Knock-offs and fake products are everywhere. Live in a major metro area? There are probably different streets or shops in your city that are notorious for selling fakes — and you can easily find these items for sale across the internet, too.
Tech devices, high-end luxury items, or trendy makeup or hair products are all targets of reproductions or fakes. All you have to do is scroll the listings on Amazon to find a few. The common issue with these types of products is that they’re inferior to the originals — or don’t work at all.
And now that we’re in the midst of a pandemic, fake cleaning supplies and PPE have become more common. An uptick in COVID-19 cases has caused buyers to wipe the shelves of disinfecting products — and scammers have taken note. Let’s take a look at what the issue is and what the FTC is doing to stop these scammers from preying on unsuspecting victims.
The issue with fake cleaning product websites
Toilet paper isn’t the only thing that’s in high demand these days. The world is dealing with a huge new uptick of COVID cases, which has led to a shortage of cleaning supplies in stores and online. And, when there is high demand, scammers will try to profit from it.
The FTC just announced a complaint against scammers creating fake websites to sell counterfeit cleaning products. They use spoofed websites, which have real product names in the web addresses and real product images, to trick people into thinking they’re buying cleaning supplies from the companies’ official sites.
According to the FTC, since at least July 2020, the defendants’ spoofed websites have been targeting people who desperately need cleaning and disinfecting products. The scammers are brazen in their efforts, too. They’re using well-known brands like Clorox and Lysol to pull these scams off.
None of the sites are owned by, affiliated with, or authorized by the companies that make Clorox and Lysol. And if you order from these sites? Well, you won’t get what you ordered or expected — if you get anything at all.
Scammers were illegally charging consumers thousands of dollars for Clorox and Lysol products that were never delivered. In some cases, people received fake products instead.
When victims tried to seek a refund from the website, it was gone. Sometimes in a matter of days or weeks. These scammers didn’t stop selling fake products, though. They just moved to a new website with a different URL instead.
The websites named in the FTC’s complaint are:
- cleanyos.com
- arlysol.com
- broclea.com
- cadclea.com
- cleancate.com
- cleankler.com
- cleanula.com
- clean-sale.com
- clean-sell.com
- clorox-sale.com
- clorox-sales.com
- cloroxstore.com
- crlysol.com
- elysol.com
- littletoke.com
- lybclean.com
- lysoiclean.com
- lysol-clean.com
- lysol-cleaners.com
- lysol-free.com
- lysolsales.com
- lysolservicebest.com
- lysol-sell.com
- lysol-wipe.com
- thaclean.com
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