Caitríona Redmond: Don’t get caught out by scam websites
Byrne Kildare has a closing-down sale which ends at 11.59pm every day with up to 50% off their stock, but there are some details that indicate it’s not Irish at all.
Katie from Galway saw an ad online and fell in love with a dress called Síle in a sale from “Byrne Kildare”. She snapped it up for €46.95 on the spot using her mobile phone to buy.
Within several days, she was targeted with more ads for dresses on Instagram.
It was then that Katie realised that she’d been had because the dress she paid nearly €50 for was priced at €16.43 on Temu.
Byrne Kildare has a closing-down sale which ends at 11.59pm every day with up to 50% off their stock, but there are some details that indicate it’s not Irish at all.
Firstly, most of the images are generated by AI and in particular, the photo of the purported owners, Conor and Meave.
Katie likes to think of herself as somebody who is not easily scammed. She could see that the dress had been touched up and the models were very obviously AI or touched up, but she would consider that normal these days.
She didn’t look too closely at the picture of Conor and Maeve, the ‘owners’, but again, on the phone, it’s difficult to determine AI-generated images.
She has lost trust in buying online and is very disappointed with her experience. Katie ordered over 10 days ago, and at the time of writing, her dress hasn’t arrived. She has since requested a chargeback from her bank.
Last week, the CCPC (Competition and Consumer Protection Commission) published its H1 Consumer Helpline Report, which included a case study of an online shopper who had a very similar issue.
The CCPC pointed out that there is no international mechanism for consumers to pursue a complaint against companies located outside of the EU, but that some banks may agree to a chargeback.
These scam websites appear familiar because they are embedded with Shopify which is a platform for selling online and which easily plugs into Instagram and Facebook.
The online platform prides itself on ease of checkout and making the shopping experience seamless for both the consumer and the retailer.
Shopify has clear terms of service for vendors using their platform. They require shops to share public-facing information, including refund and shipping policies along with an address and telephone number.
They also say that vendors should state if they use a third-party supplier. From my research, none of these fake online shops are fully compliant with Shopify’s own terms.
Costs to set up an online shop from Shopify start at $300, excluding taxes, to buy an off-the-shelf website solution from Shopify that the scammers populate with images from established online shops such as Shein or Temu, alongside AI-generated images of their purported owners.
I contacted Shopify, whose EU base of operations is in Ireland, for comment, but so far, I’ve had no response.
Meta Platforms Technologies Limited is the Irish base of operations for Meta. Consumers are targeted by the scam websites via Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta.
Both Meta and Shopify benefit from payments received from the operators of these spurious websites.
Having spoken to several consumers who have reported the websites and the advertising as scams, neither online platform has been motivated enough to remove the advertising, social media pages, or website applications.
I reached out to Meta for comment, but so far, I’ve had no response.
- “Collins Kildare” was in operation in Spring 2025 but is now closed.
- “Murray Dublin” was up and running in June 2024, but the website is now unavailable.
- “Maeve & Orla” from Galway is currently advertising with the same modus operandi with no Irish company of that name.
- Other implicated websites include “Walsh Kildare”, “Aidens Kildare”, “Moda Kildare”, and “Byrne Cork”.
In all cases, their social media footprint remains with Facebook pages and evidence of reaching thousands of Irish consumers using targeted Meta advertisements. Not forgetting plenty of negative reviews online too.
Coimisiún na Meán say that they would encourage users to report to the platforms content which may not be illegal, but which may be against the terms and conditions of those platforms. “All online platforms … must enforce these Terms and Conditions diligently.”
Where to for Irish consumers? These scam websites have had quite the success spoofing people into believing they are based in Ireland, then inducing consumers into paying up to three times more than they would have paid for the same item on genuine websites such as Shein or Temu.
It’s a copy/paste system that has certainly been paying off for the scammers and arguably has been profitable for the retail and social media platforms that they are hosting their advertising and websites on.
There isn’t much impetus to crack down on this poor treatment of Irish consumers.
That’s a pity, especially considering one of Meta’s core principles is “keeping people safe” and Shopify say that their mission is “making commerce better for everyone”.
For now, we need to be vigilant and remember that not everything online is how it appears.
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