Online shopper ‘buys Dh14,700 in auction, receives stone instead’

The victim, a director at an insurance company, won what he thought was a gold watch in an online auction and paid for it by credit card.

ABU DHABI // An online shopper paid Dh14,700 for a designer gold watch in an online auction but got a cheap paper box containing a stone instead, police said on Saturday.

The victim, a director at an insurance company, was surprised to receive a plain paper box with no logo containing a pebble instead of the gold watch he had won in the auction and paid for using his credit card. He reported the fraud to Abu Dhabi Police’s organised crime department.

Lt Col Taher Al Dhaheri, head of organised crime at police CID, warned against the risks of insecure online shopping and auctions.

He urged online shoppers to verify the company address and phone number before making online purchases and not to rely solely on an email address.

He said it is also preferable to make purchases from known websites, to use a special card with a limited balance for online shopping and to keep both a soft and a hard copy of the purchase.

Any internet fraud should be immediately reported to [e-mail], Lt Col Al Dhaheri said.