Online stores known as “ghost stores” are pretending to be Australian businesses by offering fake tracking numbers that they use to deceive payment platforms into believing they have delivered goods that were never sent, as complained by a disgruntled shopper.
Ghost stores are online operations that exist only virtually, without physical storefronts. Guardian Australia has discovered 140 such entities posing as local businesses, some offering low-quality garments and fake brands, and others taking customers’ money without delivering anything at all.
A 63-year-old woman from Geelong, who wishes to remain anonymous, recounted her “distressing” and “disappointing” experience in April when she attempted to purchase items from the Maison Canberra website but had to ask for a refund from PayPal.
She fell victim to deceptive advertisements on Facebook which depicted Maison Canberra as a Canberra-based boutique going out of business clearance sale.
The woman’s orders for clothes and shoes never arrived.
She contended that the seller continuously provided false proof of delivery to PayPal, and she believed the payment service was favoring the business despite her “efforts to provide clear and legitimate evidence to the contrary”.
Maison Canberra operates on Shopify, a global e-commerce platform, but neither the store nor Shopify has responded to Guardian Australia’s requests for comment.
On March 31, Guardian Australia made a purchase of a blouse for $69.95 from Maison Canberra. The site emailed on April 1 stating that the item was shipped, but it was never delivered. The site has since been shut down.
Maison Canberra duped the Geelong woman into spending $490.90, including international transaction fees of $17.18. After discovering she had been potentially scammed, she initiated a dispute with PayPal for a refund and submitted “extensive documentation,” including evidence of what she believed were “fake” tracking numbers.
Consumer experts have posited that Shopify and Meta need to assume more responsibility for hosting these deceitful sites and allowing deceptive advertising, and that payment platforms like PayPal have a role in the issue by facilitating these sites’ use of their services.
