CTM360 Research Reveals 30,000+ Fake Online Shops Impersonating Fashion Brands

Brand impersonation in e-commerce has evolved beyond isolated scam websites into a repeatable, industrialized fraud model operating at global scale. CTM360's latest threat intelligence research analyzes a coordinated campaign—referred to as FraudWear—that demonstrates how attackers are systematically exploiting consumer trust in well-known fashion brands through tens of thousands of fraudulent online stores.

Unlike traditional phishing operations, these campaigns do not rely on simple deception or low-effort spoofing. Instead, they replicate the full structure and behavior of legitimate e-commerce platforms, including storefront design, product catalogs, checkout workflows, localized marketing, and payment processing. Each site functions as a disposable asset within a broader, resilient fraud ecosystem.

Read the full report here: https://www.ctm360.com/reports/fraudwear-brand-impersonating-online-stores

Scale and Targeting Patterns

CTM360 identified more than 30,000 malicious fashion e-commerce domains operating across 80+ countries, collectively impersonating 350+ global and regional apparel brands. Targets include both internationally recognized labels and regionally popular brands, indicating that attackers are optimizing for conversion efficiency and geographic reach, rather than brand prestige alone.

Activity is most concentrated in Europe, Asia, and North America, with fraudulent sites localized by language, currency, and regional shopping behaviors. In many cases, promotional themes reference local holidays or events, further increasing credibility and user engagement. This level of localization suggests a mature operational model designed to blend seamlessly into legitimate digital retail ecosystems.

Infrastructure and Domain Strategy

The campaign relies heavily on low-cost, frequently abused top-level domains, including .shop, .com, .top, .xyz, and .cyou. Domain names are crafted to closely resemble legitimate brand domains and often incorporate country or regional identifiers to enhance perceived authenticity.

While more than 30,000 domains were observed over time, approximately 8,000 remain active at any given moment. Threat actors continuously register and deploy 50+ new domains per day, enabling the campaign to persist despite takedowns. This rapid churn transforms enforcement efforts into a reactive exercise—removing individual sites while the underlying system remains intact.

Distribution Through Advertising Platforms

Traffic acquisition is overwhelmingly ad-driven. Fraudulent storefronts are promoted via sponsored advertisements and fake social media profiles on widely used platforms. Ads typically feature official brand logos, high-quality product imagery, and aggressive discounts designed to trigger urgency and impulse buying.

This distribution model enables:

• Rapid scaling
• Precise audience targeting
• Near-instant replacement of flagged domains

As a result, enforcement actions often disrupt individual assets rather than the campaign itself, allowing threat actors to maintain continuity with minimal operational friction.

Victim Interaction and Data Exposure

Once users click on advertisements, they are redirected to attacker-controlled e-commerce sites engineered to closely mimic legitimate retail experiences. These sites include fabricated product listings, copied layouts, and misleading testimonials to simulate normal purchasing activity.

Before payment, victims are prompted to submit personal and transactional information, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, delivery details, account credentials, and payment data. This information is harvested directly through the fake storefronts and may later be reused for additional fraud, account takeover, or resale within underground markets.

Monetization and Payment Abuse

At checkout, victims are routed through deceptive payment flows. In many cases, users are redirected via disposable intermediary domains containing unique path identifiers that obscure tracking and link individual sessions to attacker-controlled payment tokens.

Payments are frequently processed through legitimate payment platforms, including authentic PayPal checkout pages tied to money-mule or compromised accounts. The legitimacy of the payment interface creates a false sense of security while obscuring the ultimate recipient. No products are delivered, resulting in direct financial loss and, in some cases, continued account compromise beyond the initial transaction.

Why These Campaigns Persist

FraudWear highlights how low infrastructure costs, disposable domains, and ad-based distribution allow fraud operations to scale faster than traditional takedown mechanisms. Each storefront functions as a replaceable component rather than a standalone operation, enabling continuous regeneration.

From a defensive perspective, the core challenge is not identifying individual fake stores, but addressing the interconnected ecosystem—domains, ads, payment flows, and impersonation indicators—that enables rapid deployment and monetization at scale.

Looking Ahead

FraudWear does not represent a temporary spike in fake online stores—it signals the maturation of brand-centric fraud-as-a-service. Defensive strategies must evolve accordingly, shifting from point-in-time takedowns toward continuous visibility across the full fraud lifecycle.

For security teams, the takeaway is clear: brand abuse is no longer solely a marketing or legal issue. It is a frontline cyber threat that demands the same intelligence-driven approach applied to phishing, malware, and infrastructure-based attacks.

The full FraudWear threat analysis, including domain patterns and hosting trends, is available here: https://www.ctm360.com/reports/fraudwear-brand-impersonating-online-stores