The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued public warnings about four online retailers it alleges are “ghost stores” — websites that pose as local boutiques but are operated from overseas and sell poor‑quality goods.
The ACCC has named the sites everly-melbourne.com, willowandgrace-adelaide.com, sophie-claire.com and doublebayboutique.com, saying it has issued Public Warning Notices to alert consumers to “specific conduct” by their operators. The regulator says the businesses advertise themselves as being based in Melbourne, Adelaide or Double Bay and claim to be closing down, but are in fact overseas operations that drop‑ship low‑quality clothing and footwear.
“We are warning Australians about the risks of engaging with these four websites specifically, which we allege are not based in Melbourne, Adelaide or Double Bay, nor are they imminently closing down,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
“We further allege that the operators of these websites are supplying products which are not of the advertised quality.”
The warnings follow a surge in reports to the ACCC about similar sites. Since the start of 2025 the regulator estimates it has received at least 360 reports about around 60 online retailers; industry coverage and consumer complaints suggest many more ghost stores may be active.
The ACCC says ghost stores often recruit customers via targeted social media advertising, adopt a local place name to appear legitimate, and run fake “closing down” sales to create urgency. “We urge all Australians to think twice before clicking on ads they see on social media which claim to be from a boutique business based in a local town or city,” Ms Lowe said.
“Often ghost stores will share an emotional story on their social media or website that they are a small, locally operated business, needing to close for financial reasons.”
“They will claim they are having a ‘closing down sale’ as a result, with all stock heavily discounted and available on a very limited basis,” Ms Lowe said. “This conduct preys on the empathy of consumers who have a genuine desire to support local businesses, as well as creating a false sense of urgency.”
According to the ACCC, customers who receive goods report they are cheap, mass‑produced items sold at inflated prices and that the products do not match descriptions or images shown on the sites. “The websites often use a similar format to many other online stores, advertising high-quality boutique clothing at heavily discounted prices. However, when the product arrives in the mail, consumers report receiving cheap, mass-produced products that have been sold at an inflated price and do not fit their advertised quality or description,” Ms Lowe said.
The regulator is also concerned about returns and refunds. It says some ghost stores refuse to honour returns, only offer partial refunds, or request returns be sent to overseas warehouses at the buyer’s cost. The conduct can also damage genuine local businesses when ghost stores adopt names similar to established boutiques.
“We have written to both Meta Platforms (as the owner of Facebook and Instagram) and Shopify to request they scrutinise and take appropriate action against the operators of ghost stores,” Ms Lowe said. “We want to increase public awareness of these dishonest businesses so that Australians know how to spot them and can avoid being deceived into buying an inferior product.”
The ACCC has published signs to help consumers spot potential ghost stores: a .com domain that uses an Australian place name, fake backstories and closing‑down claims, no local contact number or ABN, returns addresses in other countries, terms referring to foreign laws, a recent or poorly reviewed Facebook presence, and product images that appear elsewhere at lower prices. It also warns about AI‑generated images for owners and teams.
The regulator recommends checking the Australian Business Register for a listed ABN, using reverse‑image searches (such as Google Lens) to check product photos, and looking for local directory listings and independent reviews. Consumers who have already bought from a suspected ghost store are urged to contact their bank or payment provider immediately to see if the transaction can be stopped or reversed.
The ACCC also advises reporting offending ads and pages to the relevant platforms, reporting sites hosted on Shopify via Shopify’s reporting tool, asking Google to delist fraudulent pages and lodging complaints with the ACCC or ScamWatch.
