Fake websites for real companies are scamming Canadian consumers and businesses

Avoiding online scams is nothing new for many Canadians, but companies and anti-fraud profession‐ als are warning consumers to watch for fake listings on search engines that try to redirect people to fraud‐ ulent versions of familiar companies and brands.

These listings pose as ex‐ isting businesses and involve new search results popping up, either directing con‐ sumers to a fake website that looks similar to the real thing, or providing phone numbers that don't actually lead to the company in question.

Calgarian Reza Bacchus ran into this issue when try‐ ing to search for a new cow‐ boy hat - specifically, a Stet‐ son.

"I came across this Stet‐ sonHatCanada.com website ... so I just clicked and pur‐ chased it, easy," he said.

LISTEN | No Stetson, No Hat, No Canada - copycat websites dupe consumers:

Bacchus had been search‐ ing for stores that carry Stet‐ son hats because he said they have limited availability in Canada. He had previously been unable to buy from the main Stetson website as it did not ship to Canada.

Bacchus' initial surprise at a Canadian website should have been a red flag. The website was a fake duplicate. He never received his hat de‐ spite spending about $100 US. After a month of waiting, customer service from the real Stetson company con‐ firmed he was scammed.

"I got a disappointing but a friendly email [from Stet‐ son.com]... they had received emails concerning this unau‐ thorized website," explained Bacchus, who eventually trav‐ elled to Vancouver to buy a

Stetson hat at one of the few brick and mortar stores to carry them in Canada.

As for the money, he filed a chargeback claim with his credit card company and re‐ ceived his funds back after several months.

It's difficult to determine exactly how many Canadians are affected by this specific scam, or how much money is lost. According to the RCMP, only 5 to 10 per cent of fraud cases are reported in Cana‐ da. In 2023, those reports ac‐ counted for $567 million in losses, but that could include everything from immigration fraud to cryptocurrency scams.

Reported fraud of all types has increased by $187 million since 2021 - and that's with only a small mi‐ nority of cases actually re‐ ported or tracked.

Travel agent Flight Cen‐ tre faces dupe phone num‐ bers

A similar problem is hit‐ ting customers of the travel agent chain Flight Centre.

"There's plenty of toll free numbers listed on Google right now," said executive vice-president Chadd Andre, who explained that when customers are searching for Flight Centre phone numbers in various cities, such as "Flight Centre Scarborough" they are seeing business list‐ ings that contain fake phone numbers.

Those phone numbers do not put a caller through to a legitimate branch of Flight Centre, but an unknown call centre.

CBC News called several of the listed numbers and was unable to get anyone to identify themselves or their locations.

"We've found that [the calls] end up in a couple of different call centres, and the second that you press for any sort of identification or try and identify where they are or who they are, they hang up the phone and get all flustered," said Andre.

The situation led to a long time Flight Centre client in British Columbia losing more than $2,000 after calling one of the fake listings; he was unable to recover those funds as he paid with an uninsured debit card.

According to Andre, many of the duplicate listings are taken down as soon as they are caught, but there is a sig‐ nificant cost in terms of hu‐ man resources for his com‐ pany to monitor for impos‐ tors.

"It's a constant endeav‐ our. Our legal team from multiple angles has been in‐ volved, to work with Google and to send cease and desist letters where there's been points of contact," said An‐ dre, who pointed out that search engines and online providers are quick to re‐ move the offending links but new ones pop up quickly.

Best prevention is awareness, say anti-fraud experts

According to cyber-secu‐ rity analyst and Torontobased lawyer Ritesh Kotak, the problem of duplicate, im‐ postor businesses is growing.

"I deal with local busi‐ nesses all the time that call me up and say that there is a site trying to imitate them," said Kotak, who added that it's hard to prevent these frauds from occurring in ad‐ vance.

"The only thing you can really do is, if you come across these sites then re‐ port," said Kotak, who pointed out that both con‐ sumers and businesses can report fraudulent websites and listings to search engines or payment processing com‐ panies.

Kotak speculated that the proceeds of fraud like these fake listings goes to "fund illi‐ cit activities around the wor‐ ld."

The federal government also has resources to report and check for potential fraudulent activity.

"If you think you've been scammed or you're on a ma‐ licious website, report that to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Cen‐ tre," explained Melanie An‐ derson with the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, a government agency in Ot‐ tawa.

"As we see things and identify them as confirmed malicious, then we're able to take those down," she added.

Anderson pointed to the federal government's Get Cy‐ ber Safe website as a source for tips on how to spot fake online stores.