Fell for an online Shopping Scam - Head in hands - What is the best way to help others?

[Daisy123abc]

Hello Internet Wizards
In a weak moment I fell for a targeted promotion on Instagram. I foolishly pride myself on being savvy about these things but this time they got me.
After clicking on an offer from a company seemingly called "Amara" I was directed to a professional looking website "Amara London" which had no initial red flags. Instead it had excellent English and boasted superb Trustpilot reviews. I am absolutely kicking myself that I fell for this now. I ordered some things, paid with Paypal and after receiving emails from "Shopamara-London" a short time afterwards, curious about all the names, I went back to take a better look. I soon discovered this is a Chinese company selling shoddy goods at inflated prices and making the terms of service and returns policy so complex that the majority of dissatisfied customers just give up and go away. The positive reviews were fake, and duplicated on identical websites in other countries. A number of misleading similarly named fake businesses also popped up, perhaps created in order to divert the negative reviews. Although claiming to be a UK business there is no record of Shop Amara London at Companies House. Although there was an Amara listed, albeit "nontrading". Curiously a director by the name of Adedotum Ademola Adegoke "was "terminated" on the 16th Dec 2024. It appears that he has had 709 appointments overall, most of them dissolved and all operated out of a shopping centre: Unit A, Brook Park East, Shirebrook, United Kingdom, NG20 8RY. The current director is Alastair Peter Orford Dick and has had 671 appointments and seems also to favour that address.

Anyway, I have opened a dispute in Paypal which is ongoing while getting nowhere, but I really want to find a way to flag this business to as many others as I can. It seems immoral that such unethical commercial behaviour cannot easily be stopped or challenged.
So far I have reported it to: Instagram, Trustpilot, Trading Standards and Action Fraud. I don't have much confidence in achieving much with any of those organisations but it does not seem right that companies such as this can get away with things time and time again. Given the vulnerabilities within the general public and the rise of such sophisticated scams what can be done to protect people from such intelligent exploitation?
Does anyone out there have any ideas for taking this forward?

It’s not clear from your OP whether you received the goods and they were indeed poor quality. Did you start complaining before or after receiving them?

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/amara.com

Their trust pilot score is terrible so I dont get that everything else yanbu

These bastards should get banned from running businesses and prosecuted.
Hope you get your money back

This was on BBC Morning Live the other day. There are loads of these sites all using the same ripped off pictures of genuine items of clothing. They tend to have "London " in the title and have high trust pilot ratings that mysteriously never change.
They are all over Instagram and I usually leave the word scam in the comments.
Apart from that, just let anyone you know that will listen about them!

Sounds like you have done all you can. I dont know how PayPal works but is it worth setting up a new PayPal? I know that if you pay using a bank card some of these Chinese scam companies can sell your details and leave your account vulnerable. Surprised you say they had inflated prices as its normally the opposite as a way of attracting people to buy from these sites. Very annoying that the likes of Instagram have so many of these scam adverts.

I haven't received my goods yet, but opened the dispute in Paypal as soon as I realised my mistake so I could build up an evidence trail. I have been exchanging emails on there with some smarmy person who never answers any of my questions. I will post a few screenshot for your amusement. Yesterday I had a stream of emails allegedly from AmaraModehaus, (which is an actual run down shop in Berlin), but it was of course bogus, the email also displayed as [email protected] but when I exposed the reply address it was the usual source of: shopamara-London.

This morning, I had a suss email from customer service at a company called "Flannels", this time with a more sophisticated technical disguise which I don't have the knowledge to unpick, asking me about a review I had supposedly written. I have never heard of this company and it must be just another smoke and mirrors tactic to stop me making any actual progress.
Outrage is fuelling me here and I just don't want to give up on this but somehow shine a light on such behaviour as a matter of principle. They tried telling me that the "Amara" on Trustpilot is not them, but a quick search reveals that there are so many Amara's out there that they can hide behind.

Ah, just did some more digging. The company "Flannels" which emailed me is yet another bogus site and registered at the same retail outlet as all the others: Unit A, Brook Park East, Shirebrook, United Kingdom, NG20 8RY and with the same "directors" etc.
This website is much more sophisticated.

Very interested to read the above comments about AMARA LONDON/ AMARA BOUTIQUE or whatever else they are choosing to call themselves. I get incensed whenever I feel I have been "had" and I fell for this company on FaceBook hook line and sinker! I too am normally very vigilant but am a sucker for swimsuits so ordered a "high-end" £90 (originally) down to £35.95, costume. I know, warning lights should have flashed but I stupidly went ahead. It eventually arrived after 18 days shipment presumably from CHINA. The sizing was ludicrous, the on-line image showed a medium-low leg cut, this had a very high leg and cut-away narrow crotch and I've had better quality swimming costumes from supermarkets it was so shoddily made. I asked for a refund and returns package. I researched the company at Companies House, they seem to dissolve and re-trade multiple times, I've investigated their couriers, addresses of personnel and reported all findings to Citizens Advice, Action Fraud and it is going to Trading Standards. After quoting the Consumer Rights Act 2015, I've been offered returning the item to ZHEJIANG, CHINA , (£10 postage approx plus photographic evidence of track and trace and photographic evidence of completed return form and image of track and trace code blah blah blah.) whereupon I'd receive a refund. I'm afraid I think if that happened I'd be the tooth fairy!
I have no intention of returning it to CHINA but have said I WILL return it to a UK address if they provide it, or the E-Target courier service based in Cannock from where the parcel came. E- Target are a third party logistics and fulfillment company handling packaging and shipping for on-line sellers operating on platforms like e-Bay, Amazon FaceBook etc. My package was actually delivered by Royal Mail who they must contract out to. As far as a refund goes, I will eventually claim my money back from my credit card company. So, my advice, steer clear of anything relating to Amara.

Flannels is a genuine company, part of Frasers Group. Not sure how you decided they were bogus.

I think lots of things are being confused here. Both Flannels and Amara are legitimate companies, both owned by Frasers Group. Alistair Dick is a director of Frasers and probably of all the other companies which they own which seem to be legion. Everything gets brought up by Frasers nowadays! The Snaresbrook address is the actual headquarters of Frasers plc. The genuine Amara group specialises in high-end homewares and accessories and you can tell from looking at the Trustpilot site that most people who buy from them are very happy. Unfortunately, there’s also a large number of one star reviews who are talking about a completely different company. The bogus site titles itself Amara on their website but if you look at the actual website address it’s something like amaralondon.com which is probably actually a Chinese company. To be honest, you can tell pretty quickly that it’s a dodgy website, I spotted a spelling mistake and some of the links on there don’t seem to lead to anything. It’s probably more difficult to realise you are being conned if you follow a Facebook or Instagram link and don’t get to see the general website, just the specific item you are buying.

Amaralondon is indeed a Chinese company. The returns label has a Chinese address in ZHEJIANG province and the returned items are sent from all over the world to "YUANTONG EXPRESS" which is a fake company based in China. My returned item is currently with Chinese customs and has been there for a week after using express tracked Royal Mail delivery. It will be impossible for it to get any further and I know I will never get a refund and have initiated a chargeback with my credit card company. However, despite Amaralondon have a companies house number, because they operate out of China, I will most likely have to go through the UK International Consumer Centre ( UKICC) to get a refund. My advice to ANYONE buying items through a company like AMARALONDON WHO advertise on a social media platform is, RESEARCH THE COMPANY THOROUGHLY AND AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Such a pity for any legitimate company!!