INTERNET’S A WEB OF FAKE CON SITES
Statistics on the scale of fake websites are astounding.
Cybersecurity firm Mimecast has been monitoring the internet for 20 top global retail brands and found no fewer than 14,000 unauthorised sites relating to them.
On some days, it saw between 53 and 87 suspect domains registered for a single retailer. A typical one was a fake Adidas site, tell-tale signs being the lack of a physical trading address and social media buttons that didn’t work.
“It is highly likely that this website is set up to scam customers looking to buy cheaply and will steal both monies and payment details, which can be used to commit future fraud,” said Mimecast cybersecurity specialist Orly Bar Lev.
Meanwhile, old-fashioned scammers continue to cause grief.
In Cheshire, police are hunting cold-calling rogue traders who conned one victim into paying £50,000 for basic home maintenance work, and a disabled pensioner paid the extortionate price of £66,000 to have a modest driveway block paved.
In another case, drainage conman Jake Broughton has been convicted of fraud after ripping off vulnerable homeowners from Bognor Regis to Northampton.
Southampton Crown Court heard that most of his victims should have paid around £54 for half an hour’s work to unblock a drain, but one was charged £5,178.
The 41-year-old from Bournemouth was given a nine-month suspended sentence and 250 hours of community work.
After the case, Lord Toby Harris, Chair of National Trading Standards, said: “Broughton deliberately misled his victims, pressurising them into paying vast and unreasonable sums of money for basic work.”