UPDATE: Hi all, we’re revisiting this topic as the end of year sales approach, to see if scammers are pivoting to exploit the bargain season.So, let us know if you’ve seen any suspicious shopping sites trying to get your attention by promising Black Friday or other end of year sales deals. Thanks!
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Hi everyone - have you had an experience with a fake shopping website?
Recently, several major retailers have warned users of scam websites impersonating their brand and taking the money of customers trying to order items online.
These impersonator sites are often close copies of the legitimate originals, with similar images, branding and layout.
I’m working on an article giving readers tips on how to spot these imposter pages and would like to include insights and advice from people who’ve come face-to-face with one of these sites.
Did you buy something from a site that looked real, but then realised it was a scam? Or did you almost go through with a transaction, but something set off your suspicions? What advice would you give to others?
The old expression, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, is the maxim to apply.
The scam ads where I’ve all but gone to the end of the transaction, have usually followed a search for products - eg exercise pants. 70% off a well known brand is rarely going to happen.
One that sucked me in was spot on what I needed. It was utterly convincing, even had the size guide attached to each product. I got busy with the tape measure, and put a few things in the baskets.
I was at the check out, had put in my bank card details, clicked, but it failed. It was only when I did it all over again some small Asian characters appeared at the bottom of the screen. I backtracked out of there, rang my bank and cancelled that card. I felt stupid - but it was an utterly professional presentation. Phew.
Very similar happen to me with a site R M.Williams shoes and leather. Short after ordering, I thought someting is wrong. I canceled the order, informed the bank and send a copy of the address bar to R.M. Williams
I check the domain address, watching out for substitute characters, like 1 for I. The most recent attempt was supposedly from Microsoft, except the domain address showed micosoft.com.au, missing out the r. These sites can be deceptively identical to genuine sites, so you have to be vigilant.
I nearly got caught buying Chaco sandals from a fake website. The site looked totally authentic. 70% off everything was tempting (yep, too good to be true) but at the last minute I noticed that site address was something like ChacosAustralia (they had added an s).
I had a very bad experience buying a iPhone from the online grey market. It was refurbished but it didn’t say that when i bought it. The warranty was useless. There was a POBox address in Sydney but they operated from Hong Kong. Now I don’t buy anything expensive online as the websites are made to look like Australian site.
Yes, I got bit by a scam site about a year ago. In the scheme of things I was pretty new to the online shopping experience as I’d only had “tech” a couple of years. I had bought a few bits and pieces from the shein website and had no issues. Then when I was online one day playing a game, the shein logo popped up with a fantastic sale on women’s summer clothing. The logo looked EXACTLY the same and I thought the “to good to be true” prices were because it was summer ending overseas (idiot). So I ordered about $70 worth of clothes, praising myself on the updated summer clothes I’d have for our next summer. The next day I went to look into my account for some reason and noticed about $120 that was pending payment, it was from “shein” so I phoned a friend to ask how they could charge me more for clothes than was advertised. Being a shein customer herself she said they wouldn’t and asked where on the site I’d seen the sale items.
Long story short, if an ad “pops up” while you’re online, it could be fake and in my case was. I called my bank and about a week later I got my money back. After that when thinking I was an idot I remembered when I was buying the cheap clothes that it was weird the people wearing the outfits had thier heads chopped off, something that wasn’t the case on the real website. Other than that (oh and the to good to be true prices) the logo and website looked exactly the same. So that was my introduction to scam sites and phishing (something I previously thought you did at the beach or a lake).
You live and you learn, to only look at sales that are through your email on sites that you shop on.
As one poster said, “if its too good to be true, its too good to be true.”
Even knowing that, I ordered a mini computer online from a pop up. It was selling so cheaply that I could afford to lose the money.
The transaction went through, tracking number sent through, tracked the item - and I was delivered a christmas hat (what)
When I placed the order I made sure I used a payment method that would protect me (in this case a credit card with a reputable bank)
I complained to the delivery agent, I complained to the seller and complained to my bank.
I got my money back
Not all stories end this way though
All looked OK but at the checkout having specified paypal as the method of payment things went weird. The computer knows our paypal account and usually it recognises it, in this case an entirely different name came up. I don’t use paypal to transfer money but it looks like if I continued I would be transferring money to the named person, or an account of that name anyway. I said; time to quit and don’t use a card instead either. Then I went searching.
The web site has no phone or email contact but claims to be at a shopping centre in SA, Gepps X Home. There is a toy store there but it is Toy World not this one. This site has no obvious name but mentions “Toy” using the coloured font that Toy World uses. The main page includes no banner or announcement of who they are and for no apparent reason has some Chinese characters, why would that be?
The website is said to be registered to Robyn Hood Pty Ltd which is a real company with an ABN from Vic, note the spelling variation. Note also that any searching for “robin hood” by either spelling will be polluted by a zillion hits to do with the action hero or the company that makes range hoods of the same name, which makes checking more difficult. As far as I can tell there is no company called Robin Hood Orange or any toy store at Orange called Robin Hood. Why would you register a web site that has nothing to do with your business?
The text in the T&C and Delivery details is boiler plate used by many other web sites. They are registered through the agency GoDaddy in the USA which seems to be very popular with dodgy sites and for all I know supplies the boiler plate.
According to many reports on Trustpilot and Productreview it is a scam. They provide no contact, no tracking, the goods arrive late (or never) or the goods are cheap imitations not what was ordered. Some say they tried to use paypal but instead of the usual pay a merchant screen they got a transfer screen. Apparently there is no refund on spurious transfer transactions from paypal. This seems to be the screen we saw.
I don’t have a live fraud to report as I pulled out before that happened so I cannot say here (or to Scamwatch) that they are certainly fraudulent but I am not going near them and with Christmas coming I recommend those buying toys do the same.
I reckon somewhere in China there is bloke wetting himself with mirth at the web site that enables him to steal from the rich and give to the poor.
Very interesting - do you remember what toy your partner was trying to buy? And what attracted them to that site - was the price really good or was the site adverstised on a search engine?
I don’t recall the toy but it is hard to get, we have been looking for a while, I can find out if it is important. The site is superficially well made and says it has a lot of stock including well known brands like Disney. It did come up in Google but not at the top of the list and the price was quite good but not ridiculous.
Hi everyone - we’re revisiting this topic as the end of year sales approach. So, get in touch below if you’re seeing any suspect shopping sites that are using Black Friday or other end of year sales to hook in users. Thanks!
