Many users of a popular shopping app are currently complaining about a particularly perfidious scam. Alleged sellers use a trick to get Vinted customers to transfer money for goods that ultimately never reach the buyer.
Many users of the popular shopping platform Vinted are currently complaining about a new scam. As can be seen from numerous forum entries, the criminals use a perfidious trick. As soon as the victims have ordered an item from Vinted and paid for it through the system, they receive a message a few seconds later that the package has already been delivered.
When you click on the shipment tracking, you can read that the package was shipped and shipped weeks ago – i.e. before the order was even placed. Entering the zip code also spits out “Not valid”.
Vinted scam: This is how shopping customers are ripped off
Basically, orders at Vinted are processed like this: The customer pays via the system and the seller then has to enter a number at Vinted. The transferred money remains with Vinted until the shipping service provider has confirmed the delivery. The buyer then has two days in which to confirm the delivery and then “activate” the money. If this deadline is not met, the money will automatically go to the seller and the buyer will no longer be able to lodge a complaint.
This is exactly where the fraudster’s trick comes in: Since the date of the alleged delivery is in the past, the buyer can no longer react with a complaint because the two-day period has been overturned, so to speak. There is usually no more feedback from the seller and the money is gone.
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Also CHIP editor affected by scam
A CHIP editor has also become a victim of this scam. Afterwards she noticed that the affected articles were subsequently relisted and that other accounts also posted the same product images. The colleague wrote to Vinted directly via the two possible complaint channels on the site. However, both times she only received automated replies, according to which the deadline had already passed and she had not contacted her at the time. An objection is therefore no longer possible.
Vinted apparently reacted to a message from PayPal, as can be seen from several user reports. The trick therefore mainly affects purchases via PayPal, which is why you can write to the company here. However, the users write that they were subsequently threatened with termination by standardized email. Customers should therefore withdraw the complaint with PayPal, otherwise the account will be deleted.
Our colleague saw an e-mail to the address [email protected] as the last resort – here too, however, only a standard e-mail reply has so far come. It is unclear whether she will ever get her money or the goods (back).
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