ACCC warns about ‘ghost stores’ and online retailer closing-down scams that sell dodgy clothing
When Heidi saw a bargain on what looked like an Aussie-based clothing sites, she didn’t hesitate. It’s prompted a warning over closing-down sales that aren’t what they seem.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
An Adelaide woman who blew more than $650 on overpriced, mass-produced clothing – thinking she was scoring bargains – is one of a rapidly growing number of Australians falling for fake “closing-down sales” set up by scammers.
Heidi Lang, an event venue owner in her 60s, went on an online shopping spree in May after seeing social media posts advertising closing-down sales for two stores that appeared to be Australian boutiques.
She spent $149.95 on a men’s jacket for her partner from ‘Vivid Melbourne’ and $508.92 on women’s clothes including leather shoes, earrings and jumpers from ‘Atelier Sydney’.
When the items arrived, Ms Lang was furious.
“They were plastic shoes, at the end of the day,” she said. “The jumpers and the jacket for my partner looked nothing like what they looked like online.”
A reverse Google image search for the male jacket showed the same product advertised for $30 on AliExpress and $48.56 on Amazon, despite being marked down in the “sale” from $500 – while the $52 shoes were advertised for $10.39 on AliExpress.
Neither retailer have bricks-and-mortar shops in Australia and they have not responded to requests for comment.
The operators share characteristics with what the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission are calling “ghost stores”, which are “making false representations that they are local Australian businesses, imminently closing down, and selling high-quality clothing and footwear products, when they are instead based overseas, not imminently closing down, and are drop-shipping low-quality products.”
ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe told The Advertiser that ghost stores “often come with an emotive closing-down story”.
“They might claim to have been a longstanding family business that’s hit hard times,” she said. “They’re using human psychology and some of the really lovely parts of human nature against us, in this regard.”
The ACCC has recorded fan increase in consumer complaints about ghost stores in recent months, receiving at least 360 consumer reports about 60 online retailers.
Ms Lowe said ghost store operators were engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct, which was a breach of the Australian consumer law, but there were “very practical challenges in effectively stopping this conduct”.
“Firstly, there’s a lot of them; secondly, it’s pretty quick and easy to set up a website and indeed to set up another one, if your website is shut down,” she said.
This has not stopped the ACCC from warning consumers to beware of such operators, issuing public warning notices on Thursday about everly-melbourne.com, willowandgrace-adelaide.com, sophie-claire.com and doublebayboutique.com.
These websites were contacted for comment.
The ACCC said ghost stores tended to use AI-generated images of the owners or team.
An image of the “founders” on the Atelier Sydney website shows a non-existent shopfront while one owner has a malformed eye.
Dark side of paradise: Nightmares resurface in Port Lincoln horror story
It’s one of South Australia’s true gems, but Port Lincoln is in shock as a horrific death cracks the facade of a city locals say looks far nicer than it really is.
Top SA pollie welcomes baby – and reveals sweet name
One of the state’s most senior MPs has announced he’s become a dad again as he revealed the newborn’s unique name.