The other morning I thought I’d found the bargain of the year — a Canon G7 X Mark III for under £50. If you know anything about cameras, you’ll know that model normally sells for around £700. So yes, my scam radar immediately started twitching. But curiosity got the better of me and I decided to dig a little deeper.
I’d seen the deal on Instagram, served up as a sponsored ad (that was the first red flag), linking to a site called aeria-store.com. I hadn’t heard of it before, but the ad looked slick and the website seemed legit at first glance. The camera was shown as being on sale, with a big discount and a countdown timer — classic urgency tactic.
But then things started to unravel.
Step One: WHOIS Lookup
Here’s a trick everyone should know. If you ever come across a site that feels a bit off, go to a WHOIS lookup tool and pop in the website address. It tells you when the site was created and who owns it — unless they’ve hidden the details, which is another red flag.
In this case? The site was only a few days old, with all ownership info hidden. That’s not how genuine retail websites behave.
Step Two: Try Another Browser
When I opened the website on a different browser, the camera had magically disappeared. Yes it was there if I clicked the link in the ad, but if I went directly to the website from another browser, it was completely different Now it was selling just clothes — mainly jeans and women’s fashion. No tech, no Canon anything. Almost like the camera page had only been served to me because I’d clicked on a targeted ad.
Step Three: Read the Returns Policy
This one is gold. I looked at their returns policy and guess what? They don’t allow returns on sale items. And surprise surprise, the camera had been “in the sale.” So even if something did arrive — a knockoff, an empty box, or nothing at all — I wouldn’t be able to send it back.
And ask yourself why a site selling cameras would need to talk about the return of perishable goods.
It Happens All the Time
This scam setup is everywhere on Facebook and Instagram at the moment. You’ll see ads for women’s coats, dresses, cameras, kitchen gadgets — all at ridiculously low prices. The websites look convincing. But they’re either complete scams or send poor-quality products that bear no resemblance to the ad.
Ask yourself why a company is using a gmail email address and not one linked to the website. Yes it could be legitimate, using gmail does not equal fraud, but in conjunction with the rest of this stuff? Yep, that is not instilling me with confidence.
What To Do Instead
- Google the website before buying. Add the word “scam” or “review” and see what comes up.
- Check WHOIS info to see how new the site is.
- Don’t buy from ads on impulse, especially on social media. If it seems too good to be true, it almost always is.
I didn’t lose any money this time because I trusted my gut and did a bit of digging. But it’s easy to get caught out — especially when the deals look so tempting.
If you see someone sharing one of these scammy ads, feel free to drop them a link to this post. The more we talk about it, the harder it becomes for these dodgy sites to keep catching people.
Oh and that Facebook ad for the clothing store that is closing down, they tried everything but blah blah blah? Even with its genuine comments about how wonderful the product is? Yep, that’s a scam too.