Shoppers hunting for online bargains are being duped by sophisticated scam websites that convincingly pose as well known UK high street retailers, our trading standards officers have warned.

The fake sites often feature polished images of smiling customers and familiar-looking shopfronts in London and other UK towns and cities. 

But behind the professional appearance lies AI generated imagery, overseas sellers and, for many victims, lost money and worthless goods.

Residents are being urged to carry out simple checks before clicking the ‘buy’ button:

• businesses selling goods online must provide contact details. Check these carefully - if they are missing or cannot be verified, trading standards’ advice is not to proceed with the purchase.
• if a shopfront image is shown, check it using online street maps.
• read reviews and comments on social media posts carefully.
• check when websites and social media accounts were set up; scam sites are often newly created.
• if a business claims to be a limited company, check its details on the government's guidance page, which will confirm who operates it and when it was set up.

Our trading standards officers have seen a growing number of complaints from residents who believed they were buying from legitimate UK businesses after seeing photographs of supposed physical shops and happy customers.

In reality, the images and website text are generated using artificial intelligence, and the goods are being sold by overseas traders - primarily based in China.

Trading standards officers are now receiving complaints from around 20 residents every month who thought they were buying from genuine UK businesses. Instead, many have either lost their money entirely or received poor quality, and potentially unsafe, goods.