FB ad showing ($899) laptops for $99 - whats your thoughts

[Bender Blues]

So this decided to pollute my feed. I'm not and don't plan on buying anything..... just your thoughts on what this really is. If it where some scam, I'd assume the ad wouldn't even got the nod.

 

Won't post the link, just a ss of the page.

 

[Levent]

Too good to be true

Redirects to a sketchy site

Obvious scam.

[Bender Blues]

3 minutes ago, Levent said:

Too good to be true

Redirects to a sketchy site

Obvious scam.

Thats why I posted it - so no human see's this at FB, takes their money for advertising and out goes the ad?

I thought Zucker fought stuff like this so obviously - that it wouldn't even see the light of day.

[BondiBlue]

That's a scam, and an extremely obvious one at that. Things like that are all over the place these days. 

[Wheezey]

honestly it gets to a point where you really question how you see this on things like FB, the lack of care at that place is unfathomable. 

[LogicalDrm]

Ask here, there's only one opinion -> Scam.

Ask on FB, you get 100 opinions, and half think its just great deal.

 

Or was the question why these are allowed? Because there's no constant vetting. Ads on the internet aren't like ads on paper or TV. They may be pre-screened (video ads), but content is very easily swapped and after that, no control. Only after its reported by someone they will review it. And even then, they seem to be blind to most obvious scams/ads (I've received replies from FB saying that my reports are false).

[Needfuldoer]

"This site coordinates with Bust Buy"? Yeah. Of course they do.

 

It's a sure-fire way to get a free P-P-P-Powerbook!

  

45 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Ask on FB, you get 100 opinions, and half think its just great deal.

And those are probably 24 hacked accounts, 24 sock puppets, and two fools who have parted with their money but haven't received the package yet.

[da na]

Scam. 

[Kisai]

All the scam red flags:

Old photos. The photo in the center is from a warehouse, probably IBM.

Photos are of different models in the same ad. That stack in the lower-left? Those are 2012 Macbooks.

There's enough red flags that only someone who has never seen a laptop before would fall for this.

 

[dizmo]

The most obvious red flag is the free world wide shipping. Anyone who's ever shipped sowmthing knows that isn't feasible. I don't think Chinese companies could even get away with that. 

[Bender Blues]

15 minutes ago, dizmo said:

The most obvious red flag is the free world wide shipping. Anyone who's ever shipped sowmthing knows that isn't feasible. I don't think Chinese companies could even get away with that. 

Great observation, thats what I thought when seeing this.

Another thats not as glaring is, "3 year" warranty.

 

 

Who the hell is performing warranty work? 

The guy in the car with a trunk full of laptops?  Or is it the guy in the abandoned oil refinery where pigeons use the place as a toilet? 

 

[starcar]

Why don't you just try? If it's a scam just chargeback if not you just got a deal. You have nothing to lose.

[Kisai]

19 minutes ago, starcar said:

Why don't you just try? If it's a scam just chargeback if not you just got a deal. You have nothing to lose.

That is not how things work. If it's the kind of scam I believe it to be, maybe 10 people will get a laptop, leave some positive reviews, and everyone else will get the run-around until the window to get a refund or chargeback expires.

 

Or you know, they might just use your card to defraud others.

 

Scams like this are super super old. What tends to happen is the the scam is two-pronged, first the buyer is defrauded by not getting the right item, and then they're defrauded again by being asked to pay for exchange costs, and then you end up out both the items and money.

[starcar]

1 minute ago, Kisai said:

That is not how things work. If it's the kind of scam I believe it to be, maybe 10 people will get a laptop, leave some positive reviews, and everyone else will get the run-around until the window to get a refund or chargeback expires.

 

Or you know, they might just use your card to defraud others.

 

Scams like this are super super old. What tends to happen is the the scam is two-pronged, first the buyer is defrauded by not getting the right item, and then they're defrauded again by being asked to pay for exchange costs, and then you end up out both the items and money.

The scam only works because people don't think it's fishy and give the scammer the benefit of the doubt. Noway are they gonna be able to keep OP from doing a chargeback after 7 days. I belive you've got like 180 days to chargeback with a CC or atleast with paypal.

[Spotty]

3 hours ago, starcar said:

The scam only works because people don't think it's fishy and give the scammer the benefit of the doubt. Noway are they gonna be able to keep OP from doing a chargeback after 7 days. I belive you've got like 180 days to chargeback with a CC or atleast with paypal.

Quite often with these scam sites they'll say they accept PayPal/credit card but then when the victim tries to pay using those methods it gives an error. The scammer then convinces them that to get their order they'll have to pay through a different method that doesn't offer any buyer protections such as direct transfer or western union.

 

4 hours ago, starcar said:

Why don't you just try? If it's a scam just chargeback if not you just got a deal. You have nothing to lose.

This is terrible advice.

"If you know it's a scam just give them money to fund their scam operation so they can continue scamming others, and then when you've realised you were scammed just spend hours on the phone to your bank asking for a chargeback and filling out a police report so that your bank maybe pays you back the money the scammers took"

[Forbidden Wafer]

7 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Ads on the internet aren't like ads on paper or TV.

Hmm, dunno if I trust that. Enron, Theranos, Nikola EV, etc. National scams: TelexFree, Avestruz (Ostritch) Master, Neon Eletro, etc.

[Chiyawa]

I don't get my hopes up. You'll end up with a 2010 17 inch Inspiron notebook or an empty box.

 

But still, scammer can do whatever they want in the market place. Wish these online marketplace, be it FB marketplace, Ebay or the rest requires commercial permits from government in order to sell items, that way, we can track these scammers and scalpers and punish or tax them accordingly.

[Bender Blues]

52 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

I don't get my hopes up. You'll end up with a 2010 17 inch Inspiron notebook or an empty box.

 

But still, scammer can do whatever they want in the market place. Wish these online marketplace, be it FB marketplace, Ebay or the rest requires commercial permits from government in order to sell items, that way, we can track these scammers and scalpers and punish or tax them accordingly.

The reason I posted this was because it wasn't marketplace, it was a paid news ad. You know the ads as you scroll your feed.

Thats why I was thinking, how the hell does FB even allow something like this see the light of day? Marketplace yeah, hit enter its there.

 

Is that all there is to it to run an ad too? FB doesn't even vet the thing in the slightest?!

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

Hmm, dunno if I trust that. Enron, Theranos, Nikola EV, etc. National scams: TelexFree, Avestruz (Ostritch) Master, Neon Eletro, etc.

I'm not from US so I don't know what you are referring to. I assume you mean that these companies do ads and are bad overall? That's different. This is purely scam where you won't get product at all or for the advertised price. I assume your examples refer to bad products, bad customer service or a lot of fine print.

 

.... Which all comes down to sad state of consumer protection US has in general.

[Forbidden Wafer]

4 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

I'm not from US so I don't know what you are referring to. I assume you mean that these companies do ads and are bad overall? That's different. This is purely scam where you won't get product at all or for the advertised price. I assume your examples refer to bad products, bad customer service or a lot of fine print.

 

.... Which all comes down to sad state of consumer protection US has in general.

The first batch are American. Tens of billions of dollar level scams. Market manipulation, fake products, etc. 

 

The second batch is from Brazilian companies. First two were Ponzi/pyramid schemes.

 

The third one was a retailer doing ad campaigns on multiple high profile TV channels, newspapers and magazines. They ended up being a total scam and disappearing with truck loads of money. 

[Bender Blues]

Curious 'shop check, 

Rounded corner cropped flat or magically pokes through the cardboard.

Even the edge on the lid looks like a pair of plyers got it, and proportion is defying laws of physics, even at the looking angle.

 

I'm buying one 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chiyawa]

36 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

Thats why I was thinking, how the hell does FB even allow something like this see the light of day?

Well, when it comes to ads, I think many ads are out right lying as well. McDonald's ads are, well, serving food that is not even close to what they are advertise (of course they have to make the food more appealing, but still).

 

I think for most ads, money speaks loudly. I mean, take a look at New Egg, some of the ads before that Gamer Nexus reveals actually advertise they have a good customer service with 'peace of mind return policy, no question ask', and look what they did?

 

What I'm saying is, even a reputable company can advertise something that is 'over promised' but not honouring that. Intel also heavily advertised that their CPU (in laptops) is the best even though they knew that AMD Ryzen CPU is better in everything than theirs (not sure about US but in Malaysia, they did do that when Ryzen mobile CPU just enters the market, even making Dell or HP said we recommend Intel, but then they become quiet, probably because they don't have much money to boast).

 

So, well, in advertisement field, money speaks louder. You got the moolah, you got the spot, as my father always says.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

11 hours ago, Bender Blues said:

So this decided to pollute my feed. I'm not and don't plan on buying anything..... just your thoughts on what this really is. If it where some scam, I'd assume the ad wouldn't even got the nod.

 

Won't post the link, just a ss of the page.

 

Quote

100% risk free purchase

So 100% won't catch on fire? Not sure why there's a fire emoji next to risk free purchase. 

 

The perspective of the laptop is completely off and really drew my attention. Then I saw the horribly photoshopped in Dell Logos on the boxes.

 

[Kisai]

21 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

 

So 100% won't catch on fire? Not sure why there's a fire emoji next to risk free purchase. 

 

The perspective of the laptop is completely off and really drew my attention. Then I saw the horribly photoshopped in Dell Logos on the boxes.

 

The reason I said (the photo) was probably a warehouse was the stickers on the box. The laptop itself is clearly a 17" model, while those boxes are the WRONG SIZE for ANY laptop. 

In fact. If you ask me. Those aren't laptop boxes, those are docking station boxes (WD19, or older e-port models.) As those are the only things that are square shipped from dell. All Dell Laptop boxes are wider than they are tall.

 

At any rate. That's obviously not a photo from a Dell warehouse, that's likely something from an IT management warehouse. The boxes in the rear of the photo are keyboards.

 

 

[Spotty]

2 hours ago, Bender Blues said:

Curious 'shop check, 

If you reverse image search it you can find higher quality versions of the same image being used for other scams, including scams with HP logos photoshopped on to the box.

 

 

In the higher resolution photos you can make out the Chromebook logo in the corner of the boxes. Using Chromebooks as a keyword in a reverse image search with the higher resolution photos you can find the original photo. The original image is of Samsung Chromebook boxes for schools in the UK. There's also an accompanying youtube video of them taking delivery of the chromebooks which confirms it's the original source of the image.

 

https://www.wypartnership.co.uk/our-priorities/digital/digital-news-and-case-studies#:~:text=Opening up online opportunities for student success

 

 

Begs the question why didn't they just say they were selling Chromebooks and skip the bad photoshop.

 

8 hours ago, starcar said:

Why don't you just try? If it's a scam just chargeback if not you just got a deal. You have nothing to lose.

But hey, there's always a chance it's not a scam.... Right?