It is not often that I write about consumer issues but I came across a lovely little scam the other day that took some money off me, luckily I worked it out before it was too much but it left me amazed that these businesses still exist and are not challenged by trading standards or Action Fraud. The story starts with a fake site called http://www.moneyexpert360.com where one of the writers talks about this amazing site called http://www.swoggi.com or http://www.swoggi.co.uk where you can bid for ipods and ipads etc and win at very low pricing. It does of course look too good to be true but at the same time professional and backed by Moneyexperts360 who of coursed ripped off the moneyexpert url.

So basically the site encourages you to bid but every bid will cost you 50p. The other clever feature is that the auction runs one penny at a time. So imagine trying to get to a £150 ipad – do the maths and consumers pay http://www.swoggi.co.uk thousands to get that ipad. The final twist is that people get bored of doing that and so employ the bidrobot to do the bidding for you and you set how many bids you want to do – all without realising that you are paying 50p a click.

The one line of explanation is hidden in reams of writing and frankly its hard to find and understand. Nowhere obvious does it state that you are paying with every bid, they know what they are doing and it is mis representation and as good as fraud.

Please share this blog, retweet the tweet and do anything you can to help shut down this scam site – if any of you are journos then please spread the word with your huge followers and lets stop these sites thrive on ignorance.