Police shut down fake shopping sites

With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, many people find it increasingly convenient to do their shopping online. There really are a lot of advantages: no long checkout lines to deal with, no other customers who may be wrangling over the same item, and nobody trying to push or shove you out of the way during sales. The best part? Exclusive, online-only deals that are offered only via the retailers web site. Plus others even offer free gifts and samples with checkout if you decide to purchase via the web.

As a result, a lot of people are actually turning to online shopping. I, for one, regularly shop for clothing items online. In fact, in April of this year, a retail consultancy firm revealed that online clothing stores are enjoying a huge surge in sales, with one official stating: “At a time when recent figures highlight wider retail sales have seen their worst monthly decline in 15 years, the increase in online retail revenue is particularly impressive and shows that at a time when belt tightening was expected across the board, online continues to buck the trend.”

With such great success, you can expect some people to want to join in on the trend, in a negative way. Many scammers have set to join in on the trend, setting up and putting up illegal online shopping sites that are posting fake or non-existent goods from brands that include GHD, Ugg, Tiffany and Nike.

This is according to the Metropolitan Police E-Crime Unit who have been working to track down such sites and shut them down. Shoppers are usually tempted to make a purchase because of the low prices being offered by the fake retailers. The E-Crime unit also warns that aside from shipping out counterfeit goods, some retailers just receive payment and bill customers without shipping anything out at all.

In the crackdown, police officers worked with domain registrars to track down the cyber thieves. Using Nominet’s powers, the unit eventually seized and shut down the offending domains.

Detective Inspector Paul Hoare, a member of the E-Crime Unit, revealed that many gangs registered sites in bulk with the intention of duping customers. He said: “I would urge customers to take all precautions to ensure they buy from legitimate sites only.”

Hoare also urged customers to verify a site’s credentials before making any purchases. He also recommended that shoppers use a credit card for payments over £100 and have another card that is set aside specifically for online shopping as an extra measure.

Source – BBC