Watch out: These 'bargains' are scams!

This scam promises you riches beyond your wildest dreams - and gives you bricks.

They've started again. The “they” are those beguiling invites to sales where top notch leading brand electronic and other goods are apparently on sale at prices so low you simply wonder how they do it.

Keep that questioning mode at the front of your mind as we look a little closer at the invites. Forget email – this is really old school. The come-ons hit your letter box either in the form of a flyer – occasionally with a free local newspaper. They invite you to a one or two day “super value sale” at a local hall or mid-market hotel (not at The Ritz)!

And they tantalisingly hold out the chance of buying something really desirable for about the price of a packet of cigarette.

For example, for £5, these leaflets say I can buy a 32inch Sony HD television – they can be around £500 to £600 in the high street. And I can pay the same fiver for the latest laptop. And as these can run up to £800 or so, that seems an unbelievable bargain as well – even an entry level £350 model is unbelievable at just £5.

Can't run to a fiver? Well what about a Panasonic Breadmaker for £1 – these retail at around £100 (depending on the model) in normal stores – or would you fancy a Nokia smart phone for the same price? Or how about a 27 gear bike with disc brakes and full suspension for a quid as well? Unbelievable as well?

All these items are claimed to be new and in their original packaging.

Watch out!

Of course it is a rip-off, even if the advertisers claim the goods are “frustrated export orders” or “by order of the liquidator” - reasons you might think items can legitimately be sold at knock-down prices.

Now don't forget all those “unbelievables”. For the reality is that none of this stuff at those prices exists – at least not for you.

The flyers are written to add to the feeling of urgency and exclusivity by insisting that you must arrive at a fixed time and that no latecomers will be allowed admission.

If you go, what you will run into is one of the oldest scams around – the “mock auction”, a rip-off dating back a couple of centuries.

What happens is very simple. The “auctioneer” whips up an atmosphere of expectation and greed. And he sells the Sony TV for a fiver to a member of the audience who proudly undoes the brown paper parcel to reveal the set in its box. After that, some of the other desirable items go as well – at their stated prices. It looks so easy.

But these “lucky local winners” are the auctioneer's comrades in crime. The same items are used over again the “sale” moves from venue to venue.

Now that everyone's expecting a super-bargain comes the sting. Another equally anonymous box is produced and the audience is invited to bid for it. Expecting the high price electronic item, the bids go up and up – perhaps to £300 or more.

You pay. You are not allowed to open your box in front of the audience – that's part of the deal. But when you get home, you discover you've got a few cheap electronic items such as low value memory sticks or an old phone plus some bricks to give the package weight. You've been had!

Once you are out of the way, the scam operation can roll all over again – and again – for the rest of the day.

Willing victims

Tougher legislation and more action by trading standards some years ago stopped most of these mock auctions.

But you can't keep a good scam down as long as there is a ready flow of willing victims. Some scamsters have subtly changed their wording so they claim it is “legally compliant”. And trading standards, hard-pressed at the best of times, have moved on to something more urgent.

So legal or not, these sales re-emerge with the perpetrators knowing that by the time complaints filter through to the authorities, they will be miles away, using a different identity but always the same rip-off methods.

You don't need to question this more than a second to know it is unbelievable. So unless you really want to pay a few hundred pounds for a box of bricks and tat, shred that invite the moment it hits your doormat.

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