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Paypal, Ebay and other websites have long had phishing exploit websites built by scam artists that have the same look and feel or even the same name as the legitimate sites. These are created in an attempt to redirect your money, and such phishing exploits will often send out legitimate-looking emails as well. We all know not to click on links in unsolicited emails. Unfortunately, because the sites or emails look or sound like the legitimate companies, many people fall for them and become unwilling victims.
The Violet Wand community, unfortunately is not spared the efforts of phishing scam artists or 'fakes.' The largest known of these is a phishing exploit website that looks like The Violet Wand Store (the legitimate business located at www.violetwands.com). The phishing site first showed up in 2008, necessitating the original Violet Wand Store owner to begin actively using his (tm) designation in an effort to assist customers.
"I figured people would know who was who,' says Derek Gaff, owner of The Violet Wand Store (tm) through an email exchange. 'But I get calls from people thinking they bought from me saying they didn't get their stuff, and then they find out they didn't order from me at all."
Another exploit site that mimics the website belonging to the International Violet Wand Guild is still in evidence. That site 'fake' is not very pronounced, as the Guild has been well-established at its location at www.violetwands.org for many years and it is less easy for anyone browsing to mistake one from the other. The exploit site that mimics the Guild site, offers only a link to the fake Violet Wand Store exploit site.
Exploits and phishing 'fakes' have not stopped there. For the past two years a woman has been vending at some location events on the East Coast and impersonating Violetwanda quietly in conversations to potential customers in order to encourage sales of substandard goods. Violetwanda declined to comment on the matter.
One might wonder how a community allows a person to pass themselves off as someone better known. A conversation with a kink friendly attorney revealed that impersonating someone else may constitute identity theft, a prosecutable offense, were there sufficient evidence. Seeing that cameras are not generally allowed into vending areas of events, and people naturally prefer their anonymity regarding fetevents, such evidence would be unlikely to materialize in any cases where one kinkcommunity person was being impersonated by another. This can make the kink community particularly vulnerable to impersonation and exploitation.
As for the copycat websites, the internet is a free market and so far, uncensored. This article explains how Copycat websites are on the rise
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The International Chamber of Commerce’s Financial Investigation Bureau (FIB) is warning business owners, investors and consumers to be alert to the growing problem of copycat websites. In recent months, FIB fraud investigators have been called upon repeatedly to help shut down bogus websites.
FIB Assistant Director Jon Merrett stated: “We are seeing the number of copycat sites increasing exponentially and targeting nearly all industrial sectors.”
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Read more: This article explains Copycat websites and who usually creates them and why.
As a warning to potential violet wand customers, it is unfortunate that our own niche of the kink community is now infiltrated with these fakes, and that we are targets for greed just as is the general vanilla population. Advice to potential shoppers everywhere, either kink or vanilla, is to do your homework and be sure of where, and from whom, you are buying.
For additional help and information before shopping online or at an event, see the 2009-2010 Customer Reviews Survey Results.
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