They look deceptively real, sell items that are actually out of stock and allure you with the best price. The Internet is full of online shops that offer supposed bargains – but despite payment, the goods never arrive.
“Fake online shops have become a real plague on the Internet,” says Bavaria’s Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU). In order to identify fraudsters more specifically in the future, the minister signed a cooperation agreement with Helmut Leopold from the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) on Thursday to find fake shop operators more specifically and hold them accountable. To this end, the Bavarian-Austrian cooperation developed an investigation tool that can check transactions on the Internet for authenticity and helps consumers to shop securely on the Internet.
“The Fake Shop Detector, which was developed by AIT, uses artificial intelligence to check unknown online shops,” explains Leopold, who is responsible for digital security at AIT. The software searches in real time for clues that make statements about the seriousness of the retailer. Users could download the software as a plug-in for their browser and enter the Internet address of an online shop in the search field. The system examines more than 21,000 features of a website. “If there are indications that it is a dubious shop, the software warns the consumer.” The detector also creates a blocked list of fake shops that consumers can use as a guide. “The more users use the tool, the more precisely the AI can work.”
The scammers make money with bogus offers – from firewood to Playstations
Marion Zinkeler, head of the Bavarian Consumer Advice Center, also knows that online shops on the Internet need to be handled sensitively. Every day people fall for online shops with supposed bargains, pay money and end up waiting in vain for their goods. Consumers should therefore pay attention to certain things when shopping on the Internet: In fake shops, for example, you can only pay in advance, there is no customer service and money refunds would come to nothing. Fraudsters also lured with seasonal offers or with products that are not available elsewhere. “During the energy crisis last winter, fake shops sold firewood, for example. The scammers also had Playstations on offer, although they were sold out everywhere,” Zinkeler recalls.
If you want to be on the safe side when shopping online, you should take a look at the imprint and check the address of the company, for example. Conspicuously long Internet addresses could also be an indication of scammers. However, the increasing professionalization of retailers is making it increasingly difficult for consumers to distinguish reputable sites from dubious ones. “The dealers even come up with fake seals of quality,” warns the expert.
The Central Office for Cybercrime Bavaria (ZCB) was founded in 2015 to prosecute the criminals. Since then, 23 public prosecutors and four IT specialists have initiated more than 65,000 proceedings. With the help of the Fake Shop Detector, fraudsters should be found even earlier and brought to justice.