Shopping and EcommerceSubscription risk
Auto-Renewal
Auto-renewal is a subscription practice that charges again by default when a term ends unless the customer cancels.
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Shopping and Ecommerce Terms
Ecommerce trust definitions for fake stores, hidden fees, auto-renewal, counterfeits, and marketplace risk.
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55 published definitions in this topic.
Shopping and Ecommerce
Bait and Switch
Bait and switch advertises one attractive offer to attract customers, then pressures them toward a different, usually worse deal.
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Buy Now Pay Later Risk
Consumer risk from BNPL products, including overspending, stacked debt, and unclear late fees.
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Cancel Flow Friction
Cancel flow friction is extra steps, guilt prompts, or hidden links that make ending a subscription harder than starting it.
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Checkout Dark Pattern
Interface tricks at payment that add fees, subscriptions, or consent without clear user intent.
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Consumer Complaint
A formal or public report of dissatisfaction about a product, seller, billing practice, or service failure.
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Counterfeit Goods
Counterfeit Goods is a glossary term used when people evaluate online shopping risk.
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Counterfeit Product
A counterfeit product is an unauthorized imitation sold as if it were a genuine branded item.
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Delivery Scam
Fraud involving fake shipping notices, nonexistent packages, or fees demanded to “release” a delivery.
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Drip Pricing
Drip pricing advertises a low headline price then reveals mandatory fees late in the checkout flow.
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Dropshipping
A retail model where the seller takes orders but a third party ships products, which can raise quality and delay risks.
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Dropshipping Scam
A fake or abusive dropship store that takes payment then delivers poor, delayed, or nonexistent goods.
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Dynamic Pricing
Dynamic pricing changes offers based on demand, segment, or behavior and can feel unfair when opaque.
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Empty Box Return Fraud
Empty box return fraud ships an empty or substituted package back while claiming a legitimate return.
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Escrow Fraud
A scam that impersonates a trusted escrow service to intercept payment in peer-to-peer deals.
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Fake Online Store
A Fake Online Store is a deceptive shopfront created primarily to take payments without delivering legitimate goods or services.
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Fake Storefront
A temporary ecommerce site built to collect payments and disappear before delivery or refunds.
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Final Sale Policy
A final sale policy disallows returns on certain items and must be clear before purchase to be fair.
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Free Trial Conversion
Free trial conversion is the switch from a promotional period to paid billing, often easy to miss and hard to cancel.
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Friendly Fraud Chargeback
A friendly-fraud chargeback disputes a purchase the cardholder (or household) actually authorized.
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Gray Market Goods
Genuine products sold outside authorized channels, often without warranty or local support.
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Grey Market
Grey-market goods are authentic products sold through unauthorized channels, often with weaker warranty and support.
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Hidden Fee
A Hidden Fee is a charge not clearly disclosed upfront, revealed late in checkout, or buried in terms where shoppers are likely to miss it.
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Hijacked Listing
A hijacked listing is a marketplace product page taken over or redirected so buyers pay a different, often fraudulent seller.
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Junk Fee
A junk fee is an add-on charge that feels mandatory, poorly disclosed, or disproportionate to the service provided.
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Marketplace Authenticity Guarantee
A marketplace authenticity guarantee is a platform promise about genuine goods; coverage and exclusions vary widely.
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Marketplace Seller
A third-party merchant selling through a platform marketplace rather than the platform’s own retail inventory.
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Marketplace Seller Risk
The chance a third-party marketplace seller is fraudulent, counterfeit, or non-delivering.
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Negative Option Billing
Negative option billing charges customers unless they cancel a free trial or recurring offer in time.
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Package Tracking Scam
Phishing or fraud that uses fake tracking links or messages to steal payments or personal information.
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Personalized Pricing
Personalized pricing shows different prices to different people based on profiles or inferred willingness to pay.
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Price Anchoring
Price anchoring shows a high reference price to make a current offer feel like a bargain, sometimes deceptively.
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Price Comparison
Evaluating offers across merchants to understand relative cost, fees, and total landed price.
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Price Comparison Trap
Ads or sites that lure with low prices then switch to inferior sellers, fees, or counterfeits.
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Price Matching Policy
A price matching policy refunds or adjusts prices when competitors are cheaper under stated rules.
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Product Authenticity
Whether an item is a genuine branded good rather than a fake, replica, or unauthorized knockoff.
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Refund Dispute
A disagreement between buyer and merchant—or with a payment provider—over whether money should be returned.
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Resort Fee Style Charge
A resort-fee-style charge is a mandatory add-on presented late, after a lower headline price attracted the buyer.
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Restocking Fee
A restocking fee is a charge deducted from refunds when returned goods are processed, sometimes buried in policy text.
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Return Address Mismatch
A return address mismatch is when the ship-from or return details do not match the advertised seller identity—a common scam-store signal.
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Return Fraud
Return fraud abuses return policies through wardrobing, empty-box returns, or false claims.
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Save Offer Interstitial
A save offer interstitial interrupts cancellation with discounts designed to retain the subscriber.
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Scarcity Claim
A scarcity claim asserts limited stock or time to pressure purchase; it is trustworthy only when true and verifiable.
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Seller Impersonation
Seller impersonation copies a trusted store’s branding on marketplaces or social platforms to take payments.
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Shipping Insurance Upsell
A shipping insurance upsell adds optional coverage at checkout; value varies and pressure tactics can be dark patterns.
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Shipping Scam
Fraud involving fake tracking, never-shipped orders, or fees claimed for nonexistent delivery issues.
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Social Proof Widget
A social proof widget displays recent purchases or viewer counts that may be real, selective, or fabricated.
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Subscription Fatigue
Subscription fatigue is the overwhelm and unnoticed spend created by many overlapping auto-renewing services.
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Too-Good-To-Be-True Pricing
Too-good-to-be-true pricing is a steep discount pattern often used by fake stores to force rushed checkout.
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Total Cost
The full amount a buyer pays including base price, taxes, shipping, fees, and mandatory add-ons.
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Unauthorized Payment Descriptor
An unauthorized payment descriptor is a statement name the buyer does not recognize, often revealing middlemen or scam billing.
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Unauthorized Reseller
A seller offering branded goods without authorization, raising authenticity and warranty risk.
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Unauthorized Subscription
Unauthorized Subscription is a glossary term used when people evaluate online shopping risk.
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Wardrobing
Wardrobing is buying goods to use briefly and then returning them as if unused.
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Warranty
A seller or manufacturer promise about repair, replacement, or coverage if a product fails under stated conditions.
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