How to spot an online scam

To spot an online scam before you pay, check four things in two minutes: whether the price is too good, whether the web address is exactly the official one, whether the seller says who they are and where they are, and how they're asking you to pay. Fake shops, rentals that don't exist and cloned websites almost always fail at least one of them, especially the last: they want a wire transfer, a payment app transfer to a stranger, a gift card, crypto or a payment outside the platform, because that money is very hard to get back.

The four two-minute checks

1. The price. If it's much lower than anywhere else, ask yourself why it's being offered to you. It's the oldest red flag in the trade.
2. The address. Read the full address in the browser bar, letter by letter. Cloned websites change one letter, add a hyphen or use a different ending. Don't reach a store or your bank from a link in a text, an email or an ad: type the address yourself or use the official app.
3. Who's behind it. A real seller tells you its business name, a physical address and how to contact it. In the UK, regulation 6 of the Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 requires anyone selling online to make that information easily, directly and permanently accessible: name, geographic address, email address and, where applicable, registration details. If there's no business behind the site, or just a generic page with no company in it, don't buy.
4. The payment. Pay by credit card or through the platform's own system, never by wire to a personal account, by payment app to a stranger, in crypto or with gift cards. eBay itself warns that requests for wire transfers to overseas accounts, prepaid cards or cryptocurrency are a sign of a scam.

Fake online stores

What they look like. Well-designed websites, often with the logos of known brands, huge discounts and a “only a few left” counter. They show up mostly in social media ads and around big shopping dates.

Red flags.

• Discounts of 70% or more on products that nobody discounts.
• No business details, no physical address, or a phone number nobody answers.
• Reviews only on the store's own site, all of them perfect.
• They only accept bank transfers or, when you get to checkout, the card “fails” and they suggest another method.

What to do. Search for the store's name together with “reviews” or “scam” outside its own website. When in doubt, buy from the brand's official website.

Rental and booking scams that don't exist

How they work. A vacation rental or a long-term apartment, with beautiful photos and a below-market price, listed on Zillow, Craigslist or social media. The “owner” lives abroad, can't show it to you and asks for a deposit by wire to hold it. Or a listing on a booking platform whose host suggests continuing on WhatsApp and paying separately “to save you the fee.”

Red flags. You can't see the place or do a video call from inside it, there's pressure to pay the deposit (“three other families are interested”) and, above all, any suggestion to pay or message outside the platform.

What the platforms say. Airbnb warns that leaving its platform puts you at greater risk of fraud and that if you pay by wire or bank transfer, it may be a fraudulent reservation. It asks you to report it immediately if a host suggests paying or communicating outside the platform before booking. The rule applies to any platform: book, pay and message inside it, and be wary of messages with payment links, even if they seem to come from the property.

Facebook Marketplace and eBay scams

On peer-to-peer sites like Facebook Marketplace, eBay or Craigslist, the two most common patterns are:

• Getting you off the app. The supposed buyer or seller suggests continuing by text or another messaging app, outside the platform's protections.
• The fake link or email. They send you a link that imitates the platform, for example to “verify” your account or “collect” a payment, and that actually asks for your card details. eBay says it will never ask for your password or credit card details and that it always sends a copy of any important message to your eBay Messages inbox: if it's not there, it didn't come from eBay.

And a common-sense rule: to get paid you never need to give anyone your card's security code or the code you receive by text.

Cloned websites and fake email notifications

The same technique is used to clone your bank, the postal service, a delivery company, a utility or the tax authority. A text or email about a held package leads to a payment page that asks for your card number, expiration date and security code. If you're unsure, contact the company yourself or open its app. In the UK, the National Cyber Security Centre explains how to report suspicious emails, texts, websites and ads.

Cloned news websites are also used to sell investments with fake celebrities: we cover that in fake celebrity ads. And if the person asking you for money is someone you met on an app or a social network, read our guide to the romance scam.

If you've already paid

1. Call your bank or card issuer on the official number: block the card and dispute the charge. In the US, the CFPB explains that to protect your rights on a credit card you must also send a written billing error notice within 60 days after the charge appears on your statement, so the sooner the better.
2. Keep the evidence: the exact website address, screenshots of the listing and the conversation, the payment receipt.
3. Tell the platform and report the profile or the listing.
4. Report it: in the US to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI's IC3; in the UK to Report Fraud.

The full steps are in what to do if you get scammed.

The same trick, a century ago

A cloned website is the modern version of a stage set. In 1822, Gregor MacGregor sold land and bonds in London for Poyais, a country that didn't exist, with a printed guidebook, a flag and its own currency. The settlers who paid to get there found jungle. His rule is Law of Deception No. 2: “If the lie is big and detailed enough, nobody checks it.”

The rental that doesn't exist has a famous precedent too. In 2017, the Fyre Festival advertised a private island “once owned by Pablo Escobar”: it wasn't private, it had never been Escobar's and the festival wasn't even going to be held there. And the impossible bargain is the trick Victor Lustig used in 1925: the Eiffel Tower, at scrap prices. Law of Deception No. 1: “The victim's greed does the con man's work.”

Before you pay for something that makes you hesitate, run it through the MATERIUM scam checker: it has a section for purchases, rentals and bookings, and it doesn't store anything you check.