Would you fancy a brand new 65 inch 4K LG OLED HDR TV for RM1,547? Or a 75 inch Samsung QLED 4K TV for RM2,247? You might be in luck if you don’t mind the fact that the products are proclaimed to be from the ‘Black Market’ but is somehow approved for sale on popular e-commerce platform Lazada.
The retail prices on the above two 4K Tv’s are RM25,999 and RM35,999 respectively. However, according to the listings that are currently available on Lazada, the super cheap prices on offer are because the goods are illegal, and have not gone through any inspection, and are not subjected to taxes or duties!
But they are 100% official quality goods, without official warranty. The Lazada store in question also is willing to give a 1 year store warranty for the products.
The catch, as with all scams is that the transaction has to be concluded outside of Lazada as the goods are from the ‘Black Market’ and are most definitely illegal.
While most seasoned online shoppers would have spotted the scam from a mile away, there will still be those new to buying online which will take the bait. Also, Lazada is a proper e-commerce platform, not a auction or listing site like Mudah.my or Lelong.com.my where scammers like these usually ply their trade.
These type of scams should not be making its way to a listing on the platform, let alone be left to remain online for so long. To make things worse, there is no easy way for visitors who spot scammers like these to flag or highlight the listings to Lazada.
We have found at least two official stores running on a similar modus operandi on Lazada, one offering high end Televisions and Refrigerators, and another one offering high end gaming laptops.
This is not the first time that scammers have been able to circumvent Lazada’s approval system to get their scams on the platform. Earlier this year, cheap Apple Products found their way to the Lazada store before being taken down after we highlighted it to them.
As always, when shopping online, if a price sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. When its claimed to be illegal, and from the black market, then there should be no longer any excuse for you to deal with the seller under any circumstances.
Update [3rd December] : Lazada has responded to us, and confirmed that the said postings have been removed from their listings. The statement is reproduced in full below.
We were informed of the presence of possible black market goods on Lazada and have already removed these stores and their products from our platforms. We would like to thank members of the public who reached out and alerted us. We will continue to monitor for any further activity by unethical sellers. Should you come across similar stores while shopping, please contact our Customer Care Specialist at https://www.lazada.com.my/contact/ to help us keep you and our community of shoppers safe.
For your safety, Lazada would like to remind all shoppers that Lazada only communicates with our customers via official channels to your registered contact details: email, SMS notification service, in-app notifications and chat as well as our official social media channels. Please do not initiate conversations with sellers outside of the Lazada platform or respond to messages claiming to be from Lazada on instant messaging platforms such as Whatsapp or direct SMS. All transactions for products purchased on Lazada should be paid for using payment methods within the Lazada platform.
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