Buying for a Loved One this Valentine’s Day? Don’t Support a Dishonest Business

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and many Wisconsin consumers plan to give that special someone a gift for the occasion. Online shopping options are more popular than ever, and make it easy to place time-sensitive delivery orders with a local business such as flowers, food products, and more. However, some of these businesses only pretend to be local.

Some companies misrepresent their physical location to solicit business in that area. They often make money by charging consumers more, placing an order with an actual local business on the consumers’ behalf, then pocketing the difference. This increases costs for consumers and makes it difficult for them to contact the real business if they need to cancel or make changes to their order, or if there are issues with the quality of a product. In addition, if there are issues the consumer needs to follow-up on, the business is not actually local like they thought when they selected the company.

Scammers might even outright impersonate a real local business, then use the same method or simply steal the money and never deliver the product at all.

To confirm if a business is legitimately local and trustworthy, consumers can:

· Run an internet search for the business to find local reviews, check if multiple websites are listed for it (which could be a red flag for an imposter scam), and to verify if the location is where it claims to be.

· Contact the business to ask about their hours of operation, product selections, delivery details, and other relevant information. If the business cannot provide answers to these or answers with a generic phrase, like “flower shop” instead of their real name, consider finding another business.

· Ask about any subcontractors who will fulfill the order or complete the work.