Consumer advice center warns about fake stores selling UEFA EURO fan merchandise
The German EM jersey at half price? Beware, it could be a fake store, warns the NRW consumer advice center.
Celebrating soccer fans.
(Image: Bild erstellt mit KI in Bing Designer durch heise online / dmk)
Many people are looking forward to the European Football Championship, which starts on Friday this week. But there are traps lurking when buying fan merchandise. The NRW consumer advice center warns that fake stores are luring customers with particularly cheap offers. In the end, they end up with no goods or defective goods.
In its warning, the consumer advice center writes that many websites offering jerseys and grills stand out in the fake store finder. In the case of suspicious websites, it is questionable whether the goods will ever arrive. But potential victims are also not safe from counterfeits and additional costs.
Fake stores: Price as a lure
The criminal fake store operators try to lure victims in particular by offering a low price. The original jersey costs around 100 euros in the DFB fan store, with flocking even 122 euros, write the employees of the consumer advice center. The fake store offers sound almost too good to be true: The official jersey of the German national team for less than half the price; available for immediate delivery and free shipping worldwide. The consumer advice center estimates that the goods never arrive and only the money is lost. In addition, there are even lower prices for goods advertised as "Thai quality". This is obviously an indication of counterfeit cheap products.
The consumer advice center highlights frequently reported fake stores separately. It urgently warns against the apparently fraudulent online stores emsports.de and funftball.com. Other frequently reported URLs of fake online stores are: jerseysfeverco.com, championfieldgear.com, trikotfc.com, fbball.com, footballcustomiz.com, aidasfussballtrikot.com, superfootball.store, bestsoccerstore.cc, soccerballofficial.com, bestsportsball.com, joyfballs.com, adidasspezial.de, fussballtrikot-gunstig.com, vintagefootballshirts.de, billigetrikots.com, soccerballofficial.com and bestsportsball.com.
Traditionally, summer soccer watching also includes barbecuing. Of course, criminals are also out to rip off victims with this trendy topic. For this reason, the NRW consumer advice center warns in particular against the URLs gartenshop-marsmann.de, flammenfreude.de and saroni-handel.de, which cause the fake store finder to sound the alarm based on the checking mechanisms used.
In addition to the risk of not receiving any goods, there is also the danger that they are counterfeits. This could lead to confiscation and destruction by customs, or cause additional costs for the buyer. Such products are usually of poor quality and may also be contaminated with harmful substances.
In the fake store finder of the consumer advice centers, prospective buyers can check whether the selected online store is already known to be criminal.
The previous major soccer event was the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022, where the apps that guests were forced to install on site attracted particular negative attention. These intruded far into the privacy of World Cup visitors. Of course, such surveillance does not exist in the free and democratic states of Europe.
(dmk)