Fraudulent Coach sites swindle shoppers with 28 complaints filed

Home > Business > Industry

Fraudulent Coach sites swindle shoppers with 28 complaints filed

Published: 08 Aug. 2024, 12:50 Updated: 08 Aug. 2024, 17:35

The home page of coachoutletdeals.shop, a website claiming to sell goods from U.S. fashion house Coach. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Online shoppers have reported being conned by sellers impersonating the designer brand Coach, the Korea Consumer Agency said Thursday.

A total of 28 fraud cases related to fake Coach sites were filed by consumers who made overseas purchases from mid-July up to Thursday, said the consumer watchdog.

Of these cases, 20 were linked to purchases from coachoutletdeals.shop and eight were related to coachoutletsale.shop. Both websites' URLs closely resemble Coach’s official outlet shop and they use the U.S. fashion house’s name, logo and advertisements, leading to initial confusion.

The two sites share the same business email address, support@ltsmrd.top, suggesting they are operated by the same entity.

The Korea Consumer Agency confirmed with Coach that these websites are entirely unrelated to the brand. Coach stated that items sold on these sites cannot be verified as authentic.

The fraudulent sites offer bags and wallets priced between 10,000 won ($7.30) and 20,000 won, compared to hundreds of thousands of won on Coach’s official website. For example, a handbag worth 1 million won is selling at 20,000 won.

The sites use 72-hour limited-time offers, a tactic designed to prompt quick purchases. They also lack purchase cancellation functions and customers have reported being unable to cancel orders or receive refunds after contacting the sellers.

One anonymous customer bought five items, including bags, for $58 on July 28. After realizing the website was not Coach’s official shop, the customer attempted to cancel the order via email but received no response and did not get a refund.

The Korea Consumer Agency also contacted the businesses seeking resolutions for the consumer complaints but received no reply. The seller's information remains untraceable, complicating efforts to secure damage relief for consumers.

"There have recently been recurrent cases of victims who bought famous brand products after seeing advertisements on social network services,” the Korea Consumer Agency said in a statement. “For overseas websites, check if they are trustworthy sellers and be wary of products that are sold at excessively cheaper prices than market prices as they are likely to be counterfeit goods or fraudulent.”

BY KIM EUN-BIN [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]