Just what is the scam here?

GDB2222

Coffee machine for a fraction of normal price:

bolddecor.shop/products/breville-the-barista-pro-stainless-steel-espresso-machine/

[Link de-linked by Forum Team]

Penguin_

For a start I don't think they're a UK company. The banner of the website has poor English language, "We free shipping worldwide".

mr_stripey

scam. Website is poor, wouldn't even load on my work PC due to "security" issues
Brief search of the name shows it's a scam seller (or at least, a very bad seller)


If it looks to good to be true, it probably is

DullGreyGuy

The Terms and Privacy policies arent complete and dont pass muster. Delivery is 20 days so clearly the goods are coming from overseas.

The chances are you are buying fakes from overseas, some goods will probably arrive but they'll be poor knockoffs or something totally different from what you ordered.

Exodi

100% scam, just wrote a long reply and accidentally closed the page without posting it... so to save retyping, to give summary

Price - about 10% of normal price, red flag
Time-Limited - pressure tactics of the sale ends in X (but will keep refreshing) or X units left but XX people looking
Spelling/Grammar - 'WE FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE.', red flag
Catalogue - all products sold at steep discounts
Branding - website is bolddecor, logo says ukdepartment, about us says Our Mall, contact us says newlifesale, terms of use say eriotte?
Missing Links - they've done a good job creating generic pages for most links but I note their social links just go to the home page.

The less obvious, an ICANN look up shows:

Age - website was created 21/10/24, so extremely recent. This is a giant red flag as scam pages are typically made recently (before they develop a mountain of bad reviews online or get taken down, which prompts the scammers to produce another new page).
Contact info - redacted and using a privacy service, again commonplace for scams.
Registrar -  the registrar (GNAME) is based in Asia which suggests the creator of the website is likely in Asia also (not UK based as UKdepartment might try to suggest). You can also see online that GNAME is commonly used to host scam websites. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/gname.com

There's also countless minor issues (like the trusted banner nonsense) that are harder to verbalise, but it's pretty clearly a scam.

If I had to guess, it would be that you would pay, be strung along for a bit (along with everyone else), then never hear from them again with the website abandoned for a new one.

If something looks too good to be true (like a coffee machine at 10% of retail price with free delivery)...

GDB2222

But won't they get credit card chargebacks? Or, perhaps that doesn't matter, because they grab what money they can and scarper?

born_again

Not a single bricks & mortar address, phone number etc...

Did you find it on Social media?
Walk away. Loads of these sites popping up in Consumer rights section,

Exodi

GDB2222 said:

But won't they get credit card chargebacks? Or, perhaps that doesn't matter, because they grab what money they can and scarper?

I'm no expert on chargebacks or s75 claims so I'm just guessing why, but I think s75 is only relevant for items costing over £100 (it may be why everything is <£100), so doesn't apply as the card provider would not be liable.

Chargeback is possible (for debit and credit cards), though there are no guarantees.

The reason might be, even where there is a chargeback is because money mules are commonly used as middlemen (innocent people who believe they are receiving money for a legitimate purpose, and then sending it on to the scammers). It also obfuscates the scammers identity. If there are successful chargebacks, they would be against the money mules. Alternatively they may not bother and I'm sure some people would not bother pursing any chargeback action, instead chalking it up as a lesson.

GDB2222

born_again said:

Not a single bricks & mortar address, phone number etc...

Did you find it on Social media?
Walk away. Loads of these sites popping up in Consumer rights section,

Not social media. Google Shopping. 

facade

I hope my antivirus holds out.....

I opened it in Firefox - 28 left, and clocked down to 27 while I was watching- must buy quickly as more people are viewing than they have left!

Strangely, more people have purchased it than they have actually sold.

Good News!

Opening the page in Chrome there are 47 left!

outtatune

I hope you don't take this the wrong way OP, but if you can't see straight away that this is a scam site then internet shopping may not be for you, and if you really must buy stuff online you should stick to Amazon or Tesco.