The Online Shopping Scams I Warn Shoppers About

Why These Scams Still Catch People Out

I get messages most weeks from people who've been caught out shopping online, and the pattern is always the same. It's not that they were careless. It's that the scam was built to look exactly like the real thing, right up until the money had already left their account. The volume climbs every year, and it's not because people are getting careless, it's because the fakes are getting harder to tell apart from the real thing.

The Too Good To Be True Deal

If a designer coat is eighty percent off on a site you've never heard of, that's not a bargain, that's bait. Scammers know a steep discount short circuits the part of your brain that would normally stop and check. My rule is simple: if the price makes me do a double take, I slow right down and look the seller up properly before I go anywhere near my card details. A genuine retailer doesn't need to panic you into buying in the next ten minutes, so a countdown timer on the checkout page is usually a red flag on its own.

Fake And Cloned Shopping Websites

Some of the fake shops I've seen are genuinely convincing, right down to a copied logo and a stolen product description. What gives them away is usually in the details: no proper contact address, reviews that all appeared in the same week, or a checkout that redirects somewhere unexpected. I've written before about the payment habits that give me an extra layer of protection, and they matter just as much here as anywhere else. I also always check whether the padlock and https are actually there before I type in any card number, since a cloned site can copy the visual design but not always the security certificate.

Counterfeit Goods Dressed Up as the Real Thing

It's not just cloned websites, plenty of counterfeit goods get sold as genuine on completely legitimate-looking marketplaces too. Trainers, electronics accessories, and skincare are the categories I see it most with, because they're easy to package convincingly and hard to spot as fake from a photo. If a listing has no return address, ships from overseas when the site claims to be based locally, or the price undercuts every other seller by a huge margin, I treat it as counterfeit until proven otherwise. Genuine retailers rarely need to compete that hard on price for the exact same item.

Marketplace And Social Media Scams

Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree are brilliant for picking up a bargain locally, but they're also where I see some of the messiest scams. Someone lists an item that doesn't exist, takes a deposit through a bank transfer, then disappears. If a seller pushes you to pay outside the platform's own system, or won't meet in a public place for something local, that's your answer. I also treat a seller who's suddenly selling ten different unrelated categories from one profile with the same suspicion, that's often a sign the account itself has been hijacked rather than a genuine person clearing out their garage.

Why I Always Pay by Card, Never by Bank Transfer

A card gives me a way to get my money back if something goes wrong, a bank transfer to a stranger gives away nothing except a route to disappear. It might feel a bit less trusting than sending money straight to someone who's asked nicely, but that small bit of friction is exactly the protection I want. If a seller only accepts bank transfer, gift cards, or cryptocurrency, and won't budge on it, I walk away regardless of how good the listing looks, because a legitimate seller has no reason to avoid a payment method that protects the buyer too.

My Quick Checklist Before I Buy

Before I hand over any card details on a site I don't already trust, I check the URL is spelled correctly, I look for a returns policy that actually makes sense, and I search the shop's name plus the word reviews. I also try to shop on a secured connection rather than open public wifi, which is one of the reasons I use NordVPN when I'm out and about. The same tricks ramp up every Christmas, and fake delivery texts are their own special headache once your parcel is actually on its way. I keep a running mental shortlist of retailers I've already vetted, so buying from them again doesn't mean starting the checks from scratch.

None of this takes long once it's a habit. If you do get caught out, report it to Action Fraud and contact your bank straight away, the faster you move the better your chances. You'll find more of my practical advice on the Safety Toolkit page, and if you want to talk through something that's happened to you, get in touch and I'll help however I can.  None of it takes the fun out of shopping online, it just means I'm doing it with my eyes open.