Shown here is a screenshot from an online store designed to look like Home Depot’s. But it’s not Home Depot, it’s a SCAM.
A reader question came in, and I wanted to check the specs on the Dewalt ToughSystem 2-drawer tool box. So, I popped the model number into Google for a quick search.
At the top, one of the ad listings caught my attention, where they were showing the 3-drawer tool box for $39.
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$39?! $139 is plausible, $39 seems unreal. I just bought a couple at much higher pricing – $39 sounds great! So I clicked through.
I am on Home Depot’s website practically every day. This isn’t real.
Looking around a bit more, they have Milwaukee MX Fuel products listed for under $50. That’s off by two orders of magnitude.
When you see something like this, just close the page.
There are countless impersonation sites these days. Be careful!
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Wayne R.
What did the URLs look like? I’d expect them to be something other than Home Depot, right?
Stuart
It has Home Depot in the URL.
The domain was first registered 6 days ago.
Saulac
You would have thought that there would be a cooling period after register and start “selling”. But no. I wonder if there is a “ protection” service, from whoever does the registration, that businesses can sign up to prevent fake sites in their names. Much like CC.
Michael F
I built this exact service at my last job. We even used machine learning to detect logo similarities with protected brands. My service scanned over 440M domains daily while looking for lookalike domains and web stores. The fact is that most companies just don’t care to purchase such a product because fake web stores harm the consumer but don’t cost the actual brand anything. That’s business – they’re only willing to spend money if it will make them more money or prevent loss.
Wayne R.
“We got ours, you can stick it.”
Pablo
I work in this space too. My main issue is that Google profits from selling sponsored ads to these fraudsters. We can get them to remove the ads and deindex, but there isn’t enough incentive for them to prevent the scams from advertising in the first place. This is true for all the major platforms. They all profit from fraud, and place the burden on companies like Home Depot to report these issues.
Doresoom
I was literally going to email you about this exact issue! I searched for the M12 nibbler about 15 minutes ago and got a Google shopping result for $70 that listed Home Depot as the retailer and had a thumbnail with imagery from their website. Certainly a low price, but just high enough to almost be believable.
When I clicked on it, the website was homedepotcoupon or something like that. Clearly fake to someone who is on Home Depot’s website a lot, but it could possibly dupe someone doing some Christmas shopping who was unfamiliar with the site.
Stuart
Yep! I saw it two more times when searching for other brands’ products.
Retailers and brands aren’t having an easy time getting the sites taken down.
Scott K
I’ve seen this for plenty of brands – I found this to be pretty prevalent on Instagram before I deleted my account. Some brands are receptive to receiving message and will actively work to take down scam site and pages. It can be really tricky when the site doesn’t try to mimic a brand but pretends to be a retailer selling a whole product category.
Stuart- I’m fairly certain you’re the reason I check domain info if I have any questions about a site’s legitimacy.
A W
Forgive my ignorance, but what’s the best site for doing domain registration searches?
Stuart
https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup
S
Yep, just ran into this last night on Facebook marketplace.
One of the video demos that popped up was a laser rust removal tool for $40. Knowing nothing at that moment, it sounds great to me. I live in the rust belt, and have a rusty trailer to restore. So I click. I’m greeted with a url longer than normal. First red flag. On a site I’ve never heard of. Second red flag.
So I start checking Amazon and eBay for laser rust removers–surely a $40 product on an obscure site has made it to more mainstream sales sites where I already have an account…
And that’s where I learn that the specialty blue lens that goes on the front of the unit retails for $350 minimum, just for the lens. Most complete units start at $10,000.
I was greeted with another couple dozen video ad’s like it for other obscenely priced goods for the duration I browsed the local ‘classifieds’
It’s everywhere, even on valid sites perpetuating as real products with paid sponsorships.
Stay safe, buy retail.
Brendon
But the fake site does say “Guaranteed safe checkout” so you’ll still be ok to buy off them..
Rog
Ya know, that’s true. They can’t lie about that so you’re safe.
Mark S
The sign says The Home Dapot, A is better than E, it’s gotta be legit! /s
Benny
It’s easy to miss., but the webpage logo says “Home Dapot”
eddie sky
Tip: If you use Firefox, under the Help menu (Mac/Windows), select Report Deceptive site and fill in all the details. Also, report to Google :
https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/
Its that time of the year and the frugal (aka cheapskates) will fall prey to these sites.
I use a site checker for scams, https://www.urlvoid.com/
Frank D
It is amazing how Google does not have safe guards against that behavior. And it is surprisingly hard to get companies to take notice, whether retailers who’s store is spoofed, brands who’s products are faked, brands who’s system is misrepresented. Always hitting that corporate wall of having to be customer, not supplying a simple mail box, having contact forms where you’t attach a screenshot or insert a url, …
Ivona
I was almost had too. I was logging in and it kept saying password was wrong…so I used my cell and went directly to hime depot site to look up an item and it was no where to be found. But if you look closer at the logo it reads The Home Dapot.
ITCD
Every now and then on social media platforms you’ll see someone posting a screenshot and asking “is this a scam?” A tool that everyone is retailing for $259, all the official retailers are no lower than $259 because it’s a MAP-priced brand, and this one is saying they have it for $50 and the URL is like h0m3d3p0tbesttoolsever.
There’s been a saying around for a very long time that if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. That saying exists for a reason. And fortunately some of these people at least stop to ask before throwing their credit card number at that site and can be stopped. But it’s always something to keep in mind, that saying. I love deals just as much as everyone else but you have to be level-headed about it.
SteveP
I was looking to buy a kayak this summer and I found numerous Pelican Sports cloned sites with ridiculously cheap prices. It was obviously a scam from the prices, but unless you knew what the “real” url was, you’d be easily duped on those grounds. And judging by forum posts, many were taken in – to the point the real company’s rep was harmed, so there’s that for HD and others to consider
Even worse, then Google started feeding me sponsored ads from the scam sites in my Gmail feed. I kept reporting them, but it was like whack-a-mole
Marcus A. Bonney
These asxholes got me for $76.