Stop fake online stores selling as your brand
A fake online store copies your product photos and prices onto a web address like yours, such as yourbrand-outlet.shop, advertises a big discount and keeps the payments. We find each one, get it taken down and keep watching for the next. In our e-commerce case, that meant 14 fake stores taken down in the brand’s first two weeks.
What is a fake online store?
A fake online store is a copy of a real brand’s store on a web address the brand does not own. It uses the brand’s name, product photos and prices, takes payment by card or bank transfer, and sends nothing, or a counterfeit. Shoppers also call them fake shops, scam stores or copycat websites.
The brand pays as well as the shopper: bad reviews under its name, and customers who stop trusting its real ads and sales.
How the scam works
Nobody hacks anything. A fake store needs a web address like yours, a copy of your products and a way to bring shoppers to it.
Step 1
They register an address like yours
Your name with a word like "outlet", "sale" or "official" added, or your name on another ending, like .shop or .store. Next to an ad for a big discount, it looks real enough.
Step 2
They copy your store
Your product photos, descriptions and prices, rebuilt on an off-the-shelf store platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce. In one case we handled, seven fake stores were built from two different kits.
Step 3
They bring the shoppers
Ads on social media and search, discount codes and "closing-down sale" posts. Your customers are searching for your products by name, so they are easy to reach.
Step 4
They take the money and move on
The order never arrives, or a fake does. When one store is reported, the same kit appears on a new address, and the complaints come to you.
In the US, shopping scams were the most reported scam on social media in 2025, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
How to tell a store is a fake
Look at it the way a shopper would, on a phone, a few seconds after tapping an ad. Three things on the page itself show it is a fake.
The brand, store, product and prices in this example are made up.
Four more checks
The domain is new
Look up when the domain was registered. A store claiming years of trading on a domain registered last week is not yours. Every alert we send shows the date.
Your photos and words, slightly wrong
Your own product photos and descriptions, with odd spelling, the wrong currency or prices that do not match your range.
No real way to contact them
No phone number, a free email address, or a returns address that is not yours.
Shoppers arrive from an ad
Shoppers find it through a social media ad or a sponsored post, not through your own site or emails.
Give these checks to your customer service team, so they can answer a customer who asks about a store you have never seen.
What to do when you find a fake store
Report it to us, and we gather the evidence, send the takedown to every place able to act and chase them until the store is offline. Do these four today as well.
- 1Save the fake store’s web address, and take screenshots of its pages, including the checkout.
- 2Tell your customer service team which address is yours, so they can answer customers who ask about the other one.
- 3Customers who paid the fake store should call their card issuer or bank now to dispute the payment.
- 4Post your real address on your own site and social accounts, and report any ads for the fake store to the platform showing them.
We cannot get your customers’ money back. We report the fake store to every place able to take it offline and get it onto the browser warning lists, so the next shopper sees a warning before paying.
Free to report. No account needed. One of our team calls you back, usually the same working day. Out of hours, email security@defenddomain.com.
Why marketplace and ad reports do not stop fake stores
Keep using marketplace brand registries and ad reporting. They watch the places you sell, and a fake store sits on its own web address, outside all of them.
It is not on a marketplace
Brand registries on Amazon and eBay remove listings. A fake store on its own web address has no listing to remove.
Reporting the ad leaves the store open
The platform can remove an ad. The store keeps trading on the next ad, a social post or a search result.
No one company runs them all
Fake stores are spread across store platforms, hosts and registrars. In one case we handled, their domains were registered with registrars in four countries.
How we get a fake store taken down
A fake store needs a web address and a security certificate before it can take an order. We watch for both, whichever registrar sold the address and wherever the store is hosted.
Step 1
We watch for new addresses using your name
Around 500 lookalikes per domain: misspellings, your name with words like "outlet" or "shop" added, and 240+ domain endings. Every one is re-checked every hour, including the parked ones, because a parked address can become a store in minutes.
Step 2
We watch the public certificate logs
A store needs a security certificate before a browser shows the padlock, and every new certificate is logged in public. We match the ones using your name as they are issued. That is how six of the first seven fake stores were found in our e-commerce case.
Step 3
We gather the evidence and get it taken down
Screenshots of the fake store beside your real one, who registered the domain and where the store is hosted. When you confirm it, one click sends it to up to 12 places at once, and we follow up automatically. Most takedowns take between 2 and 96 hours, depending on the registrar and host involved.
Step 4
We watch for it coming back
The same kit often reappears on a new address. We keep watching after a takedown, so the next store is found the same way.
Who acts
The registrar can suspend the domain and the host or store platform can close the store. Browser warning lists and search engines cannot take it down, but they put a red warning in front of shoppers and drop the store from results while the others act.
If a company does not act
We chase the registrar and host again at 48 and 96 hours, then go to the registry, which runs the domain ending, at 120 and 168 hours. If nothing has changed after 30 days, we tell you, with the options left.
What you do
Confirm the store when we alert you, and tell us about any you find yourself. More on how copies of your website are found and what we send, and to whom.
What our e-commerce case looked like
Case study, October 2026
14 fake stores taken down in two weeks
An upmarket US e-commerce brand, sold through its own store and through partners and resellers around the world, had fake stores taking its customers’ money. It already had an enterprise brand-protection provider that, in the brand’s experience, found fewer fake stores than we did.
Read the case study- BeforeAn enterprise brand-protection provider in place, and takedowns going through the brand's lawyers
- Within nine hoursThe first fake store flagged
- Within three daysSeven fake stores found, two on Shopify and five on WooCommerce, each with the evidence a takedown needs
- First weekFive fake store domains taken down
- First two weeks14 fake stores taken down
- NowDefendDomain runs the brand's takedowns instead of its lawyers
From the case. Names changed.
Who gets targeted
If shoppers search for your products by name, a fake store can be built to catch them. The brand in our e-commerce case is upmarket and sells both direct and through partners.
Upmarket and luxury brands
Loyal buyers, high prices and products people search for by name, so a big discount gets the click.
Brands sold through partners
When your products are sold in many places, one more store carrying your name looks normal to a shopper.
Brands that sell direct
Your web address is your shop, so a lookalike of it is the easiest way to reach your customers.
Brands running sales and launches
A seasonal sale or a new launch gives a fake discount cover, and its ads are hard to tell from yours.
Fashion, beauty and homeware
Products that photograph well are easy to copy from your own site and sell through social media ads.
Questions about fake online stores
How do I get a fake online store taken down?
Report it to us. Before a registrar or host acts it wants proof: screenshots of the fake store beside your real one, the domain’s registration details and where the store is hosted. We collect that, and when you confirm the store, one click sends it to every place able to act, from the registrar and the store platform to the browser warning lists that stop the next shopper paying. We then chase each one until the store is offline. In our e-commerce case, the first fake store was flagged within nine hours of monitoring going live.
How long does it take to take down a fake store?
Most takedowns take between 2 and 96 hours, depending on the registrar and host involved. If they have not acted, we chase them again at 48 and 96 hours and take it to the registry, which runs the domain ending, from the fifth day. In our e-commerce case, five fake store domains were taken down in the first week and 14 in the first two weeks.
Can you take down a fake store on Shopify or WooCommerce?
Yes. The report goes to the store platform and to the registrar that sold the domain at the same time, so whichever acts first takes the store offline. Of the first seven fake stores found in our e-commerce case, two were on Shopify and five on WooCommerce.
Do we need a lawyer to take down a fake store?
No. We send the takedown reports to the companies running the domain and the store, with the evidence they ask for: screenshots, who registered the domain and where it is hosted. In our e-commerce case, the brand’s takedowns used to go through its lawyers. DefendDomain runs them now. A lawyer helps if you want the domain itself transferred to you, through a domain dispute (UDRP).
What should we tell customers who paid a fake store?
Tell them which web address is yours, and that the other store has nothing to do with you. Anyone who paid should call their card issuer or bank straight away to dispute the payment. We cannot get the money back. Taking the store down and getting it onto browser warning lists stops the next shopper paying.
Will a fake store come back after it is taken down?
Often, on a new address: the people behind fake stores reuse the same kit. We keep watching lookalikes of your domain and the public certificate logs after a takedown, so the next store is found the same way as the first and its takedown is ready to send.
A lookalike of our domain is registered, but there is no store on it yet. What then?
We watch it every hour. A store can go up on a parked address in minutes, so within the hour you get an alert with the screenshots and domain details already gathered, and one click sends the takedown.
Can you remove fake ads, social accounts or marketplace listings?
No. Report those to the platform: marketplaces have brand registries, and ad platforms have their own reporting. If an ad or a post sends shoppers to a fake store on its own web address, we find that store and get it taken down.
What does the free scan show?
Which lookalikes of your domain are already registered and which of them can send email. It checks the 150+ most likely ones and usually finishes in a couple of minutes. No account, no card. It does not look for copies of your store; monitoring does.
What does it cost?
Monitoring and takedowns come with the Pro and Enterprise plans, priced by the number of domains. We give you the price on a call. To check one domain once, the Domain Threat Report is a one-off $249.
Further reading
See what we would find for your store
In a 30-minute demo we show you the lookalikes of your domain that exist today, what an alert looks like and how a takedown runs.
- Which lookalikes of your domain exist now, and which show a store
- What happens when you confirm a takedown
- A clear annual price for your domains
Rather see results first? Run a free scan