The Poco M3 is one of the most value for money smartphones you can buy for less than RM700. However, if you’re looking to buy one, be warned that there are fake online store listings on Lazada and Shopee that offer the Poco M3 at ridiculously low prices.
As highlighted previously in our PSA post, there are unscrupulous sellers that set up fake stores to prey on uninformed buyers. On both Lazada and Shopee, we could find listings of Poco M3 going for as low as RM300. That’s about 50% cheaper than the official retail price and it’s obviously not legit.
To recap, the Poco M3 is officially priced at RM599 for the 64GB version and RM699 for the 128GB storage variant. During the first day sale, the official Xiaomi Global Store on Lazada had offered a RM100 discount for limited quantities.
If you look at these suspicious sellers, they are mostly newly created with hardly any ratings. On top of that, the interaction in the Q&A tries to deny that it’s fake. Some even claim to offer wholesale prices because they “deal directly with the manufacturer in bulk”.
Like the saying goes, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. It is impossible for a newly announced device to get such a significant discount.
If you browse through the store’s listing, you’ll also find ridiculous offers for other products. As shown below, one of them is selling the Sony PlayStation 5 (Original RRP from RM1,869) for only RM800 while another seller is selling the Galaxy Z Fold 2 (Original RRP: RM7,999) for only RM2,000.
If you come across such listings, you are advised to report it to Lazada or Shopee. However, this report/feedback feature is only available on the mobile app and it’s usually placed on the top right corner.
For better peace of mind, it is recommended to buy from official stores that are certified by the platform. These are often labelled as Shopee Mall or LazMall. Or the very least, buy from a store that’s labeled “Preferred” or with extra shopping protection guarantee. Check the reviews and see if the stores are well established with good reputation.
We’ve recently covered the subject of fake online stores in our episode of Let’s Talk About. You can watch our video below:
