Festive-season shopping: spotting fake stores and “90% off” deals
Fake shopping sites peak around festivals and sales. How to recognise them in under a minute.
Every festival season brings advertisements for phones at a tenth of their price, “clearance sales” from brands that do not exist and copies of well-known stores on slightly different addresses. Some sites take the payment and send nothing; others exist only to collect card details.
Check before you pay
- Read the address carefully. Extra words, hyphens or an unusual ending on a familiar brand name are warning signs.
- Too good to be true usually is. Genuine sales rarely cut flagship products by 80–90%.
- Look for real contact details — a registered company name, an address and a GSTIN — not only a WhatsApp number.
- Pay through a known payment gateway or cash on delivery. Be wary of sites that only accept direct UPI transfer to a person.
- Search the store’s name with “review” or “fraud” before your first order.
How TotalHeal helps
TotalHeal’s web protection checks shopping sites as they open and blocks known fraudulent and look-alike stores. The extension also shows when you are on a verified banking site. See how it works.