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!

To spot scam websites just google them. There are scam report website and of course trustpilot. Read the reviews. There’s a big one doing around now caked ‘madebyronie’ of a young man with Downs selling resin plant pot. You have how grandfather/father/sister/mother all saying ‘please spend a few seconds to support my .. ‘ with picks of the man sketching and making the pots. And It’s bullshit. These are dropshipped from China and can be bought from several different companies on Amazon and Etsy etc. Prices vary further a few quid to over £20 (their website).
Or ‘we are sad to announce we are closing down’ with pics of a mum and daughter or other family combination in front of a clothing or other shop. But it’s all AI. Or ‘handcrafted’ jewellery with is also available on Temu.
However I disagree with your references to models and same pose/dress different colour . This is often used by legitimate companies too, though less so now you can use AI to generate it.
You can also screenshot a product and put it in image search. That will show you who sells it and different price points.

Just giving this thread a wee bump as there appear to be more people who have been caught out by similar sites.

99% of websites advertised on FB are scam sites.

Yes, checking ALiExpress is always a good idea - I'm a lot more savvy now, but about five years ago I bought a lovely necklace from a boutique on Instagram. Later, after hearing about dropshippers I checked and my lovely necklace was from ALiExpress and cost about £2, I'd paid £30! They put it in a little jewellery pouch and that was it. So I always check now, saves a fortune.

If you are around, @LaliqueSaltGrinder , I'm on Chrome, but can't find this jigsaw-type icon to the right of the search bar, am I missing something?
Also, how do you right click on an image if you're on your phone?
I've posted a random photo from the Boden site to see if you can guide me to this trust pilot icon.
Thanks so much

@Oneearringlost, I've just checked and Chrome mobile browser doesn't support extensions.

The 'right click' on a mobile is a long press. Put your finger on the image and wait a second for the options menu to appear.

Ah, thank you @SomeGarlic that's interesting and explains my confusion.

Right click...long press, of course! Silly me. Thank you!

I’d love the pale pink, the pale green and the pale blue dresses you posted @SomeGarlic
What a shame they are from sham websites. 🥲

Avoid Wilson and Carter!
I purchased dresses from them. Awful quality and when I kept insisting on refund they blocked my email address. Avoid, avoid, avoid! Lost over £100.

Also, scrutinise spellings and grammar, random font changes and odd capitalisation. But then check everything else - and the old tenet - if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

I now always check Trustpilot if I am not sure about a company.

You do have be careful because some reputable companies have been bought by dodgy ones but retain the old trustworthy name - got caught out with that with Debenhams.

If you do fall for a scam, in the UK you are covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, for credit card purchases between £100 - £30,000, and can claim the money back from your CC company if seller refuses.

I got all my money back when a company that sent poor quality stuff kept pushing back on return and refunds and trying to get me to accept a low partial refund. CC company also refunded me when a company went bust in the middle of an order, plus when ebay refused to refund for something faulty.

Glad you got your money back, @thomasinacat.

Yes, reputation is a business asset. Boohoo only bought the Debenhams name and website (£55m); many people don't realise it's no longer the same entity.

I'm sorry you got caught by one of these identikit websites, @Wendy2204. Hope your bank can fix it for you.

The easiest way is to just buy from trusted websites m and s next etc. Stifles small businesses unfortunately but hey ho.

Another word of warning - I have spent the afternoon browsing for jumpers on Vinted and seen several products from these companies. Brand new, never worn, low prices. Sometimes the seller will be honest and label it with the fakey brand, most often though these awful quality things are listed as unbranded or unknown.

And the seller is hardly going to say that they got scammed by a chinese tat merchant and are trying to recoup some of the cash.

Yep. This definitely seems the case in the last few months. Also on straightforward Google searches. Hard to search for anything now without having to wade through the scam sites.
Like PP I look at TrustPilot every time now and am pretty much always looking at a 1/5 site.

This was the one I was just looking at. Looked nice but did my TrustPilot search and yep - scam again.

Just use websites that are legitimate eg M&S. That is my advice.

I am looking for maxi dresses and saw just the thing I wanted on Jessica by Bee but was put off ordering as it didn't have a sizing chart and didn't say what fabric was used. After some digging I think it may be a new iteration of Made by Jessica, about which there is a thread on Mumsnet.
Trustpilot gave Jessica by Bee a low score, looking at the reviews, the 1star reviews (shoddy mis-sized goods and very poor customer service ie no returns) read as authentic, people venting, using what could be called imperfect grammar and spelling due to frustration, but the few 5 star reviews read as if written by AI, all gushing and glowing but short on details.
I have put a thread on Jessica by Bee on Site Stuff but am wondering if that is enough to alert Mumsnet that this shoddy site is coming through the advertising feed on this site?

I'm seeing the same for hotels. I had 2 consecutive reels that had identical ads with identical photos for hotels supposedly on different continents. Reported but not removed.

I had a thread on S&B earlier this year calling out Jessica by Bee.

Totally my own fault, I was lured into a false sense of security because they were recommended by someone on an S&B - Help me find a wedding outfit thread. I am normally very careful but was desperate for something to wear for a wedding, was rushing to go out and took comfort from the website which indicated they were located in a very expensive part of my town.

I realised my mistake when they added unrequested charges to my order and wrote to cancel the order immediately. They then offered me another dress at half price.

Checking their website and Google mapping their business addresses it was very obvious I was being scammed.

However, I was determined to cancel the order. I contacted my Credit Card company and asked them to stop the payment, then inundated Jessica by Bee with emails quoting my rights under the Consumer Credit Act and telling them I had reported them to my Credit Card Company.

I didn’t let up (50 + emails) and within days they wrote and advised me they had cancelled my order and refunded my money.

I am not saying my approach will work in every situation but it worked for me.

I also challenged my Credit Card company as to why they were giving scam traders credit card facilities. They advised me they would investigate Jessica by Bee and remove their facility if there was sufficient evidence of scam activity.

I am not saying my approach will work in every situation but it worked for me.

That's great @Scammedffs that your persistence paid off. The whole point of this thread though is to stop people from getting into that situation in the first place, by highlighting some of the key things to look out for.

Agree with all of the above. I've said before that I've been lured by the 'aspirational French shopping basket' - luckily, natural cynicism came to my aid on that occasion!

But I'm sure that once enough people get wise to the tricks - heritage names, aspirational props etc - the scammers will just find new ones, that chime with whatever the algorithms are throwing up. So we can't be complacent.

The annoying thing is, the clothes in these ads, and google search 'featured products', usually look quite nice! Wearable, attractive, vaguely fashionable but not out-there...it's become my biggest tell, in fact. If it doesn't have any annoying features or come in hideous prints and colours, it's probably fake!

I agree @MixedFeelingsNoFeelings , I really liked the maxi dresses on Jessica by Bee, so bloody annoyed I can't get them!
But also glad I wasn't scammed
And annoyed because they were just what I was after...and repeat!

Another thing I notice on fake sites is the weird pricing. We use euros and the prices are things like €25.41 or €37.67, completely different to a legit site.