Free check

For shoppers

Is this store real?

Clone stores copy a real brand's photos, products and look, then take orders they never ship. Here is how to tell before you pay, and what to do if you already have.

If a site is not listed, we keep its address (never who asked) so we can check it.

I already paid

Before you buy

Six signs of a copied store

One sign alone proves nothing. Two or three together are worth stopping for.

The address is almost right

The brand's name plus a word like -outlet, -sale or -official, or a different ending such as .shop or .store. Compare it with the address you find by searching for the brand yourself.

You found it through an ad

Clones get nearly all their visitors from paid ads, often with "closing down", "last day" or 70% to 90% off. A real store's ad leads to the real store's address.

The price is far too low

Every product at a deep discount, on a brand that does not usually discount, is the most common sign. Clones never ship, so the price costs them nothing.

The domain is new

Clone domains are usually weeks old. A registration lookup (for example lookup.icann.org) shows when a domain was registered; a real store's domain is usually years old.

The small print names someone else

Copied refund and shipping policies sometimes still name the original store, its address or its email.

Contact is a form and a free email

No phone number, no address, or a webmail address where the real brand uses its own domain.

Thirty seconds

Check it yourself

The simplest test is the address.

  1. Search for the brand's name yourself, rather than clicking the ad, and note the address the brand's own results use.
  2. Compare it letter by letter with the address of the site you are on.
  3. Check the site against our watchlist. We list sites we found copying a real store and checked by hand. Not being listed does not make a site safe: we only list what we have checked.
  4. If in doubt, buy from the brand's own address, or contact the brand and ask.