Background: fake artisan stories, shared imagery
Shoppers are being warned about online advertising campaigns that mimic family-run businesses with elaborate backstories, including sweater sellers that present themselves as legitimate small retailers. The Associated Press reported that two such websites, Melia & Co and Olivia Westwood Boutique, offer narratives centered on craft, family history and seasonal sentiment—details that the reporting says do not match what the businesses appear to be.
Two “boutiques” with similar product pages
AP reported that Melia & Co appears to be a small family-run business, with its site featuring a caption about a woman hand-knitting a Christmas design and a statement that she is closing her little studio and that the pieces on offer are her last. The AP story also reported that Olivia Westwood Boutique spotlights a similar-style family history, saying twin sisters run a shop their mother opened in 1972, and that the website includes a sale honoring the boutique’s late founder on what would have been her 95th birthday.
Instead of distinctive brands, AP said both sites display many of the same Icelandic, Nordic and festive sweaters using identical stock images. The AP story also reported that the domains were registered in China in November, ahead of the holiday shopping season.
“Too good to be true” reviews and ad markers
AP reported that negative reviews of both websites proliferate on consumer review sites such as Trustpilot. The reporting says users describe receiving shoddy goods and finding it difficult to return items.
In addition, AP reported that Melia & Co did not return a request for more information about the owners. The AP story also described how a pop-up ad for Melia & Co identifies a 72-year-old Swedish knitter named Nola Rene as hanging up her needles, while including the word “advertorial” and a disclaimer at the top and bottom saying the people in the photos are models.
AP further reported that at least three other shopping sites also sell the same sweaters using the wording “lovingly hand-knitted in small batches.”
Olivia Westwood Boutique, according to AP, responded to an email question about where it was based and who owned it by saying it was an online boutique “working with trusted global fulfillment partners to serve our customers.”
Refund trouble and why AI makes it harder
The AP reporting placed the warning in the broader context of online shopping losses. It said Pew Research Center found that about 36% of Americans failed to receive refunds after purchasing online an item they said never arrived or turned out to be counterfeit, based on a Pew survey conducted in April 2025 and published in July.
AP also said faster and more sophisticated digital tools are making it harder for consumers to spot suspicious ads. Seth Ketron, a marketing professor at The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, told AP that scammers are using AI-generated images to create websites that give “an aura of artisan authenticity” or suggest a long history as a trusted small retailer.
Ketron said: “It’s getting more and more common,” adding that it can be easy to overlook signs the ads are not real.
Steps experts say consumers can take
AP described guidance from small-business owners and academic experts on how shoppers can reduce their risk of being taken in by misleading e-commerce pages.
Deanna Newman, who owns C’est La Vie, an online jewelry retailer in Ontario, Canada, told AP that she learned about mall-business impersonation scams after an irate Facebook comment indicated someone using her store name for other shopping sites. Newman said she found copycat websites claiming brick-and-mortar locations in multiple cities, including New York, Birmingham in England and Dublin in Ireland—locations she said did not exist.
Newman told AP: “Sometimes people were receiving products from China and very low-grade jewelry, and then some people weren’t receiving things at all,” describing outcomes that ranged from low-quality items to non-delivery.
Newman advised shoppers to look for verifiable details such as an address, and she said that when in doubt, they should reach out to the owner by email, phone or a contact form. She said, “It’s hard, because the consumer has to do a little bit of research on their side, but I would say, too, that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
Watch for sob stories, then check reviews and domains
AP reported that Newman also warned about another tactic: “fake hardship stories” paired with ads. She described gimmicks such as announcing a “going-out-of-business” sale or a sale to honor a late son, daughter or grandmother, and said scams with her name used multiple versions of the approach.
Newman said she realized a customer had mistaken her business for a scam site, telling AP: “I realized that they thought that I was the scam website.”
Murat Kantarcioglu, a computer science professor at Virginia Tech, told AP that reviews can be a useful check before buying from smaller merchants. He said customer reviews are not always legitimate, but they can still help as part of a broader search. Kantarcioglu said: “If the small business claims to be there for 30 years, they should have reviews about them, maybe from at least a couple of years back,” suggesting shoppers compare claimed history against review timelines.
AP also reported that Kantarcioglu recommends looking up where a domain was registered, using the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, GoDaddy or Whois. He said a red flag is when a company claims it is in one country but the domain is registered in another, and another red flag is when a domain was registered only in the past few months but the site is marketed as an established business.
Experts say to trust “your gut” when warning signs show up
Even with careful research, AP reported experts say it is still possible to be scammed. Ketron told AP that as AI improves, scammers and other dubious operators may find it easier to deceive people, and that this will make detection more difficult over time.
He said: “As (AI) gets better, then scammers or people doing dubious business practices are going to have an easier time duping people.”
The AP report said experts recommend that when something seems off, shoppers should pause rather than completing a purchase they may later regret.