• “I surf, I check, I buy. Consumer Safe On-line” this is the motto under which UOKiK is celebrating this year’s World Consumer Day. We will be celebrating it all week long.
• Visit the website konsument.edu.pl, developed by us together with the ProPublika Foundation, and check if you can avoid the traps that lurk on-line.
• Do you have a consumer issue? Benefit from free on-line counselling provided during Facebook video chats, from 15^th to 19^th March.

Today we are celebrating the World Consumer Day. It was exactly 59 years ago on 15^th March 1962 when the US president, John F. Kennedy, formulated four basic consumer rights: the right to be informed, the right to choose, the right to safety and the right to be heard. This year UOKiK will be celebrating the WCD all week long under the motto “I surf, I check, I buy. Consumer Safe On-line”.

- This is a holiday for each of us, because we are all consumers. Every day we enter into smaller or larger purchase deals. Such a contract is, for example, buying a ticket, paying for an order from an e-shop, buying food, coffee or household appliances. We want to give a special reminder about the rights of people who buy and invest online. Due to advances in technology, as well as the coronavirus pandemic, increasingly more transactions are being made on-line, i.e. remotely. Unfortunately, scammers also take advantage of this. Therefore, throughout the week we will be demonstrating what traps and dangers lurk for consumers on the Internet and advising how to avoid them. I surf, I check and I buy safely - let this be the motto for all of us – Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK, stresses.

UOKiK, together with consumer organisations, has arranged a number of activities this week:

• A virtual simulator of on-line threats lurking for consumers: konsument.edu.pl (in Polish)
• classes in schools,
• video chats with experts on Facebook @Światowy Dzień Konsumenta, during which everybody can get counselling free of charge,
• webinar for consumer advocates.

Throughout the week, it is also worthwhile keeping an eye on Twitter @UOKiKgovPL - every day you will find a handful of tips on how to safely buy and invest on-line.

Simulator

Instant money offer, super promotion, fundraiser for a good cause? Beware, there may be scammers behind such social media ads looking to scam your money or personal information. The ProPublika Foundation, as part of the “Cyber-safe consumer - active education” project funded by UOKiK, has prepared a simulator of on-line threats lurking for consumers in a virtual world. Visit konsument.edu.pl and learn more on what situations to avoid and on tricks used by scammers.

The site resembles a social networking site where booby-trapped offers pop up among regular posts. They may turn out to be potentially hazardous situations, e.g. shopping fraud, BLIK phishing, identity theft, financial pyramid-like incentive schemes. All of us may be faced with such issues while on-line. Using the simulator, the user can safely go through the entire procedure: selection of goods, conversation with the chatbot, determining details of payment and delivery, filling in forms - the Internet user can see where potential threats are hidden, when the red light should go on and what such a transaction may end up with. Each situation features a summary where the user learns the consequences of reckless decisions, what to check to avoid becoming a victim of fraud, and where to turn if this does happen.

Classes in schools

While anyone is encouraged to use the simulator and learn through play, this device was originally developed as an educational tool for students and can be used during lessons in schools.

- The konsument.edu.pl website is built like a genuine social network and I can assure you that when you are wandering around it, you will literally forget in no time that it is an educational platform, as such is its purpose. This has happened to me several times. Here we can find a detailed analysis of the potential traps that lurk on the Internet. These include Black Friday situations, some promotional shopping spree that tempts us then and there or how to make money safely without leaving home. All of this in such a real, genuine way - says Jolanta Okuniewska, a teacher from Primary School No. 13 in Olsztyn, an Honorary Professor of Education, a finalist of many prestigious Polish and international prizes, including the Best Teacher award or Global Teacher Prize, who uses new technologies in her work with pupils. - The platform has been developed specifically for older students, although older elementary school classes will also find many useful materials there. Resources for teachers have been especially carefully and meticulously prepared. I believe that by educating our youth, we will also educate their parents and adults, because honestly, I have found a lot of useful information on this site myself. I highly recommend working on this platform.

Specifically for teachers, educators and consumer advocates, the ProPublika Foundation has designed lesson scenarios using the simulator and a tutorial (available at konsument.edu.pl). The first such lesson will be held as early as today in the Stanislaw Staszic School Complex No. 2 in Szamotuły. It will be attended by President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny and Anna Sobol, consumer advocate in Szamotuły. A webinar for consumer advocates is scheduled for Friday, March 19. Rafał Lew-Starowicz - expert in the field of innovation in education, member of the Media Education Team at the Committee on Pedagogical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the EC Working Party on Digital Literacy - will share his thoughts on the tools and methods useful in modern consumer education. We will also demonstrate how to use the simulator.

Consumer counselling

As part of the World Consumer Week, we have launched additional on-line legal counselling. This would be an opportunity to see the faces of those who are there every day to assist us with difficult consumer issues. We encourage you to ask questions, report problems, and listen to a discussion of the most interesting cases that are brought to us and how we solved them. From 15^th to 19^th March on the World Consumer Day profile on Facebook you will have a chance to get counselling by experts from:

• European Consumer Centre operating at UOKiK (cross-border issues),
• UOKiK Contact Point that provides information concerning amicable proceedings,
• Consumer Foundation, which operates a consumer hotline funded by UOKiK,
• Aquila Association providing e-mail counselling sponsored by UOKiK.

All of these institutions and organisations provide counselling to consumers by phone or email throughout the year. The contact details of these entities to be reached on a daily basis are provided at the end of this communication. In addition, you can ask for help at your district or municipal consumer advocate offices and provincial offices of the Trade Inspection Authority.

Twitter - on-line safety tips

We encourage you to follow our Twitter account for the entire week: @UOKiKgovPL. There, we will warn of the dangers lurking for consumers on-line and advise on how to avoid them and safely buy, pay or invest over the Internet. We prepared a different topic for each day:

• 16^th March - pyramid-like incentive systems,
• 17^th March - other alternative financial investments,
• 18^th March - on-line payments,
• 19^th March - on-line shopping.

Consumer support:

Phone: +48 801 440 220 or +48 22 290 89 16 – consumer helpline
E-mail: [SCODE]cG9yYWR5QGRsYWtvbnN1bWVudG93LnBs[ECODE]
Consumer advocates – in your town or district
Provincial Trade Inspection Authority Offices
European Consumer Centre: 22 55 60 600 – in cross-border issues
UOKiK contact point for ADR proceedings: 22 55 60 332, e-mail: [SCODE]a29udGFrdC5hZHJAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE]

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 246
E-mail: [SCODE]Yml1cm9wcmFzb3dlQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL