: Christmas 2010 Shopping Scams to be Aware of

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(487 Words)
Unfortunately during Christmas there are many different shopping scams that you will come across. Some of these are even legal but are clearly meant to confuse the person or convince them to spend more money in a bad way. The more you are aware of these scams, the less you will be taken in while doing your 2010 Christmas shopping.
Advertised deal that isn’t in the store
When you look at the ads near Christmas you might be amazed by some of the deals. They may seem too good to be true, and in some cases they are because you cannot even get them at the store. There are some stores that have advertised items but only have one or absolutely none. They may have hundreds of customers competing for the one item. When you go to the store you will instead see many options that cost quite a bit more. When you ask about that item you will simply get the response that it was sold out, but it might not have even been there in the first place. Some stores are much worse than others at this, and you will often see people complaining online about it.
Offer rebates on an item, but then have a different item in its place
Some stores will offer rebates on certain items, but in order to get it you usually have to get that exact one. They may have very similar items near it , and you may mistakenly take an item that does not have a rebate. You might not even realize it until you try to put it through. Also, some stores will not fulfill rebates as they promise. They may find bogus excuses to deny them.
Misleading ads
Many people get caught into scams because of very misleading ads. For instance, during Christmas you may see an ad that you can buy or lease a car for $99 a month. However, when you read the fine print (which is so small that a lot of people will probably not be able to distinguish) you see that it is that price for the first three months and then you pay 57 months at a price that might be three times greater. A lot of people consider these scams.
Online scams
A lot of people choose to do their Christmas shopping online, and there are many different scams to be aware of. There are some companies that will steal your credit card for instance. If you buy from a website such as www.ebay.com, you want to make sure that you protect yourself because sometimes people take money for an item they have no intention of shipping. They may misrepresent something as real that is actually fake like a designer purse.
When doing your 2010 Christmas shopping, you want to be aware of the potential scams to help avoid them. The above scams are some of the common ones.