Misleading 'ghost stores' haunting Australian consumers
At least four such stores have been noted by the Australian consumer watchdog for misleading shoppers into buying low-quality items.
They often claim to be local Australian businesses that are closing down and selling off high-quality goods, when they are actually based overseas and sell poor-quality, drop-shipped clothes and footwear.
"This conduct preys on the empathy of consumers who have a genuine desire to support local businesses," Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.
The commission specifically issued public warning notices about everly-melbourne.com, willowandgrace-adelaide.com, sophie-claire.com and doublebayboutique.com.
However, the issue appears to be more widespread with the watchdog receiving at least 360 reports about 60 online retailers since the start of 2025.
Many complaints alleged ghost stores were refusing to provide refunds, were offering only partial refunds or were not responding to complaints at all.
Normally, Australians could pursue their consumer rights and go to a local store.
But because so many of the shops operate overseas, the usual consumer guarantees would not apply, Consumer Action Law Centre legal director Stephen Nowicki said.
"There's very little you can do," he told AAP.
The commission has urged consumers to contact their bank to see if they can reverse the charge or stop the transaction.
While this can be done when Australians fall victim to scams, the situation with ghost stores is less clear because shoppers still receive a product.
"It becomes harder in these kinds of situations, compared to an outright scam, to know what is a genuine discount versus what someone is presenting as a discount but is actually something not worth what they are promoting it as," Mr Nowicki said.
But there are some potential areas for reform.
Though governments could not pass laws that would give consumers jurisdiction against an overseas business, they could try to block and prevent advertising in the first place.
Operators generally target Australians through social media ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They make themselves appear local by closing and then rebranding under new names that use different Australian suburbs, towns or cities.
The competition and consumer commission has written to Meta, which owns both platforms, and e-commerce giant Shopify, which can be used to host and operate ghost web stores. It has also tried to educate shoppers.
Ghost store domains often end with ".com" and not ".com.au", and many use AI-generated images.
They also generally do not provide a physical address or a means of contact beyond an email address, while their Privacy Policy or Terms of Service sometimes refers to international regulations rather than Australian laws.
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SBS Australia
2 hours ago
- SBS Australia
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The Advertiser
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- The Advertiser
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The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- The Advertiser
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Australia's big four banks are being urged to take greater action against climate change after a study found none were specifically identifying emissions of a major greenhouse gas. The banks' failure to single out methane emissions could undermine their environmental efforts, the study warned, in addition to their failure to phase out support for methane-intensive coal-mining projects. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis issued the warning and six recommendations on Thursday after analysing climate reports from the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac and NAB. The report comes after Australian research group The Superpower Institute launched an open platform to report methane emissions and after the big big banks were found to have cut lending to fossil fuel companies by more than 20 per cent in two years. The institute's report analysed annual climate reports and climate transition plans from the four banks and found only ANZ covered methane emissions in its environmental reporting, and none recorded methane emissions separately. The lack of methane reporting went against Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials guidelines, report author and lead coal analyst Anne Knight said, and could diminish the banks' environmental targets. "Australia's major banks have taken significant strides in addressing their climate-related financial risks and setting decarbonisation targets," she said. "However, the credibility and effectiveness of these efforts are undermined by various critical shortcomings, most notably the inconsistent, often inadequate treatment of methane emissions." While all four banks had set targets to phase out financing for thermal coal mining projects by 2030, they did not set similar targets for metallurgical coal mining that used more methane on average. NAB and Westpac had banned support for new metallurgical mining projects this year, but Ms Knight said they had an opportunity to make a bigger climate impact by addressing methane use. "Reducing methane emissions now could have more immediate results at slowing down global warming," she said. "Banks could be doing more to help achieve this." The institute issued six recommendations to banks in the report including explicitly reporting methane emissions, requiring independent verification of methane emissions from clients, and phasing out finance offered to both thermal and metallurgical coal projects. The report follows research from The Superpower Institute that warned Australia's methane emissions from fossil fuel production could be twice as high as current estimates. It also comes after a Macquarie analysis of the major banks' environmental, social and governance plans in December found they had cut lending to fossil fuel businesses by more than 20 per cent in two years. Australia's big four banks are being urged to take greater action against climate change after a study found none were specifically identifying emissions of a major greenhouse gas. The banks' failure to single out methane emissions could undermine their environmental efforts, the study warned, in addition to their failure to phase out support for methane-intensive coal-mining projects. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis issued the warning and six recommendations on Thursday after analysing climate reports from the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac and NAB. The report comes after Australian research group The Superpower Institute launched an open platform to report methane emissions and after the big big banks were found to have cut lending to fossil fuel companies by more than 20 per cent in two years. The institute's report analysed annual climate reports and climate transition plans from the four banks and found only ANZ covered methane emissions in its environmental reporting, and none recorded methane emissions separately. The lack of methane reporting went against Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials guidelines, report author and lead coal analyst Anne Knight said, and could diminish the banks' environmental targets. "Australia's major banks have taken significant strides in addressing their climate-related financial risks and setting decarbonisation targets," she said. "However, the credibility and effectiveness of these efforts are undermined by various critical shortcomings, most notably the inconsistent, often inadequate treatment of methane emissions." While all four banks had set targets to phase out financing for thermal coal mining projects by 2030, they did not set similar targets for metallurgical coal mining that used more methane on average. NAB and Westpac had banned support for new metallurgical mining projects this year, but Ms Knight said they had an opportunity to make a bigger climate impact by addressing methane use. "Reducing methane emissions now could have more immediate results at slowing down global warming," she said. "Banks could be doing more to help achieve this." The institute issued six recommendations to banks in the report including explicitly reporting methane emissions, requiring independent verification of methane emissions from clients, and phasing out finance offered to both thermal and metallurgical coal projects. The report follows research from The Superpower Institute that warned Australia's methane emissions from fossil fuel production could be twice as high as current estimates. It also comes after a Macquarie analysis of the major banks' environmental, social and governance plans in December found they had cut lending to fossil fuel businesses by more than 20 per cent in two years. Australia's big four banks are being urged to take greater action against climate change after a study found none were specifically identifying emissions of a major greenhouse gas. The banks' failure to single out methane emissions could undermine their environmental efforts, the study warned, in addition to their failure to phase out support for methane-intensive coal-mining projects. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis issued the warning and six recommendations on Thursday after analysing climate reports from the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac and NAB. The report comes after Australian research group The Superpower Institute launched an open platform to report methane emissions and after the big big banks were found to have cut lending to fossil fuel companies by more than 20 per cent in two years. The institute's report analysed annual climate reports and climate transition plans from the four banks and found only ANZ covered methane emissions in its environmental reporting, and none recorded methane emissions separately. The lack of methane reporting went against Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials guidelines, report author and lead coal analyst Anne Knight said, and could diminish the banks' environmental targets. "Australia's major banks have taken significant strides in addressing their climate-related financial risks and setting decarbonisation targets," she said. "However, the credibility and effectiveness of these efforts are undermined by various critical shortcomings, most notably the inconsistent, often inadequate treatment of methane emissions." While all four banks had set targets to phase out financing for thermal coal mining projects by 2030, they did not set similar targets for metallurgical coal mining that used more methane on average. NAB and Westpac had banned support for new metallurgical mining projects this year, but Ms Knight said they had an opportunity to make a bigger climate impact by addressing methane use. "Reducing methane emissions now could have more immediate results at slowing down global warming," she said. "Banks could be doing more to help achieve this." The institute issued six recommendations to banks in the report including explicitly reporting methane emissions, requiring independent verification of methane emissions from clients, and phasing out finance offered to both thermal and metallurgical coal projects. The report follows research from The Superpower Institute that warned Australia's methane emissions from fossil fuel production could be twice as high as current estimates. It also comes after a Macquarie analysis of the major banks' environmental, social and governance plans in December found they had cut lending to fossil fuel businesses by more than 20 per cent in two years.
