Checkers scam warning

Shoprite has warned that the website checkershypersa.co.za, selling products at significantly discounted prices, is a scam.

The supermarket chain told MyBroadband that its cybersecurity team has already initiated a takedown and is closely monitoring the process.

MyBroadband was informed about the website by a reader and has reached out to the domain registrar, 1Api.

The scam site also appears to use Flutterwave for its payment gateway.

Neither Flutterwave nor 1Api had responded by publication.

The website bears the Checkers Hyper branding and claims to sell several technology products, including washing machines, laptops, and gaming consoles.

To entice buyers, all items are on sale — most of which are roughly 50% off.

Shoprite said it notifies its customers about fake websites, competitions, or scams through its official social media platforms.

It has also provided several guidelines that users can follow to stay safe when engaging with its platforms online.

Scams like this are particularly prominent around Black Friday, as consumers let their guards down for deals that seem “too good to be true.”

They usually involve a fake website that appears to be an e-commerce platform or someone impersonating another retailer to encourage a transaction.

Nclose co-founder and business development director Stephen Osler has said that once attackers have created their fraudulent website, they will try to promote it to as many people as possible, often using social media.

In this situation, he says that scammers are ultimately looking for victims with credit or debit cards to steal their credentials and use the card repeatedly.

Osler pointed out that if a deal seems too good to be true, it is. However, Black Friday is renowned for deals that would be interpreted as such on any other day of the year.

The South African Banking Risk Centre (Sabric) has identified several tips for shoppers and merchants to prevent falling victim to online scams.

One way to check a website’s legitimacy — the first step in deciding whether to transact — is to use the South African Fraud Prevention Service’s Yima website.

The tool scans websites for scams and vulnerabilities, using a combination of risks and feedback from users who have interacted with the website to create a Trust Score.

Users can also install a plugin on their browsers.

In the case of website spoofing, the user interface can be very accurately replicated. Attackers often change a single character in the URL, which often goes unnoticed, even upon close inspection.

Artists Against 419 (AA419), an international volunteer group dedicated to identifying and shutting down scam sites, has a list of over 160,000 fake websites.

Another indicator of potential fraud is if a user is not redirected to their bank’s 3D Secure page or mobile app to confirm the transaction.

3D Secure adds an additional layer of security to online card purchases by requiring two-factor authentication for transactions.

If the 3D Secure portal is not displayed, that often suggests the site was simply harvesting card information.