German cybersecurity Lab triggers joint investigation into “vast web of fake shops” that apparently “took money and personal details from 800,000 people in Europe and US”
A joint investigation by the Guardian newspaper in the UK, Le Monde in France and Die Zeit in Germany unearthed a network of some 76,000 fake websites offering designer goods. This was after the German Security Research Labs (SR Labs), a cybersecurity consultancy, obtained gigabytes of data which it shared it with Die Zeit
The fake shops appear to have tricked more than 800,000 people in Europe and the US into handing over card details and other personal data such as names, phone numbers, email and postal addresses.
The fake store fronts claim to offer discounted goods from brands including Dior, Nike, Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Versace and Prada.
The Guardian stated, “A trove of data examined by reporters and IT experts indicates the operation is highly organised, technically savvy – and ongoing”. The websites are published in multiple European languages and it seems the first ones appeared online in 2015.
The newspapers estimate that although many are now inactive, about 22,000 are still live.
The report says more than 1 million ‘orders’ have been processed in the last three years alone. Not all the payments went through, according to analysis of the data, but the fraudsters attempted to process up to €50 million in the three-year period.