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From the daily consulting work, three main categories emerge regarding the initiation of a contractual relationship.
a) Unsolicited contact
b) Solicited contact
c) Purchase of counterfeit goods (purchasing items of suspicious origin - reckless purchase)
d) Fraud
a) Unsolicited contact - Spam, Phishing, and Smishing, prize-winning emails
Sooner or later, every internet user encounters a rather strange message in their inbox: either claiming that they are the lucky winner of hundreds of thousands of euros or dollars (prize-winning email) or being notified that they have an outstanding payment (e.g., for an online purchase or phone expenses) (Phishing-Smishing-Mails). Naturally, this is not about a real prize but rather a scam that mainly targets gullible individuals, persuading them to pay several thousand euros with the promise of a much larger reward. In the case of an invoice, the primary objective is often to obtain a large amount of personal data from people (hence the term Phishing, derived from Personal Fishing), which criminal gangs can exploit for various purposes (data trafficking, identity theft!). Access to the data is gained through attachments and links, and unsuspecting consumers are invited to open them to get details about the alleged unpaid invoice. Especially regarding prize-winning emails, you should never react: never provide personal data and bank details, never send copies of your ID document, and, above all, never pay anything!
Even in the case of alleged open invoices, attachments and links should never be opened if the sender is not clearly identifiable and if there is indeed a debt to be paid.
b) Solicited contact - Mainly includes purchase and sale requests from consumers (especially on sales platforms and portals). In these types of offers published through online ads, certain categories of goods and services have proven to be particularly susceptible to scams and fraud: offers for vacation homes, rentals, used cars, and cell phones. In such cases, it is necessary to be particularly skeptical, avoid prepayments, and not believe the stories explaining why the item is offered at such a low price. Often, in these cases, the seller is not a company but a private individual: apart from the situation just described, in purchases from a private individual, the rights discussed in the previous paragraphs, such as the right of withdrawal and warranty, largely do not apply, as they only apply to contracts between a consumer on one side and a company on the other. This means that, in general, you cannot return the goods if you change your mind about the purchase, as you do not have the right of withdrawal. Furthermore, defects cannot be reported under the legal warranty.
Of course, in these cases, it is also more difficult to clearly identify the seller. Therefore, it is particularly important to take all necessary precautions to protect yourself as much as possible. Hence, insecure payment methods should be excluded from the beginning (see the chapter "Payment Methods"), and prepayments without any guarantee from the seller should generally be refused.
c) Purchase of counterfeit goods (purchasing items of suspicious origin - reckless purchase)
You can be held liable for purchasing or accepting products whose quality, sales method, or price suggests that regulations regarding origin, provenance, and intellectual property have been disregarded. Before making a purchase decision, the consumer can take some precautions to avoid falling victim to a scam and risking sanctions:
If the desired branded product, normally available only in authorized stores, is offered on unofficial online portals of the manufacturer, it is most likely counterfeit and illegal merchandise.
In such cases, you should refrain from purchasing since, besides receiving a lower-quality product, purchasing may have additional negative consequences:
Firstly, it may constitute the crime of receiving stolen goods if you buy products while knowing they are counterfeit or stolen goods. Therefore, if, due to the too low price, quality, sales conditions, or any other element of the transaction, you might suspect that the product comes from a crime (e.g., theft or counterfeiting) and/or is likely counterfeit, and you still purchase it, the buyer could be sentenced, in the worst case, to a prison term ranging from 2 to 8 years and fined between €516 and €10,329.
On the other hand, if you purchase items of suspicious or dubious origin simply out of negligence or recklessness, you risk a prison term of up to 6 months or a fine of at least €10 ("purchasing items of suspicious origin"). Administrative sanctions ranging from €100 to €7,000 may also apply.
d) Fraud - What to do if the seller has clearly deceived you?
If you have clearly been a victim of an online crime, you should immediately contact the police to file a report. In Italy, the postal police are particularly competent for crimes committed on the internet (https://www.commissariatodips.it/). However, even in the case of cross-border purchases, the police often cannot do much.
Since it is often futile to even file a report, as it is not possible to recover the money or identify the culprit, every online buyer should take precautions from the start to avoid such unpleasant surprises.