Fake web shops and ‘amazing deals’

Why it works

A fake web shop doesn’t count on people being naive. It counts on the moments when we’re tired and short of time: in the evening after bedtime, in a waiting room, between two feeds. The huge discount and the countdown have one aim – to get you to pay before you have time to check the shop.

Czech police warn that, thanks to artificial intelligence, such shops can now be set up very quickly and look better and better. They often run for just a few weeks, then disappear and pop up again under a new address. They pull in customers with paid online ads, often on social media.

In Czechia, the Czech Trade Inspection Authority keeps a public list of risky web shops. In October 2026 it had over 1,300 shops on it – more than 400 of them added since the start of 2026. For more than a thousand of them, the inspectors note that the website doesn’t say who runs the shop.

Five warning signs

• A deal that’s too good. New goods for a fraction of the price, ‘warehouse clearance’, ‘closing down’. By the way: under EU consumer law, falsely claiming that a shop is closing down is always a misleading practice.
• Pressure to decide fast. A countdown, ‘only 6 left’, ‘43 people bought this today’. A shop can set counters like these to say whatever it likes.
• You can’t tell who runs the shop. Under EU rules, an online shop must tell you who it is, its address, phone number and email address, and its trade register number. If they’re missing, you have nobody to turn to when something goes wrong.
• Payment only by bank transfer in advance. Czech police list it among the warning signs. For online purchases, they recommend paying by card – you can ask your bank to reverse a card payment (a so-called chargeback).
• Reviews that are all glowing and only on the shop’s own site. The shop could have written them itself. The same goes for badges like ‘Certified shop’ or ‘Money-back guarantee’ – without saying who guarantees it, they mean nothing. Find out more about fake reviews in the Manipulation Atlas.

And the padlock next to the address? According to Czech police, it only means the connection is encrypted. The padlock tells you nothing about who is behind the shop.

How to check a web shop in two minutes

1. Who runs it? Look in the footer or the terms and conditions for a company name, registration number, address, phone number and email address.
2. Does the company really exist? Look it up in the official business register of the country where it’s based. Do the name and address match what the website says? Careful: Czech police warn that scammers sometimes use a real company’s details.
3. Is it on a warning list? If your country’s consumer authority or a consumer organisation keeps a list of risky web shops, check it. In Czechia, for example, the Czech Trade Inspection Authority publishes one at coi.gov.cz/rizikove. A shop that isn’t on a list isn’t automatically fine.
4. What do others say about it? Search for the shop’s name plus ‘reviews’. Trust reviews outside the shop’s own site more.
5. Where does the address lead? Did you get there from an ad or a link in a message? Paste the address into the Link X-ray. It takes the address apart without opening the page and shows you who really owns it.

If you’re not sure, leave the purchase until tomorrow. An honest shop gives you time to think.