Australian consumers are being lured to fake websites imitating major labels, such as Blue Illusion, Millers and Sussan, that replicate their branding and advertise fictitious closing-down sales on social media.
After previously identifying more than 140 so-called “ghost stores” falsely marketing themselves as local brands, Guardian Australia has found the problem extends to more sophisticated sites impersonating well-known retailers.
Customers who have lost money on the scams have urged Shopify, Meta and PayPal to take action to stop fraudulent players from using their software to build and advertise their sites.
One Facebook ad reviewed by Guardian Australia on 16 May featured an image of a Blue Illusion storefront and the words: “Saying goodbye is tough, dear ladies … our final sale is on now – let’s make this chapter truly unforgettable.”
Clicking on the ad led to an e-commerce website that used Blue Illusion’s logo but had the domain name yayeco.top, which was registered on 10 May. The real Blue Illusion, founded more than 35 years ago, is not closing down.
Guardian Australia has seen ads on Facebook for other Australian labels including Susanne Grae, Sussan and Millers, linking to sites with different domain names that use very similar branding to the real labels.
Susanne Grae and Sussan are not closing down, while Millers has already closed. The legitimate labels were contacted for comment.
Customers duped by these sites say they believed they were buying products from reputable labels, but have not received anything.
Elizabeth Bednall, a Melbourne resident, spent $79.99 in March on a raincoat and a pair of pants after seeing a site she believed was Blue Illusion advertised on Facebook.
The 73-year-old said the items never arrived despite contacting the site several times and she felt “lucky” to have been able to secure a refund through her bank.
Emails between Bednall and the site she believed was Blue Illusion show it used the domain name zugite.top, which has been repurposed and now claims to be a pet accessory retailer based in California.
“I’m not that dumb. But I did feel stupid,” Bednall said. “Facebook need to be really responsible. They seem to take no action.”
Vicki Forscutt, who lives in New South Wales, reported one of the pages running the fictitious ads.
Forscutt said she was disappointed by Meta’s response, seen by Guardian Australia, which said “as our review team is focused on the most severe cases with potential for real world harm, we’re not able to review your report”.
A Meta spokesperson said it was investigating the pages. One of the scam pages had been taken down on Friday.
“Meta doesn’t want scams on our platforms and we are continuing to invest in tools and technology to prevent them,” they said. “The safety of our users is of utmost importance, and we continue to work with industry, the government and law enforcement to protect Australians from scams.”
Experts have previously called on Meta to stop ghost stores from advertising, but the issue is complicated because the owners of the sites are difficult to identify and other online platforms are involved.
For example, Guardian Australia on 16 May visited one of the websites claiming to be Millers. Guardian Australia paid $13 for a pair of trousers, using PayPal. No shipping notification was sent and the trousers have still not arrived.
PayPal Australia’s Bonnie Brady told Guardian Australia people “can have full trust” that PayPal has verified the details of any account that is live.
The company said it had removed the fake Millers site from its platform and all Australian sellers were verified when applying for a PayPal account. However, PayPal acknowledged this may not be the case for online sellers based in countries with different laws and regulations.
“PayPal has always made preventing bad actors from using our platform a top priority,” a spokesperson said.
The PayPal account Guardian Australia used to buy the items from the fake Millers site showed the payment was made to a company in Singapore.
Many of the ghost stores identified by Guardian Australia have been built using Shopify, the Canadian multinational e-commerce company headed by Tobias Lütke. Shopify has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
