14 DAY TRIAL // Wanting to make Christmas shopping safer for everyone, the Metropolitan Police's e-Crime Unite (PceU) went into play and took down 2000 websites that were considered to be run by crooks who were after an illegal profit.
The numerous websites were earning millions for their owners, and not millions of Rupees, but millions of dollars, pounds or euros.
All that money was earned after selling imaginary or counterfeit products that were allegedly branded by high-fashion designers or popular sportswear companies.
Nike, GDH, Tiffany and Ugg products were just a small percentage of the names the crooks relied on to sell their scams in what seemed to be fabulous deals.
Even more worryingly, not only did the sites sell fake goods, but their customers could have easily fallen victims to identity theft, since the large amount of information that was required to complete a transaction could have been easily utilized for malevolent purposes.
“The sites suspended are registered in bulk by crime groups with the sole intention of duping consumers into parting with their money for, at best, poor quality counterfeit goods, at worst, nothing at all,” revealed DI Paul Hoare of the PCeU.
“In the run up to Christmas the PCeU will continue to work with Nominet and other registries to disable as many such sites as possible but I would urge customers to take all precautions to ensure they buy from legitimate sites only.”
Consumers are advised not to purchase anything from unknown or untrusted retailers, even if their websites are perfectly designed to match or replicate the real deal.
When buying something online, make sure the payment sites are using a secure and encrypted connection and never hand out unnecessary details such as PIN numbers and passwords. Legitimate stores will never ask for such info.
Also beware of unsolicited advertisements received through email and treat everything with suspicion, especially if the discounts or the deals appear to be great.