Online shopping has made it wonderfully convenient to find almost anything from home — but it's also made it easier for scammers to set up convincing fake stores that can be nearly impossible to distinguish from legitimate retailers at first glance. Online shopping fraud costs Americans billions of dollars a year, and the tactics keep getting more sophisticated.
The good news: once you know what to look for, most scam sites reveal themselves fairly quickly. Here's what to watch for before you hand over your money or your personal information.
Prices That Seem Too Good to Be True
This is still the most reliable red flag. If a site is selling a brand-name television for 70% off, or offering designer goods at a fraction of their typical price, something is wrong. Scammers use dramatically low prices to override your skepticism — the excitement of a deal can short-circuit careful thinking.
It's worth remembering that legitimate retailers don't offer 80% discounts on quality merchandise. They have real costs — employees, warehouses, shipping, customer service. A price that defies economic logic usually means one of three things: the product doesn't exist, it's a low-quality counterfeit, or your payment information is being collected and you'll receive nothing at all.
When you see an unusually low price, treat it as a reason to be more careful — not as a lucky find.
Red Flags in the Website Itself
Scam websites often have telltale signs if you know where to look:
- No physical address or contact information. Legitimate businesses are required to provide a way to reach them. A site with only a contact form and no address, phone number, or email address is a warning sign. Look in the "Contact Us" and "About Us" pages — or their absence.
- A very recent domain age. You can check when a website was created using a free "WHOIS lookup" tool (try whois.domaintools.com). Scam sites are often brand new — registered within the past few months. A legitimate long-running retailer will have a domain that's years old.
- Poor grammar and spelling errors. Many scam sites are created quickly and overseas. Widespread typos, awkward phrasing, and inconsistent formatting throughout a site suggest it wasn't built by a professional operation.
- No "https" in the web address. The padlock icon and "https" at the start of a URL mean the connection is encrypted. The absence of https is a hard no for entering payment details — though it's worth noting that https alone doesn't mean a site is trustworthy, just that the connection is secure.
- Stolen or stock imagery. Scam sites frequently use photos lifted from other websites. You can right-click an image and choose "Search image" (in most browsers) to do a reverse image search and see where it appears elsewhere on the web.
Suspicious Payment Methods
How a site asks to be paid tells you a lot about its legitimacy. Treat the following payment requests as serious warning signs:
- Wire transfer or bank transfer: Once a wire transfer is sent, it's essentially irretrievable. No legitimate online retailer asks for payment this way.
- Gift cards: If any website — or anyone claiming to represent a website — asks you to pay with iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play gift cards, it's a scam, full stop. This is one of the most common fraud tactics in use today.
- Cryptocurrency: Crypto payments are largely untraceable and cannot be reversed. There are legitimate uses for crypto, but if a shopping site insists on it as the only payment method, walk away.
- Checks or money orders: Outdated payment methods on a supposedly modern e-commerce site make no sense for a real business.
Credit cards offer the strongest buyer protection of any payment method. If you pay by credit card and don't receive what you ordered — or are charged fraudulently — you can dispute the charge with your card issuer. Debit cards offer some protection but less than credit cards. Whenever possible, pay by credit card for online purchases.
How to Check Reviews — and Spot Fake Ones
Customer reviews can tell you a lot, but scammers often create fake ones. Here's how to look past the noise:
- Search for the store's name plus words like "scam," "reviews," or "complaints" in a search engine. Look beyond the first page of results.
- Check the Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) and Trustpilot for ratings and complaints.
- Be skeptical of reviews that all sound similar, use generic language, or were all posted within a short time period — these patterns suggest manufactured reviews.
- Look for reviews on independent platforms, not just testimonials on the site itself. A site can post whatever it wants about itself.
- If a site has no reviews anywhere on the internet, that's notable. Established businesses leave a trail.
Social Media Ads and Links in Emails
A growing number of scam stores reach victims through social media advertisements and emails that look like legitimate deal alerts. The ad or email may use real brand logos and professional-looking design, but the link leads somewhere unexpected.
Before clicking, hover over links to see the actual URL. Be especially cautious with email links — if you got a great deal in your inbox from a store you don't recognize or didn't subscribe to, go directly to the retailer's official website instead of clicking through.
If you see an ad on social media for an incredible deal, do not click the ad link directly. Instead, search for the company name independently and visit their site that way.
If You Think You've Been Scammed
Act quickly — time matters:
- Contact your bank or credit card company immediately. Report the fraudulent charge and ask about your options. If you paid by credit card, initiate a chargeback. The sooner you call, the better.
- Change your passwords. If you created an account on the scam site using a password you use elsewhere, change that password on any other accounts where it's used. Consider using a password manager to keep passwords unique.
- Report the scam. File a complaint with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. You can also report it to your state attorney general's office. These reports help authorities track fraud patterns and may help others.
- Monitor your accounts. Watch your bank and credit card statements carefully for the next few months for any unauthorized charges.
- Alert others. If you encountered the scam through a social media post or ad, report it to the platform. If a friend shared it, let them know.
Trust Your Instincts
If something about a website feels off — the design looks cobbled together, the prices don't make sense, or the contact information is vague — trust that feeling. It takes 30 seconds to do a quick search to verify a store's legitimacy, and it's always worth the pause. The best protection against online shopping scams is a healthy habit of slowing down before you click "buy."