AIBU To expect Mumsnet check companies legitimacy BEFORE they advertise them?

[Tarano17]

I was caught by a scam website that was advertised by Mumsnet under the name Neobosen. This company were previously known as ChicMe before changing their name to Vogueilay and now to Boutiquefeel which is currently live on Mumsnet. When you click on Boutiquefeel they provide NO postal address, NO telephone number and one you pass over your bank details Mumsnet users has their money stolen with no products provided. If Mumsnet did a simple check of business’s legitamcy BEFORE they advertise these scam websites to their users then many hundreds and possibly thousands would not be scammed out of their money.

Was it actually promoted by mumsnet or is it one of these pop up ones? Because as far as I know the latter is not advertised by MN itself

are you sure it was a business advertised by MN and not a targeted ad from cookies?

To be fair, you should always do your own due diligence instead of assuming any company is authentic

I would agree with you, but, having been drawn in by some of the advertising pictures of lovely clothes on mumsnet, I did some research, which very quickly told me not to buy from these companies because the reviews were similar to your experience and universally bad. The pics are pinched off legitimate sites and if you do a reverse search you can find where they originated. I am surprised that such dodgy companies are (what appears to be) promoted by mumsnet, but I suppose money talks, however, it is always worth checking out companies not known to you before you part with your money.

I'm not sure how aware MN is of the content of the advertising. I've been seeing NetMums all day

Adverts served in the side bar will not be directly within Mumsnets control, and it almost certainly tells you that somewhere within Mumsnet small print.

Those adverts are what pays for free use Mumsnet and any other forum like it - don't want to see them, can't trust yourself to check before you buy, pay for premium use without ads... simple!

Not sure you understand how advertising works in the web world. It's not like print media. Mumsnet don't choose, or even know in advance, what adverts are going to run on their site. They do have some control, but not to the degree of pre-vetting all the ads.

Sorry you got stung. General rule - if you're buying online, especially from a company you've never heard of - have a quick look before you send money.

Hello @Tarano17 - we're sorry to hear this and we've passed it on to our ads team. It sounds like this was a programmatic ad - and we do have filters to weed out dodgy stuff but we'll look further into it now. It would be helpful also if you could give us a bit more information as to what happened - if you'd prefer to get in touch directly, please mail [email protected]

Update - this ad has been blocked so please let us know if you see it again.