In April, the Swedish Consumer Agency began an extensive review of ten online stores that are considered to be misleading customers.
The number of reports to the authority has increased significantly recently and in several cases other companies have also been involved in disputes where misleading companies do not compensate customers after losing or not receiving goods in return shipments.
This has resulted in the number of notifications to the General Complaints Board (ARN) has increased. Since 2021, 12,604 more notifications have been received, from 19,699 in 2021 to a whopping 32,303 notifications in 2023.
How you are deceived by scam sites: “Criminal groups”
The number of notifications to ARN has increased in the last three years. Photo: Oscar Olsson/TTKlarna pays back several million to customers
One company that has come under the spotlight is Klarna, which was reported by a number of consumers to ARN. The reason is that the companies that the Swedish Consumer Agency both warned about and initiated investigations against, in one way or another, offered customers to pay via Klarna.
Now, however, Klarna has announced that it intends to refund money to thousands of customers for purchases made via the scam sites and where Klarna figured as a payment option. And the total amounts to several million kroner.
– We have identified approximately 5,000 purchases that will be refunded, says Klarna’s press officer Joel Hedin in an interview with News24.
Are you one of 5,000 customers who get money back from Klarna?
This is how the scam sites must be stopped
In addition to paying back customers the money they paid to the scam sites, the Swedish company has also drawn up an action plan for how to better protect Swedish consumers.
An information message will be visible to consumers who shop in stores connected to Klarna, and who have either not been verified by Klarna, have an increasing number of complaints or where the product quality could not be confirmed.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski about the multimillion-dollar salary: “I don’t set it”
Klarna has now drawn up an action plan to prevent scam sites from offering the service. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TTKlarna: This is how we try to access the scam pages
After a previous review of Today’s industry chose one of the scam sites to re-emerge with a different name, in order to bypass the interrupted collaboration with Klarna and continue to be able to offer the payment solution.
But what do the opportunities really look like for these scam sites to start collaborations with Klarna despite the broken collaboration?
According to Joel Hedin, an interrupted collaboration is precisely an interrupted collaboration and the sides are then not wanted. He believes that the work is constantly ongoing to get access to those you do not want to have anything to do with.
– If merchants misbehave, we act immediately and turn off the possibility of taking payment with Klarna. Scam sites that have been suspended by Klarna know that they are unwanted, but we unfortunately see that such actors try by all means to find loopholes to gain access to Klarna again, he says and adds:
– We are currently working intensively on strengthening processes and routines so that this cannot happen.
10 Online Stores That Mislead Customers Examined: ‘Flaws’