AIBU - I Think I've just been scammed by a fake Seasalt webpage

[ByUmberViewer]

I just placed an order on a seasalt webpage for some stuff they are selling really cheaply. When I looked at the order confirmation it said seasalts not seasalt for the company name. I did pay on my credit card.

what can I do to stop it going through. Can't believe I fell for this. Must be getting old.

Exactly what @SoupDragon said 🙄

@Chloereid0712 phone the bank now and tell them to cancel the card. They're correct that as the payment is pending, they have to wait for it to show up to investigate. This is clearly a huge scam which sounds to be executed very 'well' in that images were stolen from Seasalt's genuine website and the whole shebang was very convincing with the padlock in the URL etc You should get your money refunded; the main thing is to get a new debit card as the scammers now have your details.

These are very sophisticated scams and the banks will be used to dealing with it.

It is very sophisticated. so I did type the Seasalt website in and my browser suggested the 'false one' is the 'real one'..

I just saw a second 'this is a scam' post.. or else I might be in the same position as the opening poster

I've reported the page again today. Loads of people tagging other people and looking forward to their non-existent purchases!

Have reported it so many times and Facebook says it is ok. Please just put scam or other rude comments.

When you see scam ads like this add an angry emoji. Facebook allows them to remove any scam warnings but not the angry faces. So if you see angry faces on an ad someone else thinks it is a scam.

Banks can be really unhelpful with this sort of scam. Cancel the payment card you used, more important to stop future, potentially bigger, problems than this amount.

Personally I think banks should have more liability and shouldnt make payments when they've been told firms are scammers. Ironically if you went mad and ordered over £100 worth you'd have more protection.

You can sometimes spot these scams by the returns policy and the use of a contact form for returns, not giving a proper address. If it's a Facebook ad assume it is a scam.

Yes that's what I did today. In big capital letters.

I saw the Lucy and Yak one. It wasn't very convincing because the picture was a screenshot from their TikTok... I reported it but I bet nothing gets done. I'm skeptical with everything on Facebook because every comments section seems to be full of scammers these days. Facebook seem to be doing fuck all about it.

Another thing worth checking if you're not sure about a site is how long it's been registered. If it's not for long, there's a very good chance it's a scam. You can check by using whois.com and entering the domain name.

Here's the entry for seasaltscornwall.com - it was registered on the 16th May by Mat Bao which appears to be a legit Vietmanese tech company - and frankly it probably wasn't even registered by them most likely it was their details that were used!!

Gosh thanks for highlighting this.
I have several things in basket but didnt complete sale

There's another thread this evening where the poster is promoting this "sale" 🙄

Anyone who's tried to purchase froma scam ad on Facebook: please check your texts, do you have one with a one time code for setting up Apple Pay? Sometimes these scam sites ask for an OTP, you get the text, you see the code and just enter it, but it is not the OTP for your purchase, it's one to allow setting up Apple Pay with your card details. This MUST be deleted before you change your card details otherwise the fraudsters could use your new card number as well, Apple Pay carries over automatically. So tell your bank and get them to make sure it is deleted.

This shite keeps coming up on my Facebook - when you look closely at it you can tell that it's not Seasalt's official page they're linking to (I haven't clicked the actual links to the scammy pages) but a lot of people seem to be falling for it.

I've done that on two of these scammy posts tonight already

I marked it as scam a couple of times yesterday - comments have disappeared. Facebook only care about getting paid don't they?

I also reported 4 scams yesterday including this one. I think fraud and scams will turn out to be within community rules and not for the first time.

@GingersOwner26 Comments saying it's a scam are rapidly deleted - adding an angry emoji cant be deleted by the ad's owner.

Got sucked in by a Lucy and Yak one, but this time it was on Instagram. It was late, I was tired and had had a couple of drinks. Before I checked out my brimming basket it occurred to me to look on their official site, where that jumpsuit I love is still £70something, not £3! I realised then that something was amiss!

The thing is though, I just assumed that advertisers on Insta, Facebook or other such big sites would have to be in some way "legit" and fulfill certain criteria.
Apparently not. They'll take anyone's money. It's actually quite shocking.

I just fell for the Seasalt Facebook scam too, I can't believe it as I can usually spot a scam a mile off. Just woken and it popped up on FB, think I must still have been half asleep. Reported to the bank and hope that I get my money back.

Come on though. If you think the first pic below (“Buy £50 to get 2 free gift” “Get 80% sale” and all the misaligned text) is the real Seasalt website (2nd pic), you probably shouldn’t be shopping online 🤦🏻‍♀️

Facebook has been a pain in the neck about this - they're just not getting rid of the scam posts, but I guess it's a case of whack a mole. My husband messaged me on Friday and said that Seasalt were closing some branches, so I googled it and only found a post from last week suggesting no such thing. I messaged him back and said that was weird and then he said he wondered if it was a scam.

And then yesterday I saw it too, and reported it to FB with a comment about getting their finger out and getting rid of it (while realising that it is whackamole).

As for the comment about it not breaking their community guidelines, how can a scam/misinformation post comply with them?

The site a lot of us fell for was very, very similar to the real website, using the same images, descriptions and layouts. I don't remember seeing the images you posted so assume there are several variations. Only the address with the extra "S" in the title and the claim of a "buy 6 for £XX" due to "closing stores" and/or "end of season sale" were significantly different.

The red flags were more subtle, like availability of every size, lack of a PayPal payment option, or inclusion of clearly very high-quality items in the bundle. Six plain cotton T-shirts for the advertised price? That's credible. Six cashmere sweaters? It should have rung alarm bells.

I've never in my life before fallen for a scam website, email, SMS, letter etc.. Yesterday, like others on the thread, perhaps I was tired, hungry, in a rush and/or over-confident due to being a previous Seasalt customer. After this, I will likely never click through an ad again, whether on Facebook or elsewhere. We fell for this scam because we're human, not because we're somehow stupid or inferior to you in our online security or internet shopping skills.

We fell for this scam because we're human, not because we're somehow stupid or inferior to you in our online security or internet shopping skills.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

The "Only stupid people fall for scams" posters are judgemental, smug and unpleasant.
Glad I don't know anyone like that in real life.

The site I had a link to (I didn't actually go to the site) is not the same one as that shown at the bottom of your first picture. I think the one I saw was seasalt-Cornwall . Co . Uk and other people have mentioned an extra S in the one they saw.

The page I saw was nothing like that, it looked like a legitimate website. Yes, things were cheap and as the saying goes if it looks too good to be true then it probably is. There were no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors as that definitely would have sent red flags. But it can and does happen to anyone. You can't make people feel any worse than they already do for being a victim of scumbag scammers.

I don't think you will get your money back but cancel your card asap and get a new one .