Chinese network behind one of world’s ‘largest online scams’
www.theguardian.com
Exclusive: Vast web of fake shops touting designer brands took money and personal details from 800,000 people in Europe and US, data suggests

A trove of data examined by experts indicates the operation is highly organised, technically savvy – and ongoing.

Operating on an industrial scale, programmers have created tens of thousands of fake web shops offering discounted goods from Dior, Nike, Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Versace and Prada, as well as many other premium brands.

Published in multiple languages from English to German, French, Spanish, Swedish and Italian, the websites appear to have been set up to lure shoppers into parting with money and sensitive personal data.

However, the sites have no connection to the brands they claim to sell and in most cases consumers who spoke about their experience said they received no items.

    • @h3ndrik@feddit.de
      18•6 months ago

      Seems in this case they got own domains and independent stores.

      And Aliexpress and Temu are very different. Aliexpress seems to be a halfway decent platform. Never had any major issues with them, except what’s to be expected when importing stuff from China. I think it’s very similar to ordering the same thing on eBay.

      Temu isn’t. That platform is made to harvest data and prey on their “customers”.

      And I can’t comment on Wish. I haven’t been interested in cheap crap.

      • Rikudou_SageA
        4•6 months ago

        AliExpress and all the others are trying to ruin your local economy in addition to spying on you.

        • @h3ndrik@feddit.de
          1•6 months ago

          I’m not sure what to make of this. So is Amazon and practically everyone of the super sucessful companies of our current world.

          I was trying to hint at that they’re not all the same. Temu is especially bad due to several reasons. Next level bad. And I’d like to point that out instead of mixing it all together.

          But I agree. I try to shop in proper stores. I go to the city center to buy clothes, shoes, my smartphones etc. Sadly less and less people do so and some things become unavailable. Smaller shops close. And I can’t source some spare parts or electronics locally anymore. I’m not okay with that, but it is how it is. I’m trying to make a difference. But if I were to buy an adapter to connect my old Nintendo to my TV, there just isn’t a shop around anymore which would be able to sell that to me. And they’re all manufactured in China anyways. If there is a family owned reseller in my country, I choose them. Sometimes it’s not and I unwillingly but it from Amazon, eBay or Aliexpress if I really need it. But I’d never buy from Temu (or Wish.)

    • @SSUPII@sopuli.xyz
      7•6 months ago

      I got banned from Aliexpress for refusing to provide a phone number to a web page fully in chinese, and they didn’t specify why I needed to despite them claiming a phone number isn’t necessary to order

      • @h3ndrik@feddit.de
        3•6 months ago

        It’s a shame that nowadays everything “needs” a phone number. I just put in a proper prefix code and then all zeroes as a number if some company forces me to. That works for some of the websites. Some stores even print that on a shipping label. So it might supposedly be there for a reason. But I’ve never heard this helps if a parcel gets lost or something. They won’t call anyways and the real reason is they can store it in some database and depending on the exact business do all kinds of other stuff with it.

        • @Fermion@mander.xyz
          4•6 months ago

          I usually look up the number for something like an ftc or fbi tipline if a website absolutely forces putting in personal info.

        • @SSUPII@sopuli.xyz
          2•6 months ago

          Where I live they always call because we don’t have mail boxes, so they have to give the parcel personally and they call to see if you are home. If you aren’t they don’t ship it to you that day.

        • HubertManne
          1•6 months ago

          Ain’t nothing but a phone number to me, and I can find all unseemly manner of use for it.

    • Papamousse
      5•6 months ago

      I have bought hundreds of stuff on AE, it’s ok, especially for stuff that are less than $10 that local sellers sell for like $40 for the exact same thing. I got some items in less than a week in Caanda.

      • @abbadon420@lemm.ee
        1•6 months ago

        I also bought some spare parts from AE, because they were literally nowhere else to be found except for other, more shady chinese websites. I would get spam mails from AE for months though. They’d send it from a different email adress everytime. Multiple mails per day that were unblockable.

        So yeah, it s a legit business, but it’s not a good business. Might be worse than amazon.

    • @shinratdr@lemmy.ca
      1•6 months ago

      AliExpress isn’t the problem here. This is fake Shopify sites spun up and down in a matter of days that only exist to harvest info and payment. I’ve placed dozens of AliExpress orders, I always get what I ordered even from new stores.

  • Hegar
    2•6 months ago

    the operation is highly organised, technically savvy

    Of course an operation this sophisticated targets people looking to buying luxury brands for cheap, that sounds like an ideal mark.