Scammers create fake online retailer websites and pose as famous brands. They lure the customers by showing branded apparel at very low prices.
The digital world has successfully expanded to the fullest, reaching almost every part of the world. Whether a big or small business or a company, everyone wants to be on the web to reach out to the customers and sell their products online. Legitimate online shopping websites have been a real help for shoppers and sellers to buy and sell products online. But an individual can even find scammers on these platforms; as we know, scammers are everywhere on the internet. They create fake shopping websites and scam people.
A couple was scammed by a clever website advertising cheap barbeques at $160. The scammer asked them to pay via credit card with a 2.99% fee or a direct transfer with a 5% discount. Later, the victim received an email saying that their order was cancelled and refunded due to logistic emails, but they never received the refund.
According to Cyber-Forensics.Net, a scam recovery services provider for online scams says, “These scammers use the latest technology to set up a fake retailer website to make it look like a genuine online retail store. Their websites offer low prices for luxury items like branded clothes, shoes, jewellery, or electronics. But when someone orders, they might receive a low-quality product or may not receive anything at all.”
Read More: Dada Group Releases White Paper Discussing Fulfillment For On-Demand Retail
“These scammers use the latest technology to set up a fake retailer website to make it look like a genuine online retail store.”— Timothy Benson
What Is A Fake Shopping Website?
A fraudster creates a fake shopping website to fool people and take their money. The fraudster creates a genuine-looking website of some famous brand and offers these branded products at a low price. They convince the customer to make an online payment for the product; once it is done, the customer never gets the ordered product.
Sometimes the fraudster does not imitate any other company or website but creates a new website on which the products are sold at very low prices. Similar to the previous scam, the scammer convinces the customer to make an online payment for the product, but the customer never receives the product.
According to the Federal Trade Commission(FTC), they said that consumers reported a loss of nearly $392 million due to online shopping fraud, up from $246 million in 2020.
How To Recognize A Fake Shopping Website?
It is very important to spot a fake shopping website before ordering something from it because if an individual is not careful, these websites can easily make someone lose their money. We will see some easy steps to help spot a fake shopping website.
◉ Customer reviews: This is one of the most important ways to know if the website and its products are good or bad. If the reviews are bad and include previous customer warnings, it is a fake website. On some websites, if an individual only sees new reviews that do not relate to the product, it can also mean it is fake. One should go through as many reviews to make sure they don’t get scammed.
◉ Pay before delivery: If a website asks an individual to pay via bank transfer using a credit or debit card before the product gets delivered, it is better to let it go.
◉ Check the domain name: One should check the website name, known as the URL. A legitimate brand will have a domain name based on its name. If the URL consists of random numbers or strange alphabets, that is usually a red flag.
◉ A Tiny lock icon on the top left of the URL: Always look for a tiny lock icon next to the website’s URL. Legitimate websites have this feature. If a website has this icon, it means the website is encrypted.
◉ Poor website design: A good brand or business knows the value of a professionally designed website. If the website looks bad and has less information, customers take no time to jump out of it. Individuals who come across such websites should check spelling errors, broken links, pixelated images, and grammatical errors.
Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Aaron Froberg, Senior Director of Value Acceleration at Egnyte
How To Avoid Landing In A Fake Shopping Website?
Timothy Benson, a chief analyst at Cyber-Forensics.Net, says, “Fraudsters will try to lurk innocent customers by showing them offers that are too good to be true. An individual needs to take a step back for a moment and find out why someone is offering them such a deal at such a low price. Jumping right into the offer can cost a lot to customers.”
◉ Do not click on online ads that look suspicious. This is a common way to lure people in.
◉ Be cautious if a website says they have products in stock that are sold out almost everywhere else.
◉ Do not get tempted if the price is too good to be true. It probably might be.
How Can A Fund Recovery Service Help?
Suppose an individual loses their money on a fake shopping website. In that case, they can hire a fund recovery company like Cyber-Forensics.Net that will help the victim get the lost fund back from the fraudster.
Some scammers even pretend to be fund recovery companies and execute fund recovery scams. They reach out to the victim who has lost their money online and promises them they will help get the money back but ask for fees to proceed with the process. But once the victim transfers the money, these scammers disappear, scamming the victim twice. Individuals should always seek a legitimate fund recovery company and avoid a fund recovery scam.