The internet has led to the emergence of many e-commerce businesses. In addition to big players like Amazon and Walmart, several small companies are venturing into this industry to capture a multi-billion dollar market share.
As e-commerce platforms grow, scammers have found a new way to target unsuspecting victims. They create fake companies that offer counterfeit or low-quality goods in exchange for payment. These fake companies have no customer support or return policy in place.
Moreover, most of these fraudulent companies operate from countries with weak law enforcement, allowing scammers to do their activities with impunity. Even if caught, the scammers can quickly relocate their base of operations to another location.
Fugress.com is a website that sells women’s clothing. In this article, we will determine whether Fugress.com is a legitimate website or a scam.
Here’s what we will cover:
- Fugress.com website analysis
- Checking Fugress.com on various security tools
- Red flags to watch out for
- What to do if you have been scammed?
Fugress.com website analysis
In this section, we will analyze fugress.com’s website. When we open the website, we see an image showcasing fashion models titled ‘Western Dresses’. As we researched further, we found that the company has been unused to the same image for many months. In the marketing world, this is not considered a good practice. How often have you seen Amazon or Flipkart showcase the same images for months?
Now, we head to other features of the website. Fugress has the look and feel of a premium e-commerce website. The website has a dedicated ‘About Us’ page and a ‘Contact Us’ section, along with a privacy policy, return policy, shipping policy, and terms of service page.
We saw a few paragraphs about the company when we visited the ‘About Us’ page. However, we found no information about the company’s headquarters or when the company began operations. Also, we found several grammatical mistakes in the paragraphs. For instance, check out this sentence: “We guarantee product quality and operate the store with various operating characteristics and the principle of small profits but quick turnover.”
The phrase “operate the store with various operating characteristics” could be simplified for clarity and conciseness. It is quite interesting to see that an e-commerce company would allow such minor errors to occur in one of the most visited sections of the website.
Again, on further analysis, we found that the product inventory is quite small. Only a few clothing items are present. E-commerce businesses usually host large inventories to cater to the needs of a large audience.
People with little or no cybersecurity knowledge will find it hard to believe that Fugress.com is a scam. To learn how to spot a scam, follow the section on red flags to look out for, and then proceed to the ‘What to do if you have been scammed’ section to learn how to proceed.
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Checking Fugress.com on various security tools
We will now proceed to test Fugress.com using different third-party security tools. Let us start by checking the domain name on VirusTotal:
VirusTotal
When we copied Fugress.com into VirusTotal, we found 11 out of 93 security vendors flagged this domain as dangerous. Most vendors categorised the domain URL as ‘Malware’ or ‘Phishing’, showcasing the potential danger of malware infiltration and phishing attempts if you visit this website.
We advise you not to click on any links or even visit fugress.com.
Scamadviser
On Scamadviser, we saw that Fugress scored a meek 71/100 trust score. Although this score will look normal to some, it is not. We have covered various websites with scores of 98/100.
The tool analysed several good points about the website, including a valid SSL certificate.
However, the negative side includes a free email address for contact, technical support, and contact administrator. No reputed company includes a free email for communication and support.
Also read: What is XProtect on your Mac?
Red flags to watch out for
Let us discuss some red flags that you should watch out for to protect yourself from these elaborate scams.
- It is probably fake if the website has no information about the owners or the headquarters.
- Ensure to thoroughly check the website for any red flags, such as a lack of an About Us page, weak language, or other suspicious elements.
- If the website is giving heavy discounts, it is fake.
- It is a scam if the website doesn’t have a privacy policy page.
- Also, before ordering anything from the e-commerce websites, check the reviews about the website and the product first.
- Never pay in cash or wire transfer. Always pay digitally so the transaction can be traced easily. If any website asks for payments other than digital ones, the service is probably a scam.
Using these steps, you can easily detect online scams. Let us understand what to do if you fall for such scams.
Also read: Is Booksi a scam? Is it safe to book your travels?
What to do if you have been scammed?
If you have been scammed or have provided your personal or financial information on such a website, follow these steps:
- Immediately contact your bank, explain the situation and ask them to block your account and credit/debit card.
- Closely monitor the account for any suspicious transaction and report it to the bank if you find one.
- Change your bank passwords.
- Contact the authorities. For United States residents, the go-to authority on these matters is the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
In conclusion, Fugress is a malicious website designed to sell counterfeit products and pilfer customers’ financial and personal information.
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