Scammers are impersonating Wilko on copycat websites promising huge discounts

The retailer Wilko recently announced it had gone into administration, and fraudsters have been quick to capitalise.

We’ve seen various dodgy adverts on Facebook offering discounts of up to 90%. These ads lead to copycat websites that phish for your personal information and bank details. 

This is the latest in a series of scams targeting troubled retailers - we recently reported on copycat Joules websites. 

Read on to learn more about how the scam works and for advice on spotting a fake website.

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Dodgy Wilko ads and fake websites

Facebook is flooded with ads for Wilko ‘clearance sales’, which lure victims with the promise of discounts. These ads claim there is limited stock available to encourage you to act quickly.

When you click on an ad, you'll be taken to a website that advertises Wilko products and includes product descriptions to appear genuine. 

These sites also include ‘about us,’ ‘contact us’ and ‘privacy policy’ pages. On closer inspection, however, some pages are full of grammatical errors and the ‘contact us’ pages don't contain any contact information.

We found ads for ten fraudulent websites impersonating Wilko:

• mixacx[dot]com
• geoppi[dot]com
• cityfiv[dot]com
• fasttales[dot]com
• ourniv[dot]com
• smartpopu[dot]com
• wilkoclosing[dot]com
• wilkosale[dot]uk
• wilukhome[dot]com
• lifeequipmentoff[dot]com

We shared this information with Wilko. It confirmed the above websites are not genuine and stated that all Wilko sales are taking place in-store only - not online. 

We shared the scam ads with Meta, which removed them for violating its policies.

You can report Facebook adverts by pressing the three dots in the right-hand corner and selecting ‘report.’

• Find out more: Wilko goes into administration - everything you need to know

Avoiding scam websites

It's important to be on your guard against dodgy retail websites, which may appear convincing at first.

Some of the telltale signs of a scam websites include:

• Bad spelling and grammar.
• Offers that seem too-good-to-be-true.
• The site having no ‘about us’ page, contact information or privacy policy
• Inconsistent or dodgy branding, such as blurry logos. 

How to get your money back

If you buy something from a scam website, call your bank immediately using the number on the back of your card. Your bank will be able to freeze your card and can attempt to stop the transaction.

If this doesn't work, you can try to get your money back using chargeback if you paid via debit or credit card and the transaction was for less than £100. You can use Section 75 if you spent more than £100 on a credit card.

If you fall victim to a scam, report it to Action Fraud or call the police on 101 if you’re in Scotland.