Spotting scam websites before buying

[SomeGarlic]

They're proliferating at a ridiculous pace. People on here keep linking to them as suggestions. I'm generously assuming they do it in good faith but, if so, that shows they've been taken in!

First thing. Check the returns policy. If it has a lot of words saying you will have to return your purchase to an overseas depot after messaging them to get the address: avoid!

I like to look up their head office on Google Maps. Scammers use random addresses, usually nothing like a business premises or fashion showroom. I've seen one that was a demolition site, and one was a school. Most are just normal flats and houses.

Adorable origin or closing-down stories. Have you ever seen a legit fashion company showing you their children, parents and dogs? Nope, that's for bloggers and 'influencers'. Fashion stores sell fashion, not their personal lives. Same goes for sad tales of closing due to personal circumstances, which are explained in detail - and identical to the sad circumstances of another closing-down sale or ten.

Multipurpose models. They buy packages of model photos, which can be virtually dressed in any garment. Even garments that don't exist - they'll knock up something vaguely similar if you order one. See the one below? They've used photo A three times, and didn't even notice they'd cut off her arm in two of the images!

Same dress, different colours. Sure, makes sense. What doesn't make sense is the photos being identical. If they're real dresses on a real model, the pictures will be different. If it looks like they just photoshopped a different pattern on the same picture, that's because ... they did.

TheTrustpilot browser extension floats quietly in the corner of your screen. You can click on it to see recent reviews, and it links directly to the reviews page for the site you're looking at.

I'm sure other MNers have more tips, including how to get our money back if we've fallen for one of these. They steal your data, too - I know others have more info about this.

Stay safe!

Thanks op and a good idea for a thread.

I would add one more- this was from a fake BOOK website. It's not just clothes! It was very convincing and had prices about £1-£2 cheaper than Amazon (probably should have made me more suspicious but they weren't silly prices).

Website visually looked good. Hadn't heard of them before- didn't TrustPilot check- should have done.

My card payment didn't go through. Thought it was a me problem and inputted a second card for payment. That didn't go through either then I realised something was very wrong and checked Trustpilot to see all the one star reviews they were data farming.

I cancelled both cards quick so nothing was taken but the uptick in targeted fake bank scam calls to my mobile number increased massively from then on- now they know I'm with say Santander they will always be calling from them. I know exactly where my details have gone...

Oof, @LittleGreenShoots, glad you escaped with funds intact but yes to the avalanche of new scam efforts now they've got your details!

Capital One caught a fraudulent charge to my card. It was about 34p. I would never have noticed it. They told me it was a payment in rupees, supposedly to a gym. I've now had no end of fake emails & texts pretending to be from Capital One, URGENT WARNING! CLICK THIS LINK TO SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT! Yeah - no, thanks, Ramesh 🤨

Not giving the actual fabric composition. It might say "silky" - but there's no information on what it's actually made from. Which will usually be the cheapest possible polyester. Not having anything about sourcing or sustainability etc.

Mind you, Wolf & Badger often doesn't have full composition details either ... I know it's a collation of lots of individual brands/sellers, but I'm quite mistrustful of a lot of them ...

And ‘if it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is’.

I don’t know whether anyone else has seen the Fb ads for £24 ‘pure cashmere’ jumpers!

Yes, V good idea for a thread, OP.

BBC R4 podcast ‘The Knitted Cardigan Scam’ is well worth a listen.

I’ve seen a few posts come into my Facebook feed and adverts on YouTube where they’re advertising a closing down sale and going into detail why.

If you do a Google lens or reverse image search and get multiple identical images from different sites ( with names like Rosemary and Bay ,Union St etc ) then it's a sure sign of a rogue site.
IME.

Another tip from me: often these sites (beauty tools eg hair stylers as well as clothes) will have prominent logos for Vogue, Elle etc on their website.

Go to google and search Vogue+ScammyScamSite. I guarantee you there will be no Vogue review for that shitty product.

Reverse image search. Right click on an image and select "search ths image with google lens" - works on Chrome, not sure about other browsers. Google will then search the web for other instances of that image. Often you will find the same item on sites like Temu, Amazon, Ali Express.

Look to see when the website was established. Use https://www.whois.com/ and in the box at the top right enter the website address. The "Made by Jessica" store for example, the one saying it was a boutique closing because the owner was having a baby - was registered as a website on 26 February 2026.

Photos showing the model only from the neck down are also a major red flag

Yep. I think it's the same half a dozen models. Perhaps they think we won't notice if we can only see them from the chin down?

Massive photoshop fail on this one 😂 Isn't her head on backwards?!

Good tip about checking the WhoIs, @LaliqueSaltGrinder.

Excellent thread OP! Another thing to think about is the name - most brands based in London don't actually include the word "London" in their name 😳

I'm always suspicious of "X and X" type names too - that was massive years ago but now I tend to think it's a sign of dodginess (not across the board obvs.) Also the inclusion of what you might call British heritage keywords, e.g. Oxford, rose, isle, tweed, mills etc, should be double-checked!

Also a terrible mission statement such as "We believe that fashion should be blah and style should be blah blah", UGH.

If I’m interested in a product on a FB advert, I always Google the website and buy from that once I’ve checked reviews. I never buy direct from FB adverts anymore having been stung by dodgy products before.

I also use my Revolute card if I’m unsure, there is the option of using a one off card that can only be used for one purchase then is invalid. I also have to put the money onto the card beforehand so it is not linked to my bank account or credit card.

Also the website layouts of many of these "shops" are identical.

MadebyJessica, JessicabyBee, Wilson and Carter - all have an identically sized small black strip at the top of the home page, then an identically sized which section with their brand name, then an identically sized large image. It's a boilerplate template which is just reused for every scam site.

Use a scam checker. There are loads just put dodgy site and scam into google and several will pop up telling you the site scores -10 out of 100.

This is a slightly different issue so sorry if this derails. I wanted a hand made mug for my coffee and found one on Etsy. Got delivered fine no problem but unfortunately got broken. Trying to find another one I did a reverse image search and discovered my “ hand made” mug was a cheapie product available through Ali Express. The Etsy retailer had even used the same image and obviously just added a massive mark up. Unless I’m buying from a known brand I run an image through Ali express to see if if this is a mass produced item. I would suggest this would be helpful for lots of brands that people are being duped by.

I agree Google lens. It also picks up all the sites where the "owners" appear.

TheTrustpilot browser extension floats quietly in the corner of your screen. You can click on it to see recent reviews, and it links directly to the reviews page for the site you're looking at.

What? 😕

To be fair Pazuki London and Finery London are 100% legitimate. But Pazuki lists its VAT number and Companies House registered number and looks nothing like the scam sites.

The "mission statements" are hilarious

I think this fits. It also goes for fashion items like jewellery. Especially around Christmas or other large holidays.
Warning, unless you want to be put off craft markets don't reverse image search handmade stuff on offer there....

I don't entirely trust Trustpilot. Google lens (and a bit of common sense) is more reliable.

I get this kind of thing all the time on Facebook, especially the ads about ‘closing down’ the long standing family business - I’m always reporting them but they are never, ever removed. 🙄 Sometimes the clothes appear to be nice quality - silk, cashmere, leather bags etc. Their Facebook page has usually been set up quite recently and doesn’t have a lot of followers.

I also get a lot of ads for women’s clothes with ‘London’ or ‘Manchester’ in the name - these often have photos of actual stores, but when you google they don’t exist. There are photos of smart looking customers in the store which always look off/AI to me (I think the stores and people look more American than British).

So if you are on Chrome, you can click on a little icon at the right of the search bar, looks a bit like a jigsaw piece. You can then click on "manage extensions" and search for Trustpilot. Download the extension and it means it's there on your search page all the time and you just need to click the trustpilot icon to see reviews for that particular brand, rather than opening a new window, going to the trustpilot site, searching the brand.

I'm on separate FB pages for where I live and where I used to live. An apparently female poster was on one of those pages asking for recommendations for local dentists for teeth whitening as she'd had a bad experience but didn't want to name the practice. There were lots of answers from local people and somebody came along and said she'd had wonderful results with a brilliant product from somewhere dot com and look at the before and after pictures! Lots of heart emojies and "I've just ordered!"s.

Imagine my spidey senses unfurling themselves from their web when the same poster came up with the same request for recommendations on the other page (the two places are unrelated and nowhere near each other). And lo and behold the same lucky girl who'd had the great result with the dot com bleach came along with a link to the wonderful, oh so helpful website.

I reported it to the admins but they didn't remove it. It could be that they were just advertising their own stuff but there was a bit of a whiff about it. Beware potential bleachers!