'Scam clothing website uses my home address for its returns'

""It's escalated as the weeks have gone on," he says. "I was very shocked at my address being on their website. And when I looked up the site and physically saw it at the bottom as the contact details, I was like 'this is awful - this could get quite awkward'. 'If people are buying things and not receiving what they want and they live locally, there's a possibility they could turn up at the front door.'""

"The items are sent to customers in the hope that receiving something in the post will prevent people complaining to their bank and the police. But there's a vast difference in quality and value between the item advertised and the one that eventually ends up with the customer. Now, we've established that in an apparent attempt to look more convincing, several of these sites are lifting the addresses and phone numbers of people who buy from them."

Convincing-looking clothing websites sell poor quality items and frequently deceive online shoppers. Scammers send inferior products to reduce the likelihood of buyers reporting transactions to banks or police. Several scam sites appropriate the delivery addresses and phone numbers of customers and list them as the websites' contact details. This causes the owners of those addresses to receive repeated calls and unwanted parcels from disappointed buyers. One south-west London man reported five to ten calls daily and multiple packaged pairs of shoes after his details were used. The origin of how scammers obtain buyers' contact information remains unclear, raising safety concerns for victims.

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