One of world's 'largest online scams' catches out over 800,000 European shoppers

A trove of data examined by reporters and IT experts indicates the operation is highly organised, technically savvy — and ongoing

Katherine Hart, a lead officer at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, described the fake shops operation as “one of the largest online fake shops scams that I have seen”. 

More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China.

An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created.