Sad cobblers and other social scams on the rise: ACCC
Consumer watchdog the ACCC has confirmed an increase in foreign retailers pretending to be Australian in social media advertising. The regulator’s warning comes amid a rash of AI-generated ads for fake closing down sales on fake Australian businesses online: the so-called “Sad cobbler”.
The ads, as reported in Unmade and The Guardian, typically invent back-stories for businesses that are supposedly selling inventory cheap as part of their closing down.
Unmade drew attention to ads which include a fictional cobbler, clothing store, and puzzle maker. In Mumbrella’s case, Facebook served us an ad for a Melbourne clothing store that has a convincing local website, but no history to speak of. The ad began “It is with tears in our eyes that we must share this with you.”
Sad news: Yet another business goes under (Facebook)
The sponsored ad had 96 comments, but only two were available to read.
The ACCC is investigating ads for businesses that “may seek to take advantage of consumers’ goodwill by using an Australian city or suburb as part of their business name.”
A spokesperson for the regulator told Mumbrella in a written statement that the ads were fronts for overseas businesses with no Australian presence.
“The ACCC and the state and territory fair trading/consumer affairs agencies have seen an increase in consumer complaints about these kinds of online clothing and footwear retailers that give the impression they are a local Australian business when this is not the case. Products from these businesses are typically shipped from overseas based warehouses and are not located in Australia.”
Generally, consumers do get the goods, but they are often shoddy or not as represented in the advertising. The ACCC said it was seeking the help of the digital platforms and payment platforms to crack down.
“Consumers should be cautious when dealing with businesses they are not familiar with, that use social media as an advertising platform, as these platforms can easily be used by dubious businesses and scammers to market to consumers.”
Meta responded to a request for comment on the increase in closing down scammers by saying it was continuing to invest in tool and technologies to prevent scams.
“The safety of our users is of utmost importance, and we continue to work with industry, the government and law enforcement to protect Australians from scams.”
Please get in touch with Mumbrella if you have more information about the extent of these advertising scams, or have bought from one yourself.
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