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Facemasks and other types of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been in high demand since the COVID pandemic began. Many people have flocked to online retailers to place orders. According to the FTC, some people have paid money and waited, and waited, and waited.

By law, sellers are supposed to ship your order within the time stated in their ads, or within 30 days if the ads don’t give a time. If a seller can’t ship within the promised time, it has to give you a revised shipping date and the chance to cancel your order for a full refund or accept the new shipping date.

But not all sellers play by the rules. Case in point: The FTC alleges that SuperGoodDeals advertised next day shipping on its website, but failed to hold up their end of the deal. Not only did the company fail to change its shipping promise of “Buy Today, Ships Tomorrow,” and follow the procedures required by the FTC’s Mail Order Rule, the agency also alleges the company advertised some items as “authentic,” “certified,” or being of a certain quality or specific brand but were actually counterfeits.

Before you order from an unfamiliar online store, consider these tips to help avoid a scam:

  • Check out the company or product by typing its name in a search engine with terms like “review,” “complaint,” or “scam.” See what other people say about it. Read the seller's description of the product carefully. If the seller has name-brand goods at steeply discounted prices, they might be fakes.
  • Look at the terms of the sale. Calculate the total purchase price, including taxes, shipping, and handling. Find out when you can expect your delivery. If you have to return the item, can you get a refund? Who pays for return shipping? Is there a restocking fee?
  • Pay by credit card. You’ll get protections under federal law, so you don’t have to pay for merchandise you ordered but didn’t get. If a business charged your account too soon, and didn’t deliver the merchandise on time, you can dispute the billing error and report it to your credit card company.

If you have a problem with an online purchase, try to work it out with the seller, but remember: you have the right to dispute a billing error directly with your credit card issuer. And if you suspect a scam, report it at ftc.gov/complaint. To learn more about avoiding Coronavirus-related scams, visit ftc.gov/coronavirus.

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

Judy
July 08, 2020
So what are you doing about it?
FTC Staff
July 09, 2020

In reply to by Judy

Follow the link in the blog to read the press release announcing the FTC charging an online marketer in federal court with falsely promising consumers next-day shipping of facemasks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York concurrently brought a criminal case against Mr. Lipsitz alleging that he engaged in price gouging and mail and wire fraud.

Jenna
July 10, 2020
I made a purchase on PayPal. Returned it for exchange on June 15th, 2020. Vendor continued to say it was not received back as yet. I called multiple times. I filed dispute with PayPal,- who asked for receipt for return etc.,- but they want to upload it from my computer files,- not receive it from e-mail. I was advised that this is a security risk. I offered to send it by e-mail. They denied my case for a refund....don't know what to do.