Fake-Store Check Kit

A deal that good deserves one question before it deserves your card: is this store real at all?

Fake stores are built for sale season. FTC holiday guidance describes the pattern plainly: bogus sites steal real businesses' photos and logos, ship counterfeit goods, the wrong item, or nothing at all - and steer buyers toward gift cards, wire transfers, payment apps, or crypto, the payments with no way back. The BBB's 2025 Scam Tracker Risk Report ranks online-purchase scams the third-riskiest scam type, and on November 2, 2026 the FTC opened public comment on imposter ads - paid ads pretending to be well-known businesses. (These are reported agency figures and descriptions, named as context - not a prediction about any store you are looking at.)

The Fake-Store Check Kit is the pause before the click. Seven checks, run in a few minutes before you pay: search the seller's name, address, and "scam"; verify the company name, address, and phone in the footer actually check out; look up the domain's age against the store's own story; measure the price against the rest of the market (about 70% below everywhere else is the bait pattern, not a bargain); apply the payment-method gate - credit card only, and a demand for gift cards, wire, a payment app, or crypto means walk away; test the return and contact routes; and never enter a store through an ad - go to the brand's own site directly. One worked example runs all seven checks on an invented sample store, labeled as an example, so you can watch the pattern fail in the right places.

When a store passes and you buy, the buy-evidence log keeps the paper trail a dispute is built from: screenshots, transaction number, seller name and address, order-confirmation emails - one entry per order, kept in date order in the spreadsheet. And if a store burns you anyway, the first-hour script gives the moves in the order that protects you: card issuer first, evidence assembled, report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, report the ad on its platform.

The honest note, printed in the kit and here: Recovery is never guaranteed. This kit sells a check and a paper trail - never a refund promise, and it is not legal advice. Everything in it is general consumer-safety information based on FTC and BBB guidance.

Different kit, different question: the True-Price Check Kit answers "is this real store's discount real?" with price-history logs. This kit answers the question that comes first - "is this store real at all?" Pair it with the Gift Card Safe-Give Kit, which checks the card at the rack the way this kit checks the store at the click.

• Seven checks, a few minutes. seller, footer, domain, price, payment, returns, the ad
• One hard rule. gift cards, wire, payment apps, or crypto demanded = walk away
• A paper trail per order. the evidence log a dispute is built from
• The first hour, in order. issuer first, evidence ready, reports filed

What's inside

• The Guide (12 pages) - why fake stores work, the 7 checks explained, one worked example on an invented sample store (labeled as an example), the buy-evidence log, and the first-hour moves
• The Printables (4 pages) - the 7-check store test card, the buy-evidence log, and the first-hour if-burned script
• The Spreadsheet (XLSX, 2 sheets) - the buy-evidence log with order dates you can sort, plus a store-test results sheet

Instant download. One ZIP file containing 3 files - the guide PDF (12 pages), the printables PDF (4 pages), and the spreadsheet (XLSX with 2 sheets), 16 PDF pages total. PDFs are US Letter (8.5" x 11"): print at 100% scale, single-sided, as many times as you need for your own household. No physical product will be shipped.

Fake-Store Check Kit FAQs

Q: What does this kit actually check?
A: Seven things, before you pay: the seller's search history, the footer identity, the domain's age, the price against the market, the payment methods demanded, the return/contact reality, and whether you arrived through an imposter ad.

Q: How long does the test take?
A: A few minutes per store. The test card is one page; the payment-method check alone can end it in seconds.

Q: I already paid a store that burned me. Can this kit get my money back?
A: Recovery is never guaranteed. The kit's first-hour script gives the standard consumer steps in order - card issuer first, then ReportFraud.ftc.gov, then the ad platform - and the evidence log format for the paperwork a dispute needs.

Q: How is this different from the True-Price Check Kit?
A: True-Price answers "is this real store's discount real?" This kit answers the prior question: "is this store real at all?"

Q: Is this legal advice?
A: No. It is general consumer-safety information based on FTC and BBB guidance.

Q: How do I receive it?
A: Instant download: one ZIP with the guide PDF, the printables PDF, and the spreadsheet. No physical product will be shipped.