5 RED FLAGS OF GIFT DELIVERY SCAM
You have your best intentions in heart when you want to send gifts or flowers to Ukraine. We want you to be happy with our service, but most of all we want you to be safe.
Anybody can fall victim of an online scam. If you meet a person at online dating service or social media, you could potentially become a victim of a scam, and gift delivery scamming unfortunately could be be of a part of it.
Based on our 12+ years of practice of gifts and flower delivery in Ukraine, we came up with 5 common warning signs of scams can help you to spot trouble before it’s too late:
1. They Ask for Money Instead of a Gift
It’s not proper in Ukrainian culture to ask for money instead of receiving a romantic gift. If a person you have just started corresponding with is asking you to send her money for any reason - bad sickness, accident, remodelling, helping a friend etc. - watch out.
Sometimes when we get a new customer and make the very first call to the recipient in order to arrange the delivery, we hear a request to deliver money instead of gifts. For us it is a sign of potential trouble. This “recipient” will find a way to be unhappy with a delivery, complain and try to switch to a service which is more “flexible”.
2. They avoid of Messengers and Video chats
One of the common things about scammers is that they refuse to have chats by Skype, Whatsapp or Viber. According to them, their phones don’t support such applications, they even didn’t hear about Skype or it is too expensive to keep these applications. This should be a signal to sound the “probably not real”. Cell phone and Internet connection are pretty cheap in Ukraine, everybody, including retirees have a cell phone, or even a few of them.
3. Offline Cellphone
Sometimes we face real challenges to get in touch with the recipient by phone number you provide in your order. Their cellphones are constantly offline or switched on answering mode. What does it mean? It means that your recipient uses this phone number exclusively for scamming purposes or worse still, to hide communication with you from her husband or a boyfriend.
4. Offer to Use Another Delivery Service
One of the most common scenarios is when recipients dramatize unsatisfaction with quality of gifts delivered and ask to make next orders through a certain delivery service, that in fact is the same online dating service, they work as scammers. You place an order and your recipient receives a cash reward equal to the cost of the gift ordered. Accepting such suggestion, you walk into a trap - a perfect scheme for the cheaters. Think twice before using a shady service.
5. Delivery to the So-Called Friend
In case your gifts were delivered to the so-called friend more then few times, it is not merely a coincidence. Every person wants to receive gifts from beloved one in person. Don’t you think so? In most of cases your recipient is just a scammer having nothing in common with the person you know from the photos. Think to yourself for a moment, should you send a next gift, if this situation repeats again.
A common situation that reoccurs with scams is fantastical stories that involve illness, family tragedies or accidents that prevent in-person gift reception, absence of communication and etc. So if your dating sounds like something from a soap opera, it may be time to start asking questions and be very careful!
How can you stay safe when sending gifts by delivery service? The best thing to do is pause before sending a gift and investigate where it’s really going. If you see any of the red flags listed above, proceed with extreme caution.