Suspect websites look to cash in amid virus
A popular technology company that has helped launch thousands of online retail sites has become a favorite tool for fly-bynight businesses looking to cash in on the coronavirus pandemic.
New e-commerce sites that use the company’s services are filled with wildly exaggerated claims about virus-fighting products that may not even exist.
The New York Times analyzed registrations with the company, Shopify, which allows just about anyone with an email address and a credit card to create retail websites in short order. The company, which in the past helped build such successful e-commerce sites as Kylie Cosmetics — the $1.2 billion beauty brand founded by Kylie Jenner — has registered nearly 500 new sites over the past two months with names that include “corona” or “covid,” The Times found.
One of the new sites marketed an “oxygen concentration” machine for $3,080.
Another had the “Corona Necklace Air Purifier,” which for $59 claimed to provide “All Day Protection.”
A third offered a $299 pill that promised “Anti-Viral Protection” for 30 days. And sites such as CoronavirusGetHelp.com and test-for-covid19.com marketed home test kits for $29.99 to $79. None of the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Many of the sellers do not actually possess the goods, nor have they verified that the products are legitimate. Often, the sites’ operators are middlemen who fulfill customers’ orders by buying items on other websites — a kind of digital arbitrage known as “dropshipping.” Shopify is attractive to these new businesses because its software can integrate the sites with the distant vendors, mostly in China.
Amy Hufft, a Shopify spokeswoman, said the company recently closed more than 4,500 sites related to the virus. She said sites that did not back up the medical claims they made were suspended from the platform. Nearly all the sites identified by The Times were later removed.
“Our teams continue to actively review COVID-19 related products and businesses, and stores that violate our policies will be immediately taken down,” she said in an email.