Nike is a well known brand among the sporting world, made famous by its brand ambassadors that have included Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Cristiano Ronaldo. Their online presence is tremendous, leading to many buyers searching for value priced Nike goods on the internet.
As a result, there are several fakes sites that have been created to take advantage of innocent buyers.
These scam sites, portray themselves to be affiliated with Nike, when in fact, they are a facade for the scammers.
We outline how to spot, avoid and take action against these scam Nike sites.
- How do most companys reduce scam sites
- Learn why Nike has many scam sites
- Which Online Nike sites are scams
- What can you do if you have been scammed
Online Factory Outlet Links
When looking for a factory outlet online, you maybe entering in a keyword in a search engine such as Google or Bing then scrolling through the list of results. In doing so, it’s extremely difficult to know which outlet results are legitimate or not.
Whether it is with intent to beat scam sites or pure co-incidence, many legitimate companies that sell reputable products online will have a link to their Outlet site, if they have one.
For example: Country Road is a well known clothing brand and that has their own main site for their customers. But Country Road also has their own Online Outlet site. To get to this Outlet site, you will be able to find a link to it from their main site.
Only a legitimate Outlet site will be linked to the main site. Naturally scam sites won’t be linked (unless someone has hacked the main site).
Therefore many retail outlets with an oulet site, will link back to their main site to reduce the success of scam sites
Why does Nike have so many scam sites?
In our previous paragraph, we spoke about the importance of a legitimate seller having a link from their main site to their outlet site.
In the case of Nike, they do not have an outlet site. And therefore Nike, on their main site, shows no link.
This is unfortunate, because scammers have taken notice of this, and have flooded the internet with fake “Nike Outlet” sites.
There are some sport stores that legitimately sell Nike sport shoes, however, these stores are not genuinely outlets in terms of getting factory discounts or obsolete stock that cannot be sold. These stores are retail outlets that are selling Nike with a typical mark up. And while they might offer a discount if they are needing to get rid of stock, they aren’t a factory outlet in the traditional sense.
Targeting keywords
A scam Nike site targets keywords in their content. Often they will display as many Nike products as possible to demonstrate trust. Nike products inherently have attached images, descriptions and pricing. Hence, the more products on display (even if they aren’t in stock or even don’t exist!) may trick the search engine and customers into believing the site is genuine.
Nike: Nike is the number one keyword that a scam site is targeting. To target this, the scam list will list as many Nike products as possible, along with supporting information pages that describe, explain or even provide news about Nike.
Outlet: An outlet may have a different meaning to different people, but this doesn’t matter to a scam site that is targeting the word outlet. Throughout a scam outlet site, they will push for a feeling and experience of discounting and obsolete stock. They may suggest that they are located in a warehouse, with boxes and boxes of products just waiting to be sold on the cheap. Page content on a scam ASICS site therefore will promote a feeling of a fire sale.
Factory: Combining Nike, Outlet with the word Factory, and viewers that click on the scam site will immediately perceive that there is a bargain available. That there is wholesale stock that Nike could be dumping at heavily discounted prices.
Finally, a scam site will combine the targeted keywords with an internet address which usually targets a region. For example Australia, UK, Canada or the US. Hence you might see something like, NikeOutletAustralia or Nike-UK-Outlet or Nike.Outlet.Canada.
Immediately, you can see that visitors to these sites could be easily fooled into believing that the site is legitimate
NikeOutlet.com.au - Legit or Scam?
It’s not often that a scam site will use an address that ends with a particular country code. The reason being, is that all Australian addresses must be registered with clear owner details. Hence, the risk of being caught and penalised is high, when using an Australian ending webaddress for anything illegal, such as running a scam.
How do we know that this site is a scam?
Design and Layout
Australian Flag
Customer Service
There is no Customer Service displayed to contact in the case of returning goods or claiming a refund.
Conclusion
NikeOutletStore.org - Legit or Scam?
This site, leads to a scam games site.
Conclusion
What can I do if I've been scammed?
There are several things that you can do if you have been scammed.
1. Report the fraud to the police. Even though they may not be able to help you much with recovering your money, they will be aware that a scam has occurred.
2. Let your financial institution know. They might be able to recover your funds, depening on your method of payment.
3. Let your family and friends know, so that they can avoid being scammed.
While the above three points may not lead to the recovering of your money (let alone potentially wasting further time and energy), it may help bring attention to the dangers of scam Nike sites, and could prevent others from being scammed.