact the management of the fake company.
Police representatives report that it is much more difficult to return the money spent than not to get caught in the networks of scammers. Carefully study the site where you are going to place an order: criminals are usually in a hurry and do not want to invest in development. Often fake sites are copies of foreign sites translated into Dutch using Google translator.. On such sites, there are constantly phrases that are completely absurd from the Dutch point of view, like "long night forest". If you see such errors on the website of an online store, this is a reason to be wary.
There are also better fake online stores. Usually they use the name of a company that is actually engaged in logging and firewood trading, but does not have its own website. Unfortunately, the only way not to be deceived is to carefully study the site and refuse to purchase in case of the slightest doubt about the reliability of the information. The police are understaffed and under-resourced and are forced to choose the cases they want to investigate. Of course, Internet fraud for relatively small amounts is not among the priority cases.
In the Netherlands, the number of frauds using the Internet is constantly growing. Fake wood shops are only a small part of this criminal activity. In 2020, victims filed 6,4 thousand complaints with the police about fraud on the Internet, in 2021, 13 thousand such reports were received, during the unfinished year 2022, already 8,3 thousand victims on the Internet turned to the police.
The average amount of damage caused to gullible buyers is also growing. If in 2021 a deceived customer lost an average of 150 euros, then in the first half of this year, the average amount was already 330 euros.
The police close the identified scam shops, but new ones open daily. Verify the information provided by sellers is the only way to protect your money from online criminals. Extremely advantageous offers, when the goods are offered at below market prices, should be of particular concern.
Find out how victims of scams stand up for their rights, from our article.
Publication Date: 13.10.2022
