“Australia’s Wake-Up Call: What Happened in Late 2025”

Late 2025 delivered one of the clearest warning signs yet about where fake luxury and online shopping fraud is heading.

McAfee’s 2025 holiday research confirmed a sharp surge in scams targeting Australian shoppers. Nearly one in five Australians was targeted, with the average victim losing AUD $445. These were not isolated incidents involving obscure retailers. The majority of scams impersonated well-known brands such as Dior, Gucci, Coach, and Apple, flooding search results and social feeds in the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Christmas.

Scam and fake luxury links began circulating as early as October, then intensified sharply around major shopping events. By peak season, fake social media giveaways, SMS delivery scams, cloned marketplaces, and lookalike brand websites were widespread.

What made these scams particularly effective was their polish. The sites used authentic imagery, fast-loading pages, and familiar checkout flows. For many shoppers, there was no obvious moment when the interaction felt unsafe.

Australia’s experience was not an anomaly. It was an early signal of how holiday shopping fraud is evolving globally.

Why This Isn’t Just a Holiday Problem

The holiday rush creates urgency, but the infrastructure behind these scams operates continuously.

Criminal groups no longer rely on a handful of fraudulent sites. They deploy automation to spin up hundreds or thousands of domains at once, swapping brand names, layouts, and product categories depending on seasonal demand. When one site is removed, several more are already live.

The scale is significant. More than 1,300 fake domains have been registered to imitate major fashion, jewellery, and watch brands, specifically positioned to support phishing campaigns and counterfeit sales during high-traffic retail periods. This is not opportunistic fraud. It is planned, resourced, and persistent.

Brand impersonation has also become highly targeted. In the luxury segment, scam URLs increased by roughly 45 percent year over year, with Coach alone linked to about 45 percent more scam domains than any other luxury brand. Recognition and resale value drive targeting decisions, not chance.

The same infrastructure remains active year-round, adapting to product launches, regional sales events, and emerging platforms. The holidays simply expose how mature these networks have become.

What’s Making It Worse: AI Is Now the Scammer’s Toolkit

Artificial intelligence has shifted scam economics.

By 2025, AI was already being used to fake luxury clone ecommerce sites, generate fake product listings, and write convincing promotional emails. In 2026, those tools are faster, cheaper, and more convincing.

AI voicebots now handle customer support interactions on scam sites. AI-generated video influencers promote fake fashion drops on social platforms. Personalized phishing emails mirror real shopping behavior, referencing recent browsing, preferred brands, or seasonal wish lists inferred from breached or scraped data.

The critical change is that AI enables behavioral mimicry, not just visual imitation. Messages arrive at the right time, in the right tone, with the right context. That makes hesitation less likely.

The Red Flags Are Harder to Spot in 2026

Many traditional warning signs have lost their usefulness.

Scam sites routinely use HTTPS and valid SSL certificates. Pages load quickly and follow modern design standards. Customer reviews are often scraped directly from legitimate brand sites or marketplaces and reused without attribution.

Influencer fraud has also evolved. Scam campaigns increasingly rely on synthetic influencer accounts, built using AI-generated faces, voices, and content. These profiles often have thousands of followers and realistic engagement patterns created through coordinated bot networks.

Even phishing emails and SMS messages now include personal details such as a shopper’s name, location, or style preferences. This information is often pulled from breached datasets or inferred through tracking pixels and ad platforms.

In 2026, the absence of obvious errors is no longer a sign of legitimacy.

New Scam Formats to Expect in 2026

Several scam formats are expected to expand further in the coming year.

AI-powered fashion drops will promote fake collaborations with real designers or influencers, linking to short-lived scam storefronts timed around product launches.

Hyper-personalized phishing will imitate specific brands and platforms a shopper already uses, referencing loyalty accounts, past purchases, or abandoned carts.

Fake AR try-on tools or metaverse shopping events will request wallet connections or account permissions, exposing payment credentials under the guise of immersive experiences.

Customer support chatbots will impersonate real brand representatives, guiding shoppers through “secure” checkout flows that redirect payments to fraudulent accounts.

These scams are designed to feel normal, not urgent or chaotic.

Also read our guide on How Amazon Is Using AI to Detect Fake Products — And What It Means for Online Shopping

What Shoppers Can Do Now

Despite increasing sophistication, basic verification habits still reduce risk.

• Unusually deep discounts from unfamiliar sites remain a warning sign, particularly for luxury goods. Shoppers should verify the exact domain name, not just the brand logo or page design. Minor changes such as extra words or alternative extensions often indicate impersonation.
• Social media links should only be trusted when they originate from verified brand accounts. Paid advertisements alone do not establish legitimacy.
• Browser-based scam blockers, password managers, and two-factor authentication help detect unsafe links and limit damage if credentials are compromised.
• Shoppers should also look for verified purchase histories and independent discussion, not just generic five-star reviews displayed on a site.

Taking a moment to pause remains one of the most effective defenses.

Why Brand Protection Needs to Catch Up Against Fake Luxury

For brands, the challenge is structural.

Traditional takedown notices cannot keep pace with networks capable of registering hundreds of domains automatically. While enforcement remains necessary, it is no longer sufficient as a primary defense.

Luxury brands increasingly need item-level authentication, not just domain monitoring. When consumers can verify authenticity directly, fake sites lose effectiveness even if they remain online.

Solutions such as TruLux-style verification platforms introduce digital product passports, material fingerprinting, and micro-pattern matching that allow shoppers to confirm whether an item is genuine before completing a purchase.

This is not about marketing differentiation. It is about protecting trust at scale.

2026 Will Be the Breaking Point for Fake Luxury

The data from late 2025 makes one thing clear. AI-driven scams are becoming more believable, more scalable, and more profitable.

Australia’s experience showed how quickly these schemes can affect mainstream shoppers during peak retail periods. With luxury scam domains rising year over year and over 1,300 fake brand domains already registered, the trajectory points toward broader, more sustained impact.

Fake luxury websites should now be treated as a cybersecurity threat, not a seasonal nuisance. For both shoppers and brands, the challenge is no longer spotting broken grammar or blurry images. It is knowing what is real before clicking “buy.”

In 2026, verification and infrastructure, not intuition, will determine who stays protected.