The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s Cybersecurity Center warns of the proliferation of fake online stores.
The Cyber Security Center warns of the proliferation of fake online stores. Monkey Business Images
A fake online store may look like a normal online store on the surface, but the products bought from the fake online store never arrive or do not match the ordered product at all.
Recognizing such a trade can be difficult, but the Cyber Security Center gives a few tips in its weekly review to distinguish a fake online trade from the real one:
- The products for sale are really cheap or have huge discounts marked on them. Offers are often limited in time.
- The site has grammatical errors or is otherwise written in bad Finnish.
- The company’s contact and address information is incomplete or does not exist at all.
- There are gaps in the data protection statement and return instructions or there are none at all.
- The traffic between the browser and the website is not encrypted, but the address of the fake online store starts http and not https.
- The images on the site are inaccurate or of poor quality.
- In addition to the name of the company, the address of the fake online store may contain, for example, an extra word or words Finnish. Real Online Stores very rarely use the names of countries in the web address.
The Cybersecurity Center warns not only of fake online stores but also of order traps. Their operating principle is to entice the victim, for example through social media ads, to order a cheap-looking product or participate in a lottery.
In reality, the victim commits to recurring billing, which can be difficult to break. In many cases, according to the Cybersecurity Center, the only option is to cancel the payment instrument connected to the invoicing.