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While online shopping booms, so too do the scams and fake web shops

Jon Cherry
By Jon Cherry
12 Nov 2024
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Industry analysts forecast that the number of South African e-commerce users will nearly double over the coming years from 11.7 million in 2025 to 21.52 million by 2029.

I honestly thought that I was legitimately buying some fashionable Carhartt gear from the “Carhartt WIP South Africa” online store, that at first glance, appeared to have all the right branding.

As someone who is a seasoned marketer with extensive e-commerce experience, I’ll be the first to admit that I should have detected the warning signs earlier: the site’s images were appallingly amateurish, all the listed products were offered at alarmingly deep discounts, none of the social media icons redirected to a functioning account page.

But I casually ignored these red flags because overall the site seemed authentic and I wasn’t consciously aware that I too was susceptible to being the victim of an online scam.

It was only after I had concluded my purchase via credit card that it dawned on me that “something” felt wrong.

I immediately contacted my bank, FNB, to have the charge reversed.

Assuming that the reversal would be a simple process, I was forwarded a form to fill in and was duly notified that I would need to wait 30 days before the bank would start its investigation into the matter, then ultimately initiate the reversal process should it find in my favour.

Rather than feeling entirely protected as a loyal, long-time client of FNB (I started my banking relationship with a Bob-T card back in the 80s) the onus was on me to supply proof that I had not received the goods and that I had indeed notified the merchant of my cancellation of the order, which wasn’t possible because after placing the order I was completely ghosted by the site’s non-existent customer service department.

Let’s just say that the whole process of clearing up the dispute was not as painless as I had assumed it would be.

Thankfully now, nearly eight weeks after I alerted the bank, the disputed funds have been returned, but this wasn’t an easy click-click-thank-goodness experience.

Fake web shops are part of a growing global problem


Since this experience, I’ve become acutely aware of other fake online brands that are being heavily promoted through ads on Instagram in particular. The modus operandi of this scam is to visually clone the identity of a trusted brand and lure purchasers into a false transaction.

Security Research Labs (SRLabs), a German cybersecurity consultancy, has been tracking the ascendancy of this trend of a growing network of fake web shops that mask designer brand sites and take money and the credit card particulars of victims.

According to SRLabs, more than 850,000 people have been fooled by a criminal syndicate that operates tens of thousands of these fake web shops, frequently leveraging previously expired domains with good Google reputations.

Instead of operating as a single entity, the core group of operational web developers who have created the web shop’s administrative back end, make this functionality available to other groups who employ the infrastructure as a service instead of having to develop their own.

Using expired domains, many of the fake sites use archived website content from previous versions of legitimate sites to give the illusion that you are dealing with a trusted brand. If it weren’t for the criminal intent of the group, the model would be lauded for its innovativeness.

SA is a lucrative new market for online scammers


Online shopping in South Africa has for the longest time played second fiddle to more traditional channels of retail. But increasingly now, more than 20 years after its debut, South African shoppers are finally adopting e-commerce as a retail channel.

When e-commerce sites like Take Two and Kalahari started in South Africa in the very early 2000s, they promised local shoppers choice and convenience at the click of a button. 

But mass adoption of e-commerce as a retail channel in South Africa has been painfully slow. For decades the amount of retail business conducted through online channels has hovered at around 4% of total recorded sales, well below the average levels of between 16-20% of retail sales in more developed countries.

But since the pandemic-related lockdowns and the launch of the hugely successful Checkers Sixty60 grocery delivery service, there has been a sharp increase in trust levels of e-commerce locally.

Not only is South Africa’s online grocery sector witnessing unprecedented levels of growth, but industry analysts forecast that the number of South African e-commerce users will nearly double over the coming years from 11.7 million in 2025 to 21.52 million by 2029.

By default, this also means that the number of people who will fall victim to online fraud in the future will also be substantial.

I tried to convince FNB that the merchant responsible for taking my money should be flagged and suspended by the bank to prevent further losses, but the consultant on the other end of the line didn’t seem particularly interested in my suggestion.

I’ve reported the fraudulent ads for similar sites that I’ve spotted on Instagram several times to Meta (the owners of Instagram) to try to get them blocked by the company, but I still see the same ads popping up every now and again on my feed.

What’s clear is that there is no coordinated approach by all the relevant players in the industry to help protect consumers when these kinds of scams emerge. The risks for all are apparent, but so far, the shrewdness of these criminal approaches is leaving millions vulnerable to fraud.

The takeaway here is perhaps yet another illustration of how critical trust is in our interconnected world and how devastating a lack of trust can be to our social institutions. It doesn’t take very much for trust to be broken, which is why, once established, it should be protected and nurtured as a priority.

Much as I do with news stories, I’m now far more vigilant and thorough in my pre-investigation of any brand selling online. DM

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