Scam – but looks good?

Hi

My Mrs wanted a “Happy Napper” for each if the kids for sleeping downstairs and sleepovers when we are allowed to do this again. They are sleeping bags which transform into a pillow and look like a monster/animal. Seem decent enough, spendy but cool and useful for at least a couple of years.

They are for sale on loads of sites, Argos and Amazon included – however being wary of not getting the right one she bought from the manufacturers UK website. Its first in the google adverts, complicated/full of videos, seems to have a UK postal address and is somewhat more expensive compared to what seemed to be copies on Ebay etc. so looked the deal.

https://happy-nappers.uk/?azaid=12305579665_497572929531&utm_source=azameo&utm_campaign=azasearch

Got the alert to say they were coming today, took ages but we though hey covid, However what arrived was 2 fake duplo figures and they took 3 weeks as they came from China (not the UK as advertised) according to the packaging. So its a Chinese scam, but when you look at the effort put in, videos, google adverts etc. it must be super lucrative! They must get loads and loads of people.

If you google the right thing you find all the trust pilot reviews saying the same things. Its a scam, fake lego figures arrived etc. (including ironically someone who got a police figure)

Googling the address shows is a fake address fo non UK companies to buy for under 40 quid a year
https://www.1stformations.co.uk/registered-office-service/

Credit card company contacted and will get money back but what else can we do ?

How do we stop others falling for the same scam?

Also how do we tell google so they stop accepting fake advertising !!!!

Blimey – we are all just one click away from getting scammed. Always pay with a credit card….

That is a very good copy. No way I would have spotted that.  It’s not an advert so Google haven’t accepted fake advertising.  It is probably worth telling the real company has they are likely to have lawyers that deal with this. Won’t help you get your money back but probably the fastest way to get them closed down

A few things to look for.

1. Google map the address to see if it makes sense.
2. If they don’t have a UK telephone then avoid.
3. Call them up to speak to them to figure out if they are trustworthy.

Google map …
Looking at Google Map it does not seem it is a place for such a shop … too expensive for them to afford.
Yes, some can registered office in London as a front to their activities so call them up is the best before ordering.

if you google “happy nappers” it’s the first entry, which is a paid for google advert.

We can’t find the real company, would really like to help if we can…

https://www.happynappers.com/

The company is Jay@play based in Hong Kong

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jay-at-play-introduces-happy-nappers-and-totally-kookoo-at-toy-fair-2011-115741284.html

Totally disagree that it looks legit – Altho yes more effort made than most scam sites.

Free worldwide delivery is the first and biggest red flag! What legit company does/could afford that! VERY common on scam sites though.

Strange language, grammar, some french thrown in there (including on videos)

Trustpilot 5 star rating is just a graphic, doesn’t link you to TP.

And that’s before you investigate address, who’s registered website etc.

Being first in Google ads means nothing except they’ve paid money, so not as reliable an indicator as being first in normal listings, if you know how SEO works.

I wouldn’t bother about reporting it, others falling for it etc, as long as everyone pays by CC (as they should!) no-one will lose out. (Although if enough people reported it to google maybe they’d pull the advert)

found out how to report the google advert to them, so done that. Reported to the original company as well. Pain in the butt but I suppose that’s what happens when the Mrs shops online,…

£40 in Argos (if you still want them?)

Need 2 larges. My kids are monster tall. 4 year old is in 6 yr old clothing and just turned 3 is as tall as my 4 year old mates….. wifes fault!

Duplo and Lego are pretty much the worst things on earth to use as a pillow. Not only are they scamming people, they’re rubbing salt in the wounds. Bunch of bastards

as tall as my 4 year old mates

<NSPCC enters chat>

I would have fallen for that site.

better than nothing

https://support.google.com/google-ads/troubleshooter/4578507?ai=DChcSEwjghLnh-8XvAhVP6-0KHe6oDMwYABANGgJkZw&hl=en-GB#ts=6006595

That site would probably have caught me out and I’m usually super careful. However I wouldn’t have bought from them as they don’t appear to take Paypal and I’d never use my credit card to buy from a site I’ve not used before.

It’s a pretty good site on first perusal. As mentioned above though there’s a few giveaways, as follows:

Lack of contact number

Central London address

French at bottom of page

No PayPal

Tracking link goes straight to contact page

Slightly dodgy language/grammar (though I’ve seen a lot worse)

No clickable link to reviews

Just goes to show you can’t be too careful!

Free worldwide delivery is the first and biggest red flag! What legit company does/could afford that! VERY common on scam sites though.

Chain Reaction Cycles.

I was literally just responding to en email yesterday from a pal whose son just got scammed for AU$8k (his total savings) and my phone rang from ‘the tax office’ and this morning my wife had an email from the ‘post office’ to pay a delivery charge. The PO website looked very convincing. Maybe (invisible) natural justice will be delivered. Can only hope.

First thing I noticed was a .uk address – not legit uk company address (.co.uk, obviously) and then the referall link azasearch? looks more like the link has come from a scam email than a google search? Then all the stuff funkrodent lists.
But, I agree a lot of people won’t know these things and will get scammed.
Guess the only place you can report is
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ (ooh a .uk address 😆 (actually police.uk of course))

My son actually fell for a scam last week – a TEXT from Paypal. Put his bank card details in before it clicked and he contacted me.

My wife has learned to use Trust pilot before any new sites are allowed on her usage list.

Weirdly still can’t persuade her to use my credit card for all purchases and she ‘hates debt’ so always pays on her cash card, even though there is no balance on the credit card.

but what else can we do ?

Report it to the NCSC

report@phishing.gov.uk

they don’t deal with the scam in the same way as Action Fraud might – in terms of investigating your individual case – but they take down/ block fraudulent URLs which might help prevent others getting stung

oticed was a .uk address – not legit uk company address

Nothing in a URL is legitimately anything. Having .co.uk at the anything doesnt prove either that you’re a company (ie registered with Companies House for instance) or in the UK.

my wife had an email from the ‘post office’ to pay a delivery charge

As above – anything like that forward it to the NCSC asap (report@<span class=”skimlinks-unlinked”>phishing.gov.uk) – they block scam URLS so others that receive the same scam and click on it won’t be taken to the fraudster’s site.</span>

It’s got 20 days of trustpilot reviews, and from the off they’re bad.100% negative,every review 😕

Seems nobody reads them.

Weirdly still can’t persuade her to use my credit card for all purchases and she ‘hates debt’ so always pays on her cash card, even though there is no balance on the credit card.

Suggest she uses PayPal then. Offers decent payment protection but draws funds directly from her account.

My 97yo fil had a leaflet delivered at 11.45pm by a travelling inspector of properties, ‘I was only delivering leaflets, honest officer, only reason I was in that place’. The leaflet advertised a year out-of-date ‘opening’ of a business that doesn’t exist but would sell your riding tack on commission. We’ve had similar experiences before and seemingly linked to shops that sell wood burners (in different parts of the country).

I managed to contact the real Happy Nappers company who got back to me. Seems they are doing all they can but these scammers are still getting away with it….

Good morning,

Thank you for your email.

We are aware of a fraudulent website happynappersuk. When we first became aware of this site we alerted Trading Standards and the Police and contacted the company responsible for the postal address listed on the website. We have also reported the site to Google. We are aware that the site is still up and we are updating the authorities continuously. We would advise you to contact your bank/card provider or payment provider to report this as a fraud. We would also advise you report this to Action Fraud and also your local Trading Standards office through Citizens Advice.

Many thanks
Geoff

Are the powers that be either terribly inefficient or that weak they cant do anything about this?

what arrived was 2 fake duplo figures and they took 3 weeks as they came from China

I get that it’s a scam but what I don’t get is why they posted items to you. That costs time and money.

Is it in case you complain and they can provide proof of postage? But as its not via ebay or amazon that doesn’t make sense either.

Do you think it could be they are selling fake happy nappers and they meant to send you fake happy nappers but sent you duplo by mistake?

I don’t think this has been mentioned yet, but always do a Whois on a domain you’ve not used before.

https://www.whois.com/whois/happy-nappers.uk

Registered On:2021-02-05
Expires On:2022-02-05

Red flag #1 – It’s less than two months old.
Red flag #2 – It’s only registered for a year. Very few legitimate businesses do this. Scammers always do because they know the site isn’t going to last longer than that.

Googling the address shows is a fake address fo non UK companies to buy for under 40 quid a year

… or you can stick the address on a web page for free.

At a glance looks good but the address was my red flag. Sleeping bag company with offices in the middle of the west end of London.

a .uk address – not legit uk company address

Nothing wrong with a .uk address. So far as I know, the UK is the only country to have had .co before the national top level domain, and the .uk addresses are just an opportunity to fall in line with the world, like .fr .de .es .ch etc.

I don’t think this has been mentioned yet, but always do a Whois on a domain you’ve not used before.

https://www.whois.com/whois/happy-nappers.uk

@Cougar that’s a great tip! Thanks

Domain name is currently pointing to an IP address in Canada