Chaos in the "online market"

Potential risks

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh in Thanh Hai commune (Thanh Ha) is an "addict" to online shopping, especially household appliances because they are diverse and have reasonable prices. Ms. Hanh said that on some social platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, some e-commerce platforms, there are many products such as tissue paper, hair dryers, rice cookers, air fryers... being sold at "bargain" prices. A few weeks ago, she ordered a box of tissue paper for 120,000 VND from a familiar shop on an e-commerce platform. When she received the goods, she was disappointed because the quality of the tissue paper was too thin, not as thick as the previous times. "At the same time, I also ordered a hair dryer for 150,000 VND after listening to the seller's livestream introduction. However, after only a short time of use, the dryer showed signs of damage, flickering, sometimes it turned on, sometimes it didn't, so it was very annoying," said Ms. Hanh. Although she bought poor quality products online several times, Ms. Hanh never complained to the authorities because she thought the value of the goods was not too great.

Recently, when using Facebook, a consumer in Hai Duong City saw some famous fanpages posting about a promotion program for Samsung's Galaxy Buds 2 Pro headphones for only 599,000 VND, while the selling price of this product on the website Samcenter Vietnam and other retailers is 2.39 million VND (with promotion), and the original price is more than 4 million VND. Seeing the cheap price, this person ordered a product. A few days later, the shipper came to deliver the goods with the condition that he could not check or test the goods. Checking the shipping address, he felt suspicious about the product. Checking the information on the internet, he discovered that there was no such "huge" promotion program. This trick has only appeared recently and many people have been fooled. Fanpages selling these types of products are also faked by new subjects. These pages have the same profile picture as the official fanpage, run ads to reach Facebook users, if you don't pay close attention, people can easily mistake it for a real promotion program.

Within more than 3 years (from October 2020 to the end of December 2023), member units of the Steering Committee against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods (Steering Committee 389) of Hai Duong province have detected, arrested and handled 35 cases in e-commerce activities. Of which, there were 10 cases of illegal transportation of prohibited and smuggled goods; 10 cases of trade fraud; 15 cases of counterfeit goods and intellectual property infringement. The total revenue paid to the state budget was more than 1.4 billion VND. The confiscated goods included 424 counterfeit branded clothes, 250 counterfeit branded hats, 132 mobile phones with a total value of more than 385 million VND.

Many difficulties and problems in management

According to the Provincial Steering Committee 389, the results achieved in the fight against and handling of violations and crimes of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in commercial activities in the province are not yet commensurate with the actual situation. The number of cases detected, arrested and handled in the past is still small, of a sporadic nature, without many large, typical cases. The situation of law violations and crimes of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in e-commerce activities is still latent, complicated, unpredictable, operating with increasingly sophisticated, diverse and cunning methods and tricks. Common infringing items include clothes, shoes, mobile phones, etc.

Many subjects use "virtual" information to create social network accounts, use "junk" SIM cards, use intermediary payment tools; do not use a fixed address for transactions, collect goods, hide them in many locations to avoid inspection by authorities. Create many social network accounts, regularly share, livestream and run advertisements, professional product photos but do not have addresses, phone numbers or general addresses. When customers ask, they only receive inbox (private messages), when discovered, the subjects crash the website or delete, remove network accounts very quickly. Information and data are immediately deleted, making verification, collection of documents, and electronic evidence difficult because social networks and applications installed to serve e-commerce transactions often have servers located abroad.

E-commerce trading floors mainly rent out online “booths”. Therefore, the products do not go to the warehouse of any trading floor. E-commerce trading floors have only recently reviewed the requirements for sellers to provide information and documents proving that the products for sale are valid, so traders of counterfeit and poor quality goods have many ways to circumvent regulations and avoid inspection and verification by authorities. Consumers’ awareness, consciousness and recognition skills are not high, they do not know how to protect their own rights and are not active in reporting violations of the law.

According to Mr. Vu Minh Hai, General Secretary of the Association for Standards and Consumer Protection of Hai Duong province, to avoid being scammed when buying online, consumers should note that they should not transfer money in advance to deposit to buy goods without knowing the seller's information. It is necessary to directly check the goods before agreeing to buy. Carefully check information such as the sales website, the origin of the goods to see if there are many complaints about this information. If you are unfortunately a victim of online sales fraud, you need to report to the authorities and post information on e-commerce forums to warn everyone...