New scam

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(Bild: canva)

A housewife actually just wanted to sell her sports shoes, but that never happened. Instead, she lost a lot of money.

The "spring clean" in her private wardrobe went completely wrong for a fashion-conscious woman from the district of Oberpullendorf. Among the discarded items of clothing was a pair of sports shoes from a well-known US brand that had not been worn. In order to make room in the chest of drawers in the front room, the owner looked for potential buyers for the almost new goods on a well-known online sales platform.

The woman from Burgenland promptly received a call from a "customer". During a brief conversation, the two agreed to conduct the transaction via a common payment and shipping service. "I then received a link via text message that redirected me to my user account," reports the housewife.

Account relieved
For her, everything seemed to have gone quite smoothly. The saleswoman didn't even think anything of it when she was asked to enter her login details and PushTAN. Without hesitation, she complied with the request. But she was soon in for a rude awakening.

Instead of the hoped-for transfer of the purchase price of the first-class sports shoes, unknown perpetrators had accessed the account. In the course of two withdrawals, almost 1,600 euros were debited. Horrified, the victim filed a complaint with the police. The investigation is in full swing.

Manipulated product photos
A different kind of failure: a woman from the district of Neusiedl was misled by a fake store. She was encouraged to make a purchase by copies of fashion websites, some of which actually existed. The manipulated product images and false information made the online shopper dig deep into her pockets. The supposed delivery never arrived and the money was gone!