When looking for the perfect gift or the next garment to debut, a 50% discount on the market price is tempting, even more so when the garment is of a luxury brand. This is what happened to at least 800,000 online customers, in Europe and the United States of America (USA), who found attractive websites purporting to resell well-known brands, from Dior to Hugo Boss. Those who were scammed gave their personal and banking information, paid for the items, but never received them. On the other side of the screen was a network of tens of thousands of fake stores operated from China.

The conclusions come from an international investigation carried out by the newspapers The Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde which, in collaboration with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute of the United Kingdom, discovered one of the largest online scams orchestrated since 76 thousand fake websites. In 2015, a group of programmers based in the Chinese province of Fujian created an automatic system for creating and launching websites that allowed them to spread quickly. If in an initial phase some of the stores that made up the system were reliable, the system soon allowed other groups, with different intentions, to operate it.

The data set examined by journalists and IT experts indicates that the network is highly organized and uses Artificial Intelligence, allowing criminal activity to continue. Programmers have created tens of thousands of fake stores offering discounted products from Dior, Nike, Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Versace and Prada, among other brands.

The group reportedly attempted to steal up to €50 million during this period. Many stores were abandoned, but a third of them, more than 22,000, are still active.

50% discounts on luxury items led thousands to fall into the trap

Melanie Brown, a 54-year-old Englishwoman, was looking for a new bag last Christmas when she came across the original leather piece that was being sold at a 50% discount compared to the prices she had found until then. She didn’t hesitate to add the £100 item to her online shopping cart and she admitted to the English newspaper her “attraction” to the other bargains she found on the site. In the end, she ended up spending £1,200 on the order, without getting any of her items.

The consortium of English, German and French journalists interviewed 49 people who, like Melanie, claim to have been scammed. The different reports allow us to conclude that the sites were not used to sell counterfeit products, a case that is not rare, especially considering the reduced prices of luxury items. The purchased goods simply did not reach their destination because they did not exist. Scam victims who received items found items of reduced value and different from those they purchased. Cheap sunglasses, fake Cartier rings or off-brand clothing were some of the items sent.

If in these cases those who received the wrong order lost their money, many of those who tried to make purchases never suffered economic damage: either the banking system blocked the payment or the fake store did not process it. However, although in many cases there was no economic loss, the delivery of personal data was common to all customers who accessed the platform and ended up trying to buy one of the products on offer.

Temu. What Chinese company is this that has flooded the networks with “bargains” and is at war with Shein?

An estimated 800,000 people, almost all in Europe and the United States, shared email addresses and around 476,000 shared debit and credit card data, including the three-digit security number. They all provided their names, phone numbers, email addresses and addresses. According to Katherine Hart, one of those responsible for the investigation, this could be about the collection of data that could easily be used later against people, making consumers more susceptible to attempts by identity fraud.