Fake Retail Sites Increase By 135% In 2023 – Report

As of the end of October 2023, Netcraft’s research, a global fraud protection solutions company, has identified a staggering 135 per cent increase in fake retail sites, compared to  63 per cent recorded the previous year.

This conveyed that the annual increase more than doubled in the last 12 months over already alarming growth.

According to findings of the report, these fake retail sites include copies of the spoofed site’s authentic logos, trademarks, and products to make the scam more convincing, but that is not the only technique cybercriminals use.

“They also host fake retail sites on deceptive domains. This typically involves registering a domain name that is deceptively similar to another (usually well-known) organisation. Once again, the aim is to trick users into believing they are interacting with a trustworthy website,” it added.

The Netcraft report, however, offered some insights into how shoppers can avoid falling victim. According to the company, the questions to ask include: “Are the prices too good to be true? Fake shops often offer extreme 50 per cent to 95 per cent discounts, showing an imaginary old (possibly inflated) price struck out. This can be a very good signal for brands that rarely offer legitimate discounts.

“Does the shop provide contact details in terms of a geographic location or a phone number? The absence of these is a clear indicator of malicious intent, as is the presence of generic and templated content in the ‘about us’ section, which often includes text that could be used for any organisation.

“How is the site promoted? Fake shops will often include social media icons, but they either won’t contain links or will link to a fraudulent profile.  

“How professional is the page design? Fake retail sites rarely duplicate the brand exactly; they usually insert a well-known logo into a predesigned template of the cybercriminal’s choosing. Another indicator is ‘brand mismatching,’ where (for example) a fake shop that’s supposed to be selling electrical goods includes Nike logos.

“Does the site have a questionable domain? Fake retail sites frequently use domain names that are deceptively similar to well-known brands, which could be a common mis-spelling, the addition of geo-based attributes [such as vionicskonorge.com], or an attempt at deception by adding a phrase such as a sale or ‘discount’ to a legitimate brand.”

Online shopping is reported to account for 5.7 trillion dollars spent in 2022. During the same period, cybercriminals and other threat actors committed nearly 41 billion dollars of fraud.