Ordered goods online but never delivered? Suddenly strange debits on your credit card instead? Fake shops, i.e. dubious online retailers, are often difficult for consumers to recognize and can quickly become an expensive trap when shopping online. The NRW consumer advice center is now offering a new online application with which you can check a shop for authenticity before ordering. The free fake shop finder checks whether an online shop has the typical characteristics of a dubious provider. Anyone thinking about ordering something online can simply enter the shop's Internet address at www.fakeshop-finder.nrw and receive an estimate within a few seconds.

“Fake shops are one of the major, persistent problems in everyday consumer life and the number of complaints is constantly increasing. In 2020, around 1,000 consumer complaints about fake shops were recorded in consumer advice centers; in 2021 the number tripled to almost 3,000. With the fake shop finder, we offer quick orientation when shopping online so that fewer people fall into the trap of dubious providers in the future.”

Wolfgang Schuldzinski, board member of the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Center

How does the fake shop finder work?

Using artificial intelligence, the fake shop finder constantly searches specifically for fake shops on the Internet. The backbone of the fake shop finder is a growing domain database. If consumers enter an address that is not yet in the database, they search for the address entered and scan the page for features that are often found in dubious shops . These can be a missing imprint, a sales tax ID that doesn't exist, but also technical, linguistic and structural features that cannot be seen with the naked eye. The Fake Shop Finder also knows public lists of known fake shops.

From these criteria, the application calculates the probability of whether the address entered is a dubious provider. After a few seconds, the result is displayed in traffic light form: red if there is a clear warning, yellow as a reminder to take a closer look before ordering and green if everything is OK. The project is financed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

“Shopping well and safely online is now even easier thanks to the new fake shop finder! The new nationwide self-help tool has everything you need to quickly become a constant companion for worry-free online shopping. With just a few clicks, consumers can find out quickly and free of charge whether an online shop is reputable. The fake shop finder from the NRW Consumer Center can make a decisive contribution to ensuring that there are no unpleasant surprises when shopping online. We’re happy to encourage that.”

Silke Gorißen, Minister of Agriculture and Consumer Protection

Fake shops are difficult to recognize

Fake shops are often hidden behind online shops with particularly low prices. The products offered are usually not delivered at all, credit cards are charged multiple times or the personal data entered is misused. Fraudulent shops are often programmed in such a way that they hardly differ from real online offers. In addition, the creation of fake shops is now almost completely automated; such addresses are often only online for a few weeks before they are replaced by new ones. Unfortunately, fake shop lists on the Internet quickly become outdated. All of this ensures that consumers continue to fall victim to new fake shops.

background

The Fake Shop Finder is a project by the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Center, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The technical partner is mindUp Web + Intelligence GmbH in Konstanz.

Further link: Fake Shop Finder

You might also be interested in: “ Photovoltaics, batteries and inverters: Beware of fake shops in the energy sector! ", " Fake shop for pellets and firewood contacts customers on WhatsApp "

Source: Consumer advice center NRW


If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:

📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.

Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!

* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!


Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )