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A slew of fake websites purporting to sell popular Nobull gym clothing have sprung up ahead of the Christmas sales period, with shoppers being scammed into making purchases on the sites.
The US-based brand, which is popular among CrossFit enthusiasts, is promoted by NFL star Tom Brady, who became an investor this year.
But Googling ‘Nobull UK’ returns a number of fake sites among the top results, including nobull-shoes-uk.co and uknobull.com, which were both registered earlier this year. The sites have since been taken down, but not before fooling some shoppers.
Mis-spelling the name slightly, and searching “UK No Bull” returned a fake site as the top result, according to research by The Independent.
Finding fake websites so easily on the world’s biggest search engine is likely to anger campaigners who fought to force internet giants to crack down on fraud after the firms resisted having protections made part of the new Online Safety Act.
The sites were made to look similar to Nobull’s official site, but stripped of contact details and company information. They offer attractive pricing with about a third off sports shoes and other goods.
One shopper, who didn’t want to be named for fear of being targeted by more scammers, was searching for deals on the clothing since stocks were low on the company’s real website. She told The Independent that she fell foul of a copycat site, spending over £100. She is trying to get her credit card company to refund her.
The professionalism of the site, its use of the company’s brand name and its prominence in Google searches meant that she only suspected a problem when no confirmation was emailed to them.
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said: “Recent Which? research found more than 6 million people in the UK have fallen victim to scams on platforms – many of which are owned by tech giants – in the last 12 months and this included search engines such as Google where fraud was found to be common.
“Under the current timeline for the Online Safety Act, platforms in scope of the fraudulent advertising duties in the Act may not be held accountable until 2027. Which? believes Ofcom needs to bring this into force much sooner.
“The Fraud Minister must also ensure a more coordinated approach across government and the tech, banking and telecom sectors to stop the fraud epidemic.”
One of the sites has been reviewed by shoppers on Trustpilot, with four one-star reviews after shoppers either received no goods or were sent cheap fake jewellery rather than sportswear. The owner of the website has not responded to the reviews.
Web hosts like GoDaddy were found to be selling copycat web domains with names like nobull-shoes-uk.com for as little as one penny.
New rules in the UK under the Online Safety Act protect users against fraud, but they are only slowly being rolled out.
The act passed last year but work is being carried out to bring it into force from 2025.
Advisors working on the act say that search engines are one of the main routes for scammers to reach victims and getting the likes of Google to remove the links would help protect shoppers.
A Google Spokesperson said: “Our advanced spam-fighting systems help keep Google Search 99 per cent spam free, despite ever-evolving attempts from spammers. We have clear spam policies against deceptive tactics and when we find behaviour that violates our policies, we take action. We’ll continue to investigate and take action against any sites that violate our policies.”
While a search by the Independent returned a scam website top for one search the company said its own searches put the legitimate Nobull site top and the fake one second.
GoDaddy, Namecheap, and the owners of the sites have been contacted for comment.
Nobull didn’t respond to a request for comment through its press office, but when asked in a direct message via its official X account whether other websites should be trusted, it said: “NOBULL shoes and apparel are exclusively available online through our official website.”