In Malaysia, it’s pretty easy to participate in bulk purchases for anything like computer graphic cards, Blu-Ray movies, to even clothing and bags. There are many reasons to do so, namely the product is unavailable in the country or it’s cheaper to buying in a group to qualify for a bulk discount or BOTH.

Often than not, the seller, or organizer of the bulk purchase has contacts to source/provide the items by which the price is lower than that of retail.

In any case, here’s a case where two friends who participated in purchasing in bulk Sony PSPs for half the retail price with plans to sell ’em at normal price, only to have the seller abscond with their money. Read on (article originally from The Star):

Two pals cheated in ‘clearance sale’ scam

By M. SHAMINEE

KUALA LUMPUR: Two friends who thought they could profit through an online business by buying cheap PlayStations and selling them at retail price were instead cheated.

Chay Jing Fei and Loh Chee Yuen both 24, spotted a newspaper advertisement by a Mr Liew who was selling the play stations for only RM350 per unit. The market price for such machines range between RM600 and RM700.

“When I called Liew, he said it was a stock clearance sale which was why the units were cheap,” said Chay during a press conference at the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department.

Chay said the man claimed that there were other benefits, including free delivery and 8GB memory cards priced at RM50. He ordered 40 units of the machine and five 8GB memory cards, including 10 units for Loh.

“Liew also said that for every 10 units we would get one unit free,” added Chay, who on Feb 20 banked in RM14,750 into Liew’s account. Liew, who promised to deliver the items by 5pm, did not turn up.

After efforts to contact Liew failed, the two lodged a report at the Ampang police station. Chay added that Liew had called him on March 2 asking him to settle the balance of RM7,000 failing which he would take legal action.

“When I told Liew that I had already made a police report, he said I won’t be able to harm him ” Chay said. Department head Datuk Michael Chong said online shopping had resulted in many fraud cases, and urged victims to provide him with their police reports or fax them to 03-2161 9772.

So do beware and be warned about bulk purchases on the Internet. Don’t rush in blindly just because the price offered is too good to be true (that’s a red light actually)