Cath Kidston Sale - Too good to be true?

[theothersideofmidnight]

I came across an advert for CK on Facebook, and clicked the link to find this.

A search on Google led me to the same, eventually, but not by any stretch as the first hit as one might expect of a brand name. Surely it's too good to be true?
https://www.cathkidstonuk.com/collections/best-sellers?page=3

Used my virgin credit card, was not going to use any other way to pay, at least they will sort out any problems 🙂

Seriously? It is fake. It is a scam website.

It is definitely a scam - I was caught :-(. But fortunately my credit card knew about it. However the system has all my details - except for the replacement card which has just arrived….

Both the fake Cath Kidston site and a Joules one which also looks suspicious (www.joulesuks.com) are on Facebook marketplace.

I can believe people are happily clicking on fake websites. Because "cheap" is all that matters. Bank fraud - meh, deal with it later. Organised criminal gangs - not my problem. Sweat shops and slave labour being used to make fake stuff in China to ship to the UK - but it's cheap!

What's that old saying about a fool and their money being easily parted?

Even though the underlying chargeback codes can be different, that's an implementation detail: frauds and scams are handled the same way from the point of view of the cardholder.

Moreover, this is not just a "dodgy website" selling "counterfeit" goods, it is an individual or a gang impersonating a business, which fits the legal definition of fraud.

Assume people here encouraging to transact with this website, and confirming the receipt of non existent goods, as working with the criminals. Criminals are likely to be operating here right now.

Readers of this post, meet the scammer.

@Foofoo1 you don't need to explain it to me I know how they work however the bank will deal with it differently due to the circumstances surrounding the fraud or scam depending on the situation.

At the moment most retail disputes processes cover customers that have fallen victim to these types of sites for the most part. And in any case even with fraud it is not refunded until it debits the account. Otherwise on the other side you have scammers claiming transactions are fraud when it's not and businesses losing out due to pending trans being cancelled.

Unfortunately for counterfeit goods and shopping site scams some people don't care about all of that and continue to insist on using which impacts genuine consumers that have fallen victim to the sites unknowingly. The other poster may well be a scammer but there is still several people that continue with these purchases despite all the warning signs and after being told it's a scam.

Best thing to do is raise through not only your bank but action fraud as well.

www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/online-shopping-fraud

I can't understand why anyone would willingly buy from.a fake site like this? Its not taking a risk from somewhere like Temu. It's garenteed fake.

There is a phase in most of these scams where the criminals write comments on threads like this one to encourage people to transact, and this is likely to intensify in the next weeks - so you'll see more messages like "I made an order, it took 2 weeks but finally it came to my door! I kinda doubted it but it's fine actually."

The most cruel phase is when other scammers, or indeed the same scammers, offer victims solutions to get their money back which are just ways to get even more money from them.

Make no mistakes: the scammers read these posts and adapt their strategy continuously. It's their literal job.

After all, a sucker is born every minute.

Exactly, no one signs up or name changes to post on a thread like this without reason

They got my Mum sadly. She spent £50 but Halifax won't do anything until 15 days have passed as she authorised the payment. Does that sound right? We've cancelled her card.

I didn't realise @User15387500 I though you've either got more more money then sence, in which case just log onto Next or your a terminal fuckwit. Hadn't considered scammers.

It's like women sending money to their African Prince. On the bones of your arse but it's worth £5000 shot if it get closer to his millions which possibly is explained by greed as well.

Hi I’ve had a £3 refund from the scammer ?? ( £60 was taken ) Nat west have put the £57 back on my card hardly any apology but you are covered as no one will get the goods

Hi

yes it is a scam. I was a victim of it. I should know really. I’ve been scammed before

Though I could cancel my card; I couldn’t cancel my home and email addresses. I continue to get reminders to complete my order - which I send to [email protected]…
I see that Facebook marketplace are now putting (general) warnings about fraud on their page - but still sell space to fraudsters?

Yes. And I found no way to report a scam ad unless you're literally seeing it in that very moment and so you can click on "report this ad".
Also notoriously Facebook/Instagram/etc. have no customer support whatsoever.

So in summary:

1. Scammers, probably located safely overseas, create a phishing website selling non existent goods
2. They advertise it on a platform which operates mostly on autopilot, so they just run the scam ads for months
3. Tens of thousands of customers take the bait in the first few days: the phishing website is relatively plausible and we are always too much in a hurry to notice small details
4. Some customers figure out it is a scam, they start asking for chargebacks, but the likes of Natwest and Revolut all the way to Visa and any other entity in the chain are all complete idiots who can't or won't open a website, they start an "investigation" instead of banning the fake merchant forever instantaneously and irreversibly with a snap decision
5. Two months pass and the game is still on. The scammers post on forums posing as fake users who say "hey why not try?" or "I actually received the goods". There was one example in this very thread. The scammers are here, they read what is being written on the Internet because it's their day job.
6. The website is taken down by the registrar, or the merchant is banned, whichever comes first
7. The scammer clicks a few buttons, or runs a computer program that creates a whole new website automatically

Rinse and repeat.

can someone explain why its a scam? I placed a severely discounted order with then a few months ago and all was fine. I got the goods.

Just quoting @Foofoo1

There is a phase in most of these scams where the criminals write comments on threads like this one to encourage people to transact, and this is likely to intensify in the next weeks - so you'll see more messages like "I made an order, it took 2 weeks but finally it came to my door! I kinda doubted it but it's fine actually."

Yes it’s a scam.

I am sad about CK closing. Practically lived in there when my kids were younger and no bag suits me and my needs better than their canvas messenger bags did. I bought one almost every year. I know you can get similar on Amazon but they’re just not the same 😥

No you didn’t.

All those scam websites are similar, 90% off some random price and lots of stock.

Annoyingly I fell for this one yesterday. My friend sent me the website to have a look at because she had made an order so I didn't really check it out 🙄 lesson learnt!
Realised straight away when the payment website redirected me to somewhere wierd.

Called the bank and they said 15 days before raising a dispute but it could've been worse! Cancelled my card so hopefully that arrives soon!

I realised the mistake, but yeah I placed my order on 1 June before it had shut down. I clicked on my order number in my emails and it took me to the new next website.

Did ye aye.

If that happened it's because you bought things on the actual CK website before it closed, not any of the scam websites that this whole thread is about. No one who has bought stuff on the scam sites gets the items.