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Fake Website Scams UK: Check an Online Shop Before You Buy

Fake shops, copycat brand sites and risky marketplace sellers: how to check whether a website is legitimate before you pay, and what to do if you already did.

'Website scams' cover three genuinely different problems that get lumped together, and the right response depends on which one you have. Some sites are outright fakes — copycat shops built to take card details and deliver nothing. Some are real marketplaces with variable sellers, where the platform exists but a particular listing does not deserve your trust. And some are real businesses selling things they should not, which is a safety problem before it is a payment one.

Start with the basics: read the full web address slowly before you type anything into it, check the trader independently, and treat a padlock, a familiar logo and polished product photos as decoration rather than evidence. Once you have done that, our free AI scam checker can give you an automated second opinion on a site or the advert that sent you there — it is an extra step, not a verdict.

Which of the three problems have you got?

Identify the category before spending time on checks that will not help.

  • You arrived from a social advert or an unexpected message, and the discounts are sitewide. Treat it as a possible copycat shop until you have checked, then type the brand's own address yourself and compare. Our guides to fake UGG websites, fake SHEIN pages, ASOS copycat stores, fake Nike shops, counterfeit Pandora sites and fake Ray-Ban stores each set out what the brand itself publishes about its own domains and authorised retailers.
  • The platform is one you have heard of, but the seller is unknown. That is marketplace risk, not a fabricated site. Our reviews of DHgate seller and counterfeit risk, AliExpress marketplace risk, buying safely on Wish and fake Temu offers explain what each platform actually protects and where its deadlines bite.
  • The site offers to supply a prescription-only medicine without a valid prescription or an appropriate prescribing consultation. Stop — the health risk outranks the fraud risk. Legitimate online prescribing can follow an appropriate consultation, so what should worry you is the absence of one. For a Great Britain pharmacy, do not rely on a logo image alone: check the displayed GPhC registration number directly in the live register and confirm that the pharmacy identity and address match. Current GPhC guidance says an online platform should prominently display that number and information explaining how to check its registration status. Northern Ireland works differently — the EU Distance Selling Logo is required on every page offering medicines for sale there, so its absence is material, although a copied image is not proof on its own. Check the pharmacy premises on the PSNI register and the seller on MHRA's register of authorised online sellers. GPhC is the General Pharmaceutical Council, and PSNI here is the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland, the pharmacy regulator rather than the police. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency published its register of authorised online sellers of medicines in Northern Ireland on 24 June 2026. Our fake online pharmacy guide works through the checks.
  • You cannot place the site at all. Start from first principles with our checklist, is this website a scam?

Buying scams dominate by volume: UK Finance's Annual Fraud Report 2026 records purchase scams as 71% of all authorised push payment cases, with losses of £118.1 million, up 20% on 2024, and puts 66% of APP cases as starting online. The dated figures sit in our UK scam statistics research.

Checks that help you judge an unfamiliar shop

  • Read the domain, not the brand name. Copycats add hyphens, extra words, digits or an unusual ending; a brand name sitting inside a longer address tells you nothing about who owns it.
  • A padlock means an encrypted connection to that domain, not an honest trader. HTTPS authenticates and encrypts the connection to the domain you are on; it does not show that the trader is honest or that your order will ever be fulfilled.
  • Look for the business behind the shop. UK distance sellers generally must give their identity, a geographic address and contact details, plus clear pricing, delivery, cancellation and returns information. Missing information is a warning sign rather than conclusive evidence of fraud. A site claiming to be a limited company should give a registered number you can look up on Companies House — sole traders will not have one, so apply that test only where incorporation is claimed.
  • Search a distinctive product sentence in quotation marks, and search the domain alongside the words review, refund and delivery. You are looking for patterns — copied text, missing parcels, unanswered refunds — not a flawless record.
  • Watch the checkout. A site that quietly moves you off card payment towards a bank transfer or a 'friends and family' payment is a serious warning sign, because it can remove or reduce the protection you would otherwise have had.

Marketplaces are real; individual sellers are the variable

DHgate, AliExpress, Wish and Temu are operating businesses rather than fabricated websites, and flatly calling them 'a scam' misreads the risk. What varies is the seller, the listing and the goods. One move should stop you on any of them: a seller who wants to take you off-platform. That can remove or reduce the platform's protection and substantially increase your risk, though on its own it does not establish that a crime has been committed. Keep payment and messages inside the platform, because a dispute process can only protect what it can see, and it applies only where its current eligibility, payment, evidence and deadline requirements are met — so open any dispute before the deadline shown on your own order rather than one quoted somewhere general.

Impersonation is a separate problem from the platform itself. Criminals send fake cashback texts, 'free gift' offers and lookalike pages using these brand names, so check any reward inside the official app rather than through a link you were sent.

What to do if you have already paid

  • Contact your card issuer or bank promptly using the number on your card. The sooner a disputed payment is raised, the more options remain open.
  • Ask about Section 75 if you paid by credit card. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 may apply where the cash price of a single item or qualifying set is more than £100 and no more than £30,000, and where the required debtor-creditor-supplier relationship exists. It is a claim to raise, not an automatic refund.
  • Ask about chargeback for debit and other card payments. Chargeback is a card scheme process rather than a statutory right, and time limits apply, so raise it quickly.
  • Keep everything — screenshots of the listing and checkout, order confirmations, the full web address, and any goods and packaging that did arrive.
  • Do not order again to 'test' the site, and treat any unsolicited or unverifiable recovery approach as a recovery-scam warning. Verify it independently and never pay an unexpected upfront release or recovery fee. Our scam recovery checklist sets out the payment, account and identity steps in order.

How to report a fake website in the UK

Report a suspicious website through the National Cyber Security Centre's phishing and scam reporting routes, and send scam emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. If you have lost money or handed over details, report it to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) at reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland. Many brands run their own report-a-fake form for counterfeit sites and listings. For consumer-rights help, use the service for your nation: Citizens Advice in England and Wales on 0808 223 1133, Advice Direct Scotland in Scotland on 0808 800 9060, or Consumerline in Northern Ireland on 0300 123 6262. In England and Wales, Citizens Advice can also pass a trader on to Trading Standards. A medicine you think is fake or counterfeit can be reported to the MHRA through the Yellow Card Scheme on GOV.UK.

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Common questions

How can I tell if a website is fake before I buy?

No single check settles it, so judge the pattern. Read the full domain slowly, look for a named business with a geographic address and clear pricing, delivery, cancellation and returns terms, search a distinctive product sentence in quotation marks to spot copied text, and search the domain with the words review and refund. A checkout that steers you away from card payment towards a bank transfer or a 'friends and family' payment is a serious warning sign, because it can remove or reduce your protection. Missing details are a warning rather than conclusive evidence, so if several checks fail, pause the purchase.

Does a padlock or https mean a website is safe?

No. HTTPS authenticates and encrypts the connection between your browser and that domain. It does not show who runs the site, whether the trader is honest, or whether your order will be fulfilled. Copycat shops routinely hold valid certificates, so treat the padlock as a minimum requirement rather than reassurance.

Is DHgate, Wish, AliExpress or Temu a scam?

These are operating marketplaces rather than fabricated websites, so the platform is real and the risk sits with individual sellers, listings and goods — counterfeits, no-shows and quality problems. Keep payment and messages on the platform, never accept an off-site bank transfer or 'friends and family' request, and open any dispute before the deadline shown on your own order, remembering that a dispute process applies only where its eligibility, payment, evidence and deadline requirements are met.

I paid a fake website by card — can I get my money back?

Possibly, and speed helps. Contact your card issuer or bank on the number on your card. For a credit card purchase, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 may apply where the cash price of a single item or qualifying set is more than £100 and no more than £30,000 and the required credit-to-supplier relationship exists. For debit and other card payments, ask about chargeback — a card scheme process rather than a statutory right, with its own time limits. Keep all your evidence.

Sources checked

Last reviewed . Reporting routes are checked against our verified canon of official UK sources. Read about how Beat the Scam writes guides.

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