- Which? research revealed over 28,000 unsafe websites in January, impersonating major retailers and brands like Tesco and Amazon.
- Scammers employ tactics such as 'typosquatting' and 'digital squatting' to create fake websites, often directing victims via scam text messages.
- These fraudulent sites are designed to trick online shoppers into divulging personal information, including names, addresses, and email details, for identity fraud.
- Commonly impersonated brands include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Boots, with 'digital squatting' scams increasing by 68 per cent from 2021 to 2025.
- Which? is calling for online platforms to proactively scan for fraudulent content and for telecoms companies to block text messages containing links to known scam websites.
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