Question stellar online deals

Want to pay half price for that baby formula? Nearly nothing for those diabetic test strips? Need some cheap diet pills? Online auctions, stores and regular Joe entrepreneurs are ready to sell them to you.

But watch out for those great cyber-deals. Stolen stuff — from pain medication and baby formula to weight loss pills and pregnancy tests — pops up constantly on online auction sites and other cyber sales spots.

eBay has taken note and posts a police blotter every six weeks showing who has been nabbed for selling illegal stuff.

Besides the fact that the merchandise is stolen, goods from unauthorized sellers might be expired or not stored properly.

Retailers lose billions of dollars a year in stolen merchandise, much of it resold online or in flea markets and pawn shops, according to the National Retail Federation, which calls itself the world’s largest retail trade group. And, as American pocketbooks continue to tighten, shoplifting has blossomed into a giant business for individual amateurs and sophisticated gangs of thieves.

“The criminal enterprises have really taken advantage of the poor economy and they recognize there are lots of sales to be had,” said Joe LaRocca, NRF’s senior asset protection adviser. He said recent NRF statistics show 92 percent of stores have been victims of retail theft and 73 percent say it’s getting worse.

To complicate matters, cyber street-corner shops have popped up all over the Internet, either as stand-alone sites or under the large umbrellas of eBay, Craigslist and Amazon.com. The deals are everywhere.

Random clicks this past week on eBay showed, for instance, dozens of listings for Alli weight loss pills. The popular over-the-counter pills sell for about $65 for a bottle of 120 at Walgreen’s, but a 120-count refill bottle can be bought on eBay for as little as $38 in some “buy now” sales and as little as $20 in auctions. A grouping of 25 bottles sold recently for $1,150, or $46 individually.

On Craigslist, three separate listings out of Kennesaw with fairly similar posts, show cases of 12 cans of Similac Advance powder baby formula going for $100 each. In a bricks-and-mortar store, the same amount can be $180. Another seller in Dahlonega was selling 50-count boxes of Freestyle Lite diabetic test strips for $15 and $20 a box. They retail at Walgreen’s for $69.99.

How do you determine what’s a good deal and what’s too good to be true?

LaRocca suggests, especially with consumable products, asking questions about quality, expiration dates and how items are stored.

“Know who you are doing business with,” he said. “The same as you would do in other stores you shop, check out the seller online.”

The NRF is pushing legislation in Congress to hold cyber sites civilly or criminally responsible for any stolen goods sold by third parties through their portals. Three bills are in the House and one is in the Senate.

Locally, police departments in Atlanta and across the country work with online tools and through databases of second-hand goods, like Leads Online, to check what merchandise might be popping up in makeshift stores and online sales.

“The Atlanta Police Department does combat the sale of stolen items online,” spokesman Eric Scwartz said. “We track the sale of the stolen goods and also monitor who attempts to sell the stolen items.”

The proposed federal legislation has created a passionate debate between Internet auction companies and bricks-and-mortar retailers. Some online merchants say the NRF is trying to scuttle online competition. The NRF counters that it is concerned about the billions of dollars in losses for its members, which includes the Web shopping association shop.org.

Putting the bickering aside, this past week, the NRF and eBay forged an agreement to work together to nab criminals who are fencing stolen merchandise. The pact is intended to improve the flow of information between traditional retailers and the online auction giant.

“Retailers cannot fight this problem alone,” eBay’s Paul Jones, global director of asset protection, said in a statement. “Through this partnership, NRF and eBay are putting criminals on notice that they will no longer be able to steal from retailers and abuse the online marketplace for profit.”

Both parties to the agreement see it as a solid step.

“The only way we are going to successfully fight organized retail crime, fraud in retail and online market places is to work together jointly and bring in law enforcement in going after these criminal offenders,” LaRocca said.

Things to check

Tips to help ferret out whether you're getting a good deal or a raw deal:

• Illegal CDs and DVDs are big sellers online. If sellers are offering more than one copy, or have had other auctions for the same item, ask questions. Is this a copy or an original? If it's a copy, stay away.

• Buy products, especially those your safety depends on, from reputable retailers.

• Do some research. Be wary of large lots of never-been-opened merchandise selling for a fraction of the cost of a bricks-and-mortar store.

• Check manufacturers' Web sites for authorized sellers.

• Check sellers' ratings, provided on many Web sites, before you buy. Read feedback.

Check our sources

• eBay's security center

• LeadsOnline is a nationwide database of secondhand goods used by law enforcement to track stolen merchandise:

• Craigslist

• NRF's retail blog

Buyer beware

Crime investigators from the nation's largest retailers say these are the most popular health and beauty products stolen and resold:

• Braun toothbrushes & replacement heads

• Bumble and Bumble products

• Cover Girl cosmetics

• Crest Whitestrips

• Diabetic testing strips

• e.p.t. pregnancy tests

• Gillette Fusion razors and replacement cartridges

• Gillette MACH3, Venus and Sensor razors and refill cartridges

• Matrix hair care products

• Oil of Olay products

• Oral B toothbrush replacement heads

• Pureology hair care products

• RoC skin care products

• Rogaine

• Similac baby formula

• Schick Quattro razors and all Schick refill cartridges

• Sonicare toothbrush replacement heads

• Visine eye drops

And these drugs:

• Abreva

• Advil

• Aleve

• Alli weight loss pills

• Benadryl

• Claritin

• Lotrimin

• Nicorette

• Pepcid AC

• Prilosec

• Primatene

• Sudafed