Shopping scam alert: Bonmarché scam ads and how to spot purchase scams

Purchase scams, when you pay for something you never receive, continue to lure victims in with tempting offers. In just the first three months of 2025, Santander customers lost almost £3.5m to a purchase scam.

The bank also revealed that cases involving gig tickets exceeded 10% of all purchase scam claims. Some of these cases capitalised on the recent demand for Sabrina Carpenter and Coldplay tickets.

Which? is warning online shoppers to be cautious of offers that seem too good to be true after spotting seven scam ads this week impersonating the retailer Bonmarché . 

Read on to find out what we discovered and how you can spot, avoid and report a purchase scam. 

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Bonmarché scam ads

Which? found seven ads stating that Bonmarché  is closing down and the retailer is holding a ‘farewell sale’ with heavy discounts.

The seven ads Which? found led to three dodgy websites which claimed to sell clothes. Two of the websites were registered in March of this year, and one was registered last November.

Three of the ads Which? found came from one Facebook account which had reviews accusing the account of peddling a scam impersonating Bonmarché . Victims of these Bonmarché  scam ads have warned that money has been taken from their accounts with no goods delivered. One buyer complained of believing they were buying items from Bonmarché , but actually paid money to a company based in China.

Which? has reported all seven ads.

We also shared these adverts with Meta and it told us it is currently investigating them. It also said that it doesn't allow fraudulent activity and works closely with law enforcement to support investigations and keep scammers off its platforms.

Spotting and reporting purchase scams

Purchase scams typically start as ads and posts on social media or search engines. 

Some signs that a post, ad or website may be part of a purchase scam are:

• Discounts and offers that sound too good to be true - be wary of heavy discounts and claims of selling in-demand goods.
• Limited-time offers or any claim that gets to act with urgency, such as a closing down sale.
• Ads, posts and search results that aren’t posted from a brand’s official accounts or lead to websites that differ from the official website.
• Newly registered websites such as these could have been set up with the intention of scamming victims. Using a domain checker like who.is can tell you when a website was created.
• Negative reviews, especially if they’re posted across multiple review platforms.
• Websites that don’t feature ‘contact us’, ‘about us’ and terms and conditions pages.

To report a scam post or ad on Facebook or Instagram, select the three dots on the right-hand side of the page and click ‘report’.

Malicious websites can be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre. You can also share the details of the scam with Which? using our scam sharer tool.

If you lose any money to a scam, call your bank immediately using the number on the back of your bank card and report it to Action Fraud, or call the police on 101 if you’re in Scotland.