According to the FBI,
victims are reporting that they came across these fraudulent websites either
through ads posted on social media platforms or while looking for specific
items using popular web search engines’ shopping pages. The wares offered by
the scammy online stores range from gym equipment to small appliances and
furniture.
Oddly, regardless of what
the victims ordered they received disposable face masks – a sort of twist
on COVID-19 related schemes that have been doing the rounds for months
now. Once the vendors receive complaints about the ordered items not being
delivered, they offered partial reimbursement and the face masks as
compensation.
Alternatively, the sellers
requested the items to be returned to China; this spells outsize expenses for
the victims, leading them to settle for the partial reimbursement and not
having to return the items. However, none of the victims were able to get a
full refund out of the miscreants.
In an attempt to make their
deceptions more plausible, the faux retailers provide valid United States’
based addresses and telephone numbers in their “Contact us” sections. “Many of
the websites used content copied from legitimate sites; in addition, the same
unassociated addresses and telephone numbers were listed for multiple
retailers,” the Bureau said.
The FBI shared several
telltale signs of the websites being fake:
· e prices were too good to be true,
· tcybercriminals registered the web addresses
within the last six months using private domain rregistration domain services to
prevent their private information from being published,
· iiinstead of using top-level domains like “.com”, the
fraudulent websites instead used “.club” and “.top”,
· tone site was promoted on social media.
To avoid falling for
similar ruses, always do your due diligence on the retailer you’re considering
purchasing from. Look into the reviews of the vendor, especially on third-party
reviewing services. Use the contacts listed on their page to see if the
information checks out and does belong to them. And always be vigilant, if an
offer seems too good to be true, it usually is. For further advise on
protecting yourself from various flavors of online scams you can refer to advice
on fraud prevention shared recently by ESET Chief
Security Evangelist Tony Anscombe.