Hi everyone - have you seen any recent dodgy copies of major retailer websites?
We’re looking at this type of scam again, to see what examples are currently out in the wild. Our previous investigations have uncovered evidence of criminals building copies of the Peter Alexander and Kathmandu websites in order to steal money and information.
So have you recently come across any suspicious web pages claiming to be a famous brand? What made you think they weren’t right?
This provides some background into how bad it has become.
Its not hard to get scammed, even if you are on guard… I’ve been done twice. Should have known.
This may be the same group; certainly the tactics and objectives are similar. This article refers to the group as BogusBazaar, a term not mentioned in the Guardian article.
Ex-president wanting to be president again
Charismatic guru of a new religion
Tall basketballer giving endorsements for overpriced shoes
Actor and media personality with magical products
Dior, Nike, Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Versace and Prada
Industrial scale internet scam organisation
What have they all go in common?
They all want your attention, your belief and your money (usually in that order) in exchange for an idea transmitted cheaply via modern media. The shoes, the clothes and the gadgets are sold too but they are not the real products.
Faith moves mountains but if you can monetarise it you can sell it again and again with no cost of earthmoving equipment.
We give these people power over us again and again. Why?
Because we want their idea and will abandon reason to have it.
Certainly Facebook has has ads for Blue Illusion and others that apparently lead to fake websites. The genuine company has sent out emails to customers.
Got caught once on Facebook buying a leather bag. My bank called, they had queried the purchase/ business and prevented payment. I ordered a new card because of the identity issues. And the same bag was on sale on ebay for a fraction of the price although I did not purchase. From now on if I’m tempted I do a search for the business online and check goods and prices.
Harvey Norman were selling laptop computers for $3. Advertising them on Facebook. Even getting positive comments. The bad news is that they were all fake. Facebook took down the sites. But sometimes this took several weeks.
More information here Pardon Our Interruption or google Harvey Norman scams
Scam ads on facebook alllll the time. Things like electric cars for $59, mobility scooters for 49 etc. Madness. I suppose some people get caught. FB is the absolute worst for scam ads. I never follow them so no idea about the actual site.
Not being scammed relies substantially on us consumers/users being always able to recognise the risks. Some are more vulnerable than others.
Look at Domestika!
I have bought creative courses for a few years, suddenly hit with a yearly subscription which paypal will not refund. I did not see this in my basket when i ordered, did notclick anything but obviously did not unclick some hidden tickbox.
Impossible to unsubscribe. Impossible to contact. Its $99 US so not a small amount but not huge either.More information on the facebook page Domestika scam. Its a long convoluted tale of trying to get my money back!
Paypal is not your friend!!
It does sound dodgy, and as you have indicated, may have been something to opt out of during the purchase process.
Their website indicates that canceling subscription is possible:
You might have seen that Domistika Plus could be trialed for free, not realising the free period is very short (30 days) and then they automatically charge your card with a full annual subscription. It is worth noting that not taking out the ‘free’ offer, one could have subscribed month by month.
With the current subscription payment, it may be difficult to get a refund unless you can somehow prove that you didn’t subscribe to it. It you can’t prove you didn’t subscribe, it will be seen as a change of mind. In the case of their Domestika Plus subscription, there isn’t any cooling off period and subscriptions are non-refundable. Automatically paying an annual subscription after 30 ‘free’ days smells of making money…otherwise the automatic subscription would be month by month.
I never, EVER, purchase any product accessed via a Facebook advertisement. Nobody should. When people start ignoring the legitimate business advertisements they will cease to use Facebook unless and until Facebook does the RIGHT thing and uses due diligence before permitting advertisements on their product. Remember, Facebook makes billions out of advertising, INCLUDING the fraudulent ones. In effect, Facebook profits from their crimes. They must be made to change their operational procedures, including taking responsibility for crimes committed using their software.
Norton has released an update of its Android app with specific protection against fake online store URLs:
The update has only been received at our end today, so haven’t been able to test it out. It would be interesting to know how the engine behind how it finds online store URLs as being suspicious.
Likewise those who setup these scam online stores so they can find a way around Norton. 
I e had to cancel one credit card completely, replace two twice because I was hacked. Never ever make a credit card purchase over the phone. Pay Pal is pretty secure I believe, but what’s this new pay tv bundling all about? I subscribe to Apple TV. NOw I’m offered Apple One but no body’s offered to refund my Apple subscription yet. Equally Amazon Prime seems to be offering bundles covering
On the topic of businesses behaving badly, does anyone know more about the complaints trends that some states’ fair trading bodies are apparently making public?
The Consumer Policy Research Centre report it refers to isn’t linked, but easily found at Am I The Only One - CPRC (PDF, 61 pages).
Scammers are rampant on the Google sponsored pages in Australia. Please take note.
A clothing website called Armoire Melbourne advertise cashmere jumpers or wool jumpers and when you receive them they are just polyester. Not only they lie in their website but also when asked by email before they ship the product. Items are not cheap so that is one way they entice customers. But the main point is their use of Australian cities in their company name so there is Armoire Melbourne, But also found similar products and modus operandi at websites Ardor Sydney, Mills Melbourne, Ami-Melbourne, etc. You do a Google search as “wool jumper” and you will find these scammers among honest companies. They use Australia Post to send their items so that is another way they entice people. It arrives from an address in NSW. Their returns and exchanges policy is a joke, they ask to contact them by email and then they send you a standard response about returning the items to them and that it has to be paid by the customer using the method of their choice. But they don’t even put an address!. And when they give you an address it is an obscure address in China. Out of curiosity I have tried to find that place and I reckon it doesn’t exist. They claim to reimburse the return cots but give no details of how they will do that. Total scam.
I feel they are going to stunk a lot of people because they are using Google, Australia Post and with all those websites using Australian cities, so it is easy to get sucked. I have written to ACCC and even Australia Post, also report it to Google, which they probably ignore because they just want their advertising money.
How easy is to scam people in Australia.
Welcome to the community @Sue77
Did you do any research on the business before you ordered? Warning signs that it may not be a legitimate operation include:
It is great that you have written to the ACCC, but they do not act on single reports; they just collate complaints and appear to only be willing to act when there is an overwhelming number AND IF there is a good likelyhood that the offending business will co-operate with the ACCC.
Australia Post are merely the parcel messenger, and will not want to become involved in your dispute.
Google appears to be immune to complaints from individuals and will more than likely not respond to your complaint. The other large social media platforms are just as complicit in delivering scam advertisements, and are also innured to complaints.
The moral of the story is to do your research before commiting your money.
