Is this website legit? How to check an online store
An unfamiliar shop that looked fine in the ad and fine on the site can still be fake. Here are the checks that take under a minute - the domain, the contact details, independent reviews - plus why the payment method matters more than anything else.
The short answer
- Check three things: the domain for a near-miss of a real brand, a genuine physical address and phone number rather than a contact form alone, and the store's name plus "scam" searched separately.
- Always pay by credit card - it preserves chargeback rights that a bank transfer or crypto payment does not give you.
- Reviews on the store's own site are worthless; look for independent evidence on platforms the seller does not control.
- Fake stores are built from templates in minutes, run for weeks, and disappear before complaints accumulate.
- Shopping scams were the most reported type of social media scam in 2025, with over 40% of social media scam losses involving an ad purchase.
Check three things before you buy. Look at the domain closely for a near-miss of a real brand name. Look for a genuine physical address and phone number, not just a contact form. And search the store's name plus "scam" in a separate tab — a real retailer has a history; a fake one has nothing, or a sudden burst of complaints. Whatever you decide, pay by credit card: it is the one habit that turns a loss into a dispute.
Shopping scams do not look like fraud. They look like an advert for something you wanted, at a price that is good but not absurd, from a shop you had not heard of but which appears entirely normal.
They were the most reported type of social media scam in 2025. The FTC found that more than 40% of people who lost money to a scam on social media said they had ordered something they saw in an advertisement — "everything from clothes and makeup to car parts and even puppies".
Why the advertisement is the delivery mechanism
Social media advertising is available to anyone with a card, and it comes with the same targeting tools any legitimate business uses: age, interests, shopping habits, location.
That produces two advantages for a fraudulent seller.
Reach without reputation. A real shop needs to be found. A fraudulent one buys its way in front of you, and does not need to survive long enough to build a history.
A context where you are not evaluating. You were not shopping. You were scrolling. The purchase is impulsive and small enough not to warrant research — which is precisely the condition under which the checks below do not get run.
The main forms
The template store
Built in minutes from an off-the-shelf storefront kit, populated with product images scraped from real retailers. It runs for a few weeks, takes orders, and disappears before complaints accumulate. The same operator opens another under a new name the following month.
Goods never arrive, or arrive as something unrecognisable from what was pictured.
Brand impersonation
A near-exact copy of a real retailer's site on a lookalike domain, advertising implausible discounts. This overlaps directly with phishing — the site collects card details as much as it takes orders.
The FTC notes that many social media shopping ads led to unfamiliar sites, while others sent people to sites impersonating well-known brands claiming big discounts.
The marketplace seller
On a genuine platform, but pushing you off it. "Cheaper if you pay directly." Moving off-platform removes buyer protection, which is the entire objective.
Pets and high-emotion goods
Puppies, kittens, event tickets, rare items. Named explicitly in the FTC's findings. Emotional investment plus scarcity plus deposits, followed by additional fees — transport, insurance, a special crate — before anything arrives. Nothing ever does.
Checks that take under a minute
Read the domain carefully. Near-misses are the norm. Look at what sits immediately before the first single slash — that is the real domain, and anything before it is chosen freely.
Look for a real identity. A genuine retailer publishes a company name, a registered address and a phone number. A contact form alone is a warning. Copy the address into a map and see whether it is a warehouse or a car park.
Search the name plus "scam" or "reviews". Ten seconds, and it is the FTC's own first recommendation. Look for results not on the shop's own site.
Check the age of the store. A brand-new domain selling established branded goods at a discount is the standard pattern.
Ignore on-site reviews entirely. They are content the operator writes.
Compare the price to reality. If a current-season item is 70% below every other retailer, the question is not why it is cheap.
The same checks generalise beyond shopping — see how to tell if an online scam is real for the signs that work on a message, a call or an offer as well as a shop.
Pay by card, always
This is the single most valuable habit in online shopping.
| Method | If it goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Credit card | Chargeback rights, and in the UK Section 75 protection over £100 |
| Debit card | Chargeback available, though slower |
| PayPal (goods and services) | Buyer protection applies |
| PayPal "friends and family" | No protection — never use for a purchase |
| Bank transfer | Effectively none |
| Cryptocurrency | None |
Paying by card costs nothing extra and converts a total loss into a dispute.
If it has already happened
Contact your card issuer now and ask about a chargeback. This is routine for them.
Keep everything — the order confirmation, the advert if you can still find it, the site URL, any messages.
Report the advert to the platform. It is how a campaign gets pulled before it reaches other people.
Report the fraud to ReportFraud.ftc.gov, or Action Fraud in the UK.
Watch the card. Details entered on a fraudulent site tend to be used or sold. Small test transactions frequently precede larger ones.
Spot the fake storefront
Our drill puts real and fraudulent shops side by side and asks you to sort them, with the checks that actually separate them.
Try it freeFrequently asked questions
- How do I know if an online store is legitimate?
- Check three things. Look at the domain closely for a near-miss of a real brand. Look for a genuine physical address and phone number rather than a contact form alone. And search the store's name plus "scam" or "reviews" — a real retailer has a history, while a fake one has either nothing or a sudden burst of complaints.
- Why do fake shops advertise on social media?
- Because the same targeting tools legitimate businesses use are available to them, cheaply, and they reach people who are not actively shopping and therefore not evaluating carefully. The FTC found more than 40% of people who lost money to a social media scam had ordered something they saw in an advert.
- What should I do if I ordered from a fake website?
- Contact your card issuer immediately and ask about a chargeback — card payments have genuine protections and issuers handle this routinely. Keep the order confirmation and any messages. Report the store to the platform that carried the ad and to ReportFraud.ftc.gov or Action Fraud.
- Is it safe to buy from an unfamiliar site if it has good reviews?
- Reviews on the site itself are worthless — they are content the operator controls. What matters is independent evidence, such as reviews on platforms the seller does not run, and a trading history you can find. A store with hundreds of five-star reviews and no presence anywhere else is a warning, not a reassurance.
- Why does the payment method matter so much?
- Because it determines whether recovery is possible. A credit card gives chargeback rights and a real dispute process. A bank transfer, payment app to a stranger, or cryptocurrency has none — which is exactly why a "store" offering a discount for paying by transfer is telling you what it is.
Sources
- New FTC Data Show People Have Lost Billions to Social Media Scams — Federal Trade Commission, 2026
- FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025 — Federal Trade Commission, 2026
About the author
Cybersecurity & Digital Literacy
Subash Poudel builds SafeSurf IQ, a digital literacy platform that teaches people to recognise scams by putting them in front of real ones. He writes the online-safety reference material here, working from primary reporting — FBI IC3, the FTC, Verizon's DBIR, NCSC and Ofcom — rather than secondhand summaries.
- Founder and engineer, SafeSurf IQ
- Writes and reviews the platform's phishing, scam and privacy curriculum
- Works from primary incident and fraud reporting, cited on every article
Last reviewed . Figures are checked against the primary sources listed above at each review.
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