I wish shopify would pay closer attention to these bogus sellers like give them 6 months to prove themselves or in fraudulent stores ban them.I also noticed when they start getting bad scores and feedback they quickly change their names. That should set off warning bells right there to Shopify. Unfortunately I believe Shopify is more interested in the money the retailers give them than the people who use those retailers.
Topic summary
Multiple Shopify store owners and customers report frustration over fraudulent stores operating on the platform with no clear reporting mechanism. Common scam patterns include:
Typical fraud tactics:
- Selling counterfeit or misrepresented products (phone cases, electronics, clothing)
- Shipping broken, unbranded, or completely different items than advertised
- Refusing refunds despite stated policies, offering only store credit
- Deleting negative comments on social media
- Using stolen product images from legitimate businesses
- Operating multiple duplicate sites simultaneously
Reporting methods identified:
- File chargebacks with credit card companies (high chargeback volumes trigger Shopify’s Risk team investigation)
- Use Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy violation form for non-delivery or intellectual property infringement
- Report to FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov
- Contact Shopify support directly through account menu
Ongoing concerns:
- Fraudulent stores quickly reappear under new names after takedowns
- Approximately 40% of Shopify stores may be scams according to one cited study
- Legitimate store owners worry the platform’s reputation suffers, with some considering migration to other platforms
- The ease of setting up Shopify stores enables rapid fraud proliferation
The discussion remains open with no systemic solution from Shopify addressed.
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But they get benefit from this even the scams are paying customers so of course they welcome the extra money. Same ■■■■ is at Facebook marketing. They not care the scam ads when they get the money.
Pb-cat, when I reported the 3 or 4 companies who were scamming through the platform, Shopify never once said that there was a formal process to report them. Even though the stores were still open and still taking live scans… even when I presented the invalid contact information on their shops, they did nothing… even when I presented them with invalid tracking numbers for items that were supposed to be in transit, they did nothing. Shopify’s policy to protect their scammers has been proven time and time again. I now consider anyone using Shopify a scam PERIOD.
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I just ran into same issue.
This store Justincase LA is scamming people trying to sell phone cases.
SHOPIFY - How are you allowing these people to create merchant accounts with you guys.. I will trust no store hosted by you guys ever again.
I’ve created a petition that asks Shopify to take greater action on spam prevention. Please take a look here and share: https://www.change.org/shopifytransparency
https://www.shopify.com/legal/report-aup-violation
This link seems to do some reporting of scam sites.
Unfortunately, I recently had this happen, and when I tried to point this out to Shopify, including the abrupt lack of communication that started on the day I was “guaranteed” to get my order. I pointed out all kinds of red flags, including the fact that their “Contact Us” page was lifted directly from a pet food site (The products on this page were not related to pets in any way). Also, the website and the FB page were both about 3 weeks old, and despite supposedly being a US company, were curated from like Pakistan.
All Shopify would say is that I needed to wait 4 weeks after shipping. they ignored the fact that it had been “shipping” for 3 weeks at that point, and the company stopped responding to emails the day that my promised delivery came and went. Neither FB nor Shopify care at all about consumer safety, and they also have realized that they don’t need to care about their brand, so neither one is going to do anything. And I’m sorry, but knowing how many Shopify sites are scams (A BBC investigation found about 21% were dangerous for consumers in one way or another), I can no longer use Shopify. I’d recommend another platform for your store.
Since Shopify seems to be more concerned with helping thieves out, when I started down this thread, I had showed them how the email address on their “contact us” was invalid. They refused to reach out to the merchant to let them know that the email address was wrong and that they had customers trying to reach them. Shopify support won’t do anything after 4 weeks… they just lie and lie and lie. I have kept my emails and communications with this shameful company.
Now when I want to order something from a Shopify hosted company, I now contact them ahead of time. If no response, I don’t order.
You might also want to report the company to Facebook since they have a page and ads.
Report them for fraud at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/assistant
None of these types of services I have found, have any easy to contact support options because that would mean hiring people a $$ to their business. Fraudsters are able to get away with this because there is hardly ever any background checks performed (again costing money). The most common response if you do get one is to refer you to a government website (who also won’t help). This is why fraudsters are exploding, they know that the chances of getting caught are slim to none!!
I ordered a US Rechargeable electric tree branch trimmer for $70. Everything about the listing look legit including feedback. So what was delivered after waiting weeks??
A pair of $5 manual hand clippers and a Europe to US AC Adapter! It was almost like the fraudster wasn’t content with just taking my money, they had to make a joke out of it and send me a pair of the cheapest cutters and a AC adapter that changed the wide round Europe plugs to the standard US two prong plugs.
I reported it to my credit card company and they refunded me the charge but ulimately they will raise their interest rates to customers to pay for all the rip offs there are out there now.
And the services offering platforms to these crooks are only interested in making money!
They won’t follow up on it. Just as quickly as that fraudsters website was taken down, they just created a new name and opened up a new store listing with exactly the same products being offered! A larger, growing percentage of the population doesn’t care about honesty and honor anymore! These days you have to be extremely careful with your purchases.
It’s been 2 years since this was put up and I cannot find a way to report fraudulent companies. I was scammed by TWO DIFFERENT Shopify websites. How is this still happening? How can we report these websites?! I need help or I’m gonna have to stop shopping with ANY websites powered by Shopify if something cannot be done and just shop Amazon from now on since they actually help their people. I ordered three different orders and NONE of them showed up. Shopify should have some responsibility in this!
So, were you not able to do it from this website?
https://www.shopify.com/legal/report-aup-violation
Is this topic still open? Because there is an other scam webshop: https://urbanvehicles.nl/. Says he delivers e-bikes, but he only takes peoples money and never delivers any of his products. The positive reviews on trustpilot are from fake accounts. And the people who tell the truth on Trustpilot he reports there reviews. The owner Tonny Verweij of this webshop is a known Dutch scammer, he has several webshops and companies before: scubo.nl (see trustpilot), Aquasub (see trustpilot), Stichting Qenzi etc. With all of these companies he rips off people. So hopefully Shopify will shut his new webshop urban vehicles Amsterdam down.
Update he is making a new webshop ass well: bakfietsen.nl
That’s it. Your last bit. I stay away if I see the store is thru Shopify because I don’t know if I’m going to get ripped off. And there was a study done that found something like 40% of Shopify stores are scams because it’s so easy to set up. You are more than welcome to forward my statement on to support, since this is affecting you , too.
Hello,
I’m here to says that https://kleaner.net/ is a scam and doesn’t deliver anymore.
I’ve made two orders which never arrives, send several e-mails with no answer.
A lot of french customers says they never receive the product, and have no answer from the reseller, on this page : www.signal-arnaques.com/comment/add?scamId=300241
The real and serious kleaner company (in germany) says the person who made this website doesn’t deliver anymore (death, prison, nobody knows) and give no answer.
It’s a shame that Shopify doesn’t do anything to protect customers from fake websites.
Hi everyone!
Hope you’re having a great day! I’m sorry for what happened to you.
Why is there no way for us to report scam stores like this?
There is a way to report shops like this to Shopify. You can do it here:
https://www.shopify.com/legal/report-aup-violation
Have a great day everyone!
https://unitedslickmart.com/ scam site
The stupidest part is that Shopify won’t allow you to report a fraud transaction for 30 days after the order. Who is waiting that long in this day & age? You know you’ve been scammed after a week, at most. Waiting 30 days just invites more victims. This is an egregious policy problem from Shopify.
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I buy stuff online and because shopify isn’t interested in removing scammers, I won’t buy anything from someone using the platform which is a shame because there are many honest businesses using it.
The likes of jixby for instance . The use of a fake address raised warning signs for me and the phone number is obviously fake. Some gullible person won’t check and will lose money.
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