Buen Fin Opens Friday in Quintana Roo With High Hopes and Fraud Warnings

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Hundreds of businesses across Quintana Roo will take part in this year’s El Buen Fin, prompting Mexico’s consumer financial watchdog to urge shoppers to avoid unnecessary spending and guard against fraud during the five-day sales event, which runs from Friday, November 13, through Tuesday, November 17.

The National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services (Condusef) said the most common problems reported during the discount weekend are unrecognized card charges and online scams. It advised consumers to review their account statements regularly and to be suspicious of offers priced at illogically low levels.

Karina Sandoval García, Condusef’s representative in Quintana Roo, warned that fraudulent text messages are reaching a large share of the Mexican population.

“Be very alert to fake messages arriving on our mobile devices. Unfortunately, this fraud situation, this new modality through text messages, is covering a large part of the population of Mexico. You have to be alert to these fake messages that supposedly notify you about unrecognized transactions on your account, or even messages supposedly from the SAT saying deposits of more than 50,000 pesos have been detected in your account and inviting you to click a link to clear things up,” she said.

Rafael Ortega Ramírez, spokesman for the Cancún Chamber of Commerce, said local retailers expect a moderate performance this year because of inflation. An estimated three out of every 10 purchases will be made online, he added, and shoppers were urged to check that retail sites display security certificates.

“There have been many price increases on products of all kinds — clothing, footwear, appliances, electronics, everything — so obviously purchasing power is not the same, and that is where people turn to the famous credit cards, with many promotions offering months without interest on top of the discount. All of that is acceptable, it is good, as long as consumers ask themselves two or three little questions: Do I really need this product? Will I be able to pay for it? How will this affect my finances in the months to come?” Ortega said.

In Cancún, 527 businesses have registered for the program, about 10 percent more than last year. Most sell clothing, footwear or mobile phone services. Formal registration also makes them eligible for the SAT’s tax raffle, which will hand out 500 million pesos in prizes.