YORK, Pa. — Angela Ward of York County thought she found a great deal on a Titleist golf bag for her stepson on GolfLandPro.com.
"We were going to pay about $90 for it and the full price would be about $249," Ward said.
The price seemed reasonable. considering it was around Christmas time and plenty of companies offer sales.
"I could follow the tracking on it, which I did. And I watched every day as it went through Chicago, Harrisburg, and supposedly it came here," she told FOX43.
A big golf bag should have come in a big box, but it didn't.
Instead, it came in essentially an envelope.
"I go out to get my mail and I find this beauty that has on the tracking number that I was watching, that it contains an ornament that weighs .5 kilograms, and has a US value of $10. I got scammed," said Ward.
The golf bag she ordered, ended up being a cheap necklace you would find in a gumball machine. Luckily, Ward knew to pay with a credit card for extra protection, so she called right away to let them know it was fraud.
"I was really mad and I just felt stupid." she said. "There's got to be other people that wouldn't know to do that either or know what to do in this situation."
Ward did get an email when she placed the order. FOX43 threw that email address into Google and a lot of similar stories started to pop up. People posted on scam watchers that they ordered Christmas lights or a tennis table and all of them got a cheap necklace instead.
FOX43 Finds Out also reached out to Titleist and they confirmed GolfLandPro.com is not an authorized retailer for the brand.
Why would the scammers send a cheap necklace?
John Breyault, VP of Public Policy Telecommunications and Fraud with the National Consumers League says it's harder to dispute merchandise fraud with a credit card company when there's a tracking number and delivery.
"What the scammers are banking on is that a certain percentage of people who receive these necklaces will give up," he said. "They won't complain or if they do complain the credit card company will say 'Oh we have a tracking number and it was delivered to you' They will just throw up their hands, it's $90 lost, lesson learned."
Ward did fight back and won. She documented everything and her credit card company determined it was fraud. She ended up getting her money back, although she still does need a golf bag.
Experts say the only way to stop this fraud is to report it to the police and complain to the credit card company because even if you don't fall for a scam you're still a victim. How? Well, these banks lose money in the process and how do they recoup that? They increase our interest rates.
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