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Fake online shops

By the Scampilot team · Last updated

A professional-looking web shop offers branded goods at unbeatable prices, but only accepts prepayment by bank transfer. The shop is a copy-paste facade on a freshly registered domain with fake trust seals and a missing or stolen legal notice - after you pay, nothing is shipped and the site disappears.

Warning signs

  • Prices far below every other shop for in-demand branded goods.
  • Bank transfer (prepayment) is the only payment method that actually works at checkout.
  • No legal notice (Impressum), or one copied from an unrelated real company.
  • A very young domain that does not match the shop name or brand.
  • Trust seals that are just images and not clickable to a verification page.

Example

Closing down sale - everything must go! Premium sneakers up to 80% off, only today. Pay by bank transfer only to secure your order: hxxp://sneaker-outlet-sale.shop

Made-up example - not a real message.

How to protect yourself

  1. 01Check unknown shops with the Verbraucherzentrale Fakeshop-Finder before ordering.
  2. 02Prefer payment methods with buyer protection; never pay an unknown shop by prepaid bank transfer.
  3. 03Verify the legal notice: a real company name, address and register number you can look up.
  4. 04Be sceptical when a scarce product is suddenly cheap and "in stock" everywhere else is sold out.

Already caught out?

  1. 01Contact your bank immediately and try to recall the transfer.
  2. 02Keep order confirmation and screenshots, and file a police report.
  3. 03Report the shop to the Verbraucherzentrale so others are warned.

Sources

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