Online Shopping SCAM Mafia on Rising: Don’t fall for Fake Shopping Sites!
Are you an impulsive buyer? Then, this article is for you!
There is a serious shift in the behavior of people after COVID-19. One of them is the adoption of Online Shopping. Pandemic had accelerated online shopping business and the sudden spike of online shops has amassed a large number of public from Tier-2 cities of India, excluding metro. Needless to say, this is being leveraged by scammers to trick the general public.
According to the European Journal of Social Psychology; it takes 66 days on average to form a habit.
The average lock-down lasted for more than 21 days officially, but it took more than that in several parts of India as many became Containment Zones; hence restricting movements.
The above fact is necessary to measure the dynamic changes in daily life, i.e. lifestyle progressiveness (new habit building) that lead to the expansion of e-Commerce. As more and more started shopping online, this paved the way for criminals to get their hands directly to their wallets by setting up fake shopping sites disguising themselves as legitimate shop owners.
Social media feeds like Instagram or Facebook started to see a sudden influx of fake shopping websites and this had successfully caught users' attention. People (especially impulsive buyers) go ahead and order the stuff online without X-checking the authenticity of the product/shop and ultimately get defrauded.
Here, we are going to discuss such fake ad campaigns which are being run on Instagram where scammers make easy money and leave the general public duped.
CASE-1: SHOPIFY FAKE STORES
If you are a regular shopper of online stores, then these types of ads on Social media might have piqued your attention:-
These eye-arresting products are the anchor points for the users to land on their fake shopping sites.
Let’s proceed further to familiarize ourselves with Scam Shopping sites:-
From the above screenshot, it is evident that the criminals had used the Discounted Price Manipulation Approach to lure customers.
Now let’s see when this shop launched:-
From the above screenshot, it is noticeable that the shop is just launched in July 2022 and will be short-lived.
The payments are being accepted via multiple streams including PayTM, UPI, etc.
NOTE: Make use of “Report Account” if you come across any fraudulent merchants while proceeding with payment.
As the Shopify stores are short-lived, their web URLs get suspended/ once they end their short Campaign just like this:-
Some of the fraudulent merchants prevalent in the Shopify (Instagram Ad-driven) platform are:-
JD GROUP TUITIONS: 51984623@paytm
KAVYA FASHION HUB: 70083148@paytm
UMIYA FESHION: 70631024@paytm
VISHWA ENTERPRISE
AVANTI CREATION: 69798005@paytm
MAHESHKCUMAR MANGABHA 9153060759
THE BRAND ENTERPRISE: 70079248@paytm
VATHI ENTERPRISE: cf.vathienterprise@indus, 70079956@paytm
SANJAY B KATARIYA: cfsanjaybkatariya@yesbank
THE FASHION HUB: 70413270@paytm
AMRINBANU ABDULMUNAF PATHAN: 69618211@paytm
DELIGHT COLLECTION: 70753420@paytm
FASHIONBRO
EDUCATION: 69852884@paytm
THEETHNICHOUSE: 68039204@paytm
SHAYONA CREATION: 69860882@paytm
MEGAPLEXMART: 69716718@paytm
AMBICA CREATION: 70331276@paytmNOTE: The above-mentioned Merchant IDs are fraudulent. Please block them at your end. Criminals can start new accounts for each Scam Campaign to evade detection. But you need to keep them at a bay by analyzing the discussed facts.
If you are thinking about whether this only affects the Clothing Industry, then it’s a big NO!
As you can purchase anything online nowadays, the SCAM does not only revolve around a single product but is diversified in different streams such as Household Items, Books, Shoes, Electronics, etc.
The above-discussed fraudulent shops are operated by SHOPIFY, which gives criminals a haven to operate their nefarious activities. This is due to the lack of accountability by Shopify; which indirectly promotes fake stores.
NOTE: There are many genuine shops present in Shopify, but you have to be careful if you are purchasing from any “myshopify” stores.
CASE-2: DEDICATED ONLINE SHOPS
Apart from Shopify-like platforms, Scammers are also prevalent by setting up individual stores.
Here by presenting a case study regarding BOAT MUSIC, which is a popular headphone manufacturer in India.
The following store is a replica of the original one, which is a phishing site. People who don’t know will fall for the trap and ultimately get defrauded.
Notably, the URL is boatsmusic.info whereas the original one is boat-lifestyle.com. Here, the fraudsters have used typo-squatting domains to pull the customers in.
As per the WHOIS record:-
From this, it is evident that the store is recently registered (1 month back), and the same is not available at this time. The IP address belongs to Shopify.
Upon looking up further details, it is found that the actor had kick-started a campaign targeting BOAT and found the following URLs:-
boat-meniiya.life
boat-meniya.life
boatsmusics.lifeFollowing is a Scammer's email address set up for fake help desk services:-musicboat69@gmail.com
boat-music@gmail.com 9825098260
help.boatrsmusics1@gmail.com
boatnirava69@gmail.com
NOTE:- The above-mentioned impersonated attack can happen to any brand, however, the general public needs to be aware before making any purchase. Always use Google Search for trusted links.
Here by listing down other fraudulent shops which were popular and a large number of customers got duped:-
+91-8160651749
(Associated with above contact number)
Pseudonyms: Riya Verma, Juhi, Julie Chen
Using Lyca PhoneCurrently running: IndTravel-A Tour Agency based in MumbaiAssociated with: Online Job Hiring for Copy Paste, Tiles seller from YellowPages, customcreationsidea.net, Wedding Album (wadovox262@eamarian.com)E-Mail IDs (Associated with the above contact number)
==========
help@menx.store
Clothdeals007@gmail.com
Help@vaidikfab.com
Vaidikfab07@gmail.com
faballyshopofficial@gmail.com
milanads22@gmail.com
fusionfabs@gmail.comShops (Associated with the above contact number)
======
Vaidikfab.com
faballyshop.in
menx.store => 68.183.95.249 (Doddaballapura, Karnataka, India)
happystorehub.in7984959394
==========
fusionfabs.com
shoppersbuuys.com
jannatvilla.myshopify.com
NoorFab.com
riyanashop.comriyanashop13@gmail.com
Support@shoppersbuuys.com
care.jannatvilla@gmail.com7064198995
==========
thegympoint.com
Briefswear.com
attirevilla.live
OuterwearA3cf.myshopify.com
Polino1040.myshopify.comAlso associated with: 9321420021Modus Operandi: Asks customers to install AnyDesk for further fraud
Scam Arenas: Gym, Sports Items+91 91781 17357 (Rahul Kumar)
============================lacehut1638.myshopify.com
Fashionlooks2.myshopify.com
Varangaofficial.myshopify.com
kripaldesign.myshopify.com9956353043
==========
Boldslook.in
rangsaree.com
Simplytagz.Com
Curvemuse21.myshopify.com
It is still unknown how much money is being raked by criminals from these campaigns; however, as per the image impressions on social media, we can estimate that the criminals easily make decent money as this is a highly successful method.
FAKE PROMOTION
If you are wondering about how these fake sites get more engagement on Social Media, it’s pretty easy for fraudsters to feature their sites at cheaper prices!
From this, it is evident that a person who can spend about ₹15 can attract a large number of people to get into their website for shopping.
MODUS OPERANDI
- Appealing products are being populated into the feeds of like-minded users.
- The images of products are often taken from legitimate shopping sites such as Myntra, Limeroad, Amazon, or other similar sites.
- Cheap price is another gimmick used by criminals to accelerate their illicit business.
- No COD (Cash-on-Delivery) is available for the featured products, hence you may halt further proceedings with the site as it is not safe. However, there are genuine shops that do not have COD, but you need to DYR before any purchase.
- Nearly all fake shops use the same POWER WORDS such as “JUST AT 199” or “JUST AT 299” etc.
- Most of the scammers use CAPITAL ALPHABETS while marketing their shops on Instagram.
- Scammers use the Shopify platform to launch their fraudulent shops, as the company does not do anything to prevent faulty merchants from misusing the platform.
- Most fraudulent shops are short-lived on the Shopify platform.
- Scammers make use of brand names with Shopify to make people believe that the store falls under a genuine brand, but they do not have any connection with the real one. For example:- flipkart.myshopify.com does not have any connection with the real Flipkart.
- Dedicated stores use look-alike domain names and mirror the pages of genuine websites of popular brands to defraud the public. This method is called Phishing or Impersonated Attacks.
- In the “ABOUT” Section of Shops, the Twitter, Facebook, or IG links are often redirected to their site instead of Social Media handles; which is a Red flag.
- Many shops deliver the wrong product and do not refund the amount to their customers.
Be vigilant next time, while you are shopping online!
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NOTE:- The article is purely an Individual Research and is not subjected to be used/published anywhere without the Author’s consent.
