Scam web shop database
 

If you come across an internet shop and you are not sure if it is real, then you might want to go here:

http://wiki.aa419.org/index.php/Main_Page

A site I found recently is called www.orvisinc.co.uk. It looks fake and it is in the database above.

I've tried reporting fake sites to trading standards but it seems to do nothing. Some sites pretend to be approved by well known names such as PayPal. In this case I report the abuse. I reported one site to PayPal and the site was taken down after a few days. Whether or not I had anything to do with that is unclear, as I am sure many victims had reported them to the police. But I suspect that unlike Trading Standards, PayPal do have the muscle to force a web hosting company to remove a site that is falsely claiming to be PayPal approved as that is a criminal act.

I would welcome any other suggestions as to how to bring down these sites.

As an aside, I recently came across an obvious scam site selling watches. I emailed the 'sales team' using the name "Hercules Poirot" and asked how much money they had made from fraud. According to the response, they had made $200,000 from innocent victims.

Great info - I recently had one of those irritating emails claiming to be from and african princess wanting to get millions out of africa... I noted the yahoo email addresses and forwarded them onto yahoo expecting they'd be able to just discontinue the account with a couple of clicks - saldy no - I just went into an automated response system and... well in the end forget it!
I just hope nobody fell for it.

You mean there is an African Princess trying to get Millions out of Africa..... Whats the e-mail address?

:D

Leif, I have just looked at the site orvisinc. I must be missing something but I can't see anything obvious to say that its fake, so in other words I would have been caught out big time if I had bought anything.:(

A lot of people do get caught out and the criminals are getting more and more devious.

But if you look at the prices, you will see that they are absurdly low, which should arouse suspicion. The site is rather sparse, indicating that it was knocked together quickly. No doubt it is easy to move it when the authorities move in. Payment is often by bank transfer for these sites. Note the symbols at the bottom, such as VeriSign. You are supposed to be able to click on those, to take you to the independent certifier. In this case they are just images with no link.

Once you see one or two of these sites, you will learn to spot the warning signs.

Interestingly the figures I have seen indicate that online banking fraud (including someone getting access to your online bank account) is still small compared to credit card fraud.

There are plenty of fake ones out there. But not that difficult to spot one.
1st rule of thumb: If it is too good to be true, then most likely it is not true.
- For American shops it is always a good idea to check with BBB (Better Business Bureau) > > > L I N K < < <.
- Make sure you read the Ratings or prior shoppers review of transaction.
Usually this is available on most reputable sites.
- Use the credit card that protects you with faurad if that happens.