After criminal gangs targeted Martha Brook’s advent calendar with hundreds of fake websites, Facebook ads and Amazon listings, owner Martha Keith took matters into her own hands, tracking down the scammers.
The popular Martha Brook stationery advent calendar sold out within weeks of going on sale in mid-September, but it didn’t take scammers long to set up fake websites and listings, offering the calendar at a fraction of its price and using Martha Brook’s social media posts and videos to promote the calendar. Her story was picked up by The Sunday Times newspaper on 20 October.
“I was effectively advertising it for them,” Martha told a Louise Eccles, a journalist for The Times. “They were using videos of me talking about our advent calendar, which looked professional and authentic, because they were.”
As soon as customers alerted Martha to the fake listings, Martha contacted Meta and Amazon to have the offending accounts taken down, yet the companies were slow to act. “It is just unbelievable that these platforms are letting this happen even after it’s been reported,” Martha tells The Times. “The Amazon listings were sponsored, so [Amazon was] being paid to advertise them, as were the social media companies. I think they’re not taking them down because they’re making money from advertising the scams.”
Martha struggled to get anyone to take any action and told her followers on Instagram: “The response from the Police, Action Fraud, Trading Standards, Advertising Standards, Meta and Amazon has all been disappointing to say the least. I know you have all been reporting the ads you see and Meta have been refusing to take them down.”
Frustrated with the lack of action, Martha took matters into her own hands and with the help of her customers, sent cease-and-desist letters to the scam websites, citing a breach of trademark and copyright. She traced many of the websites back to a Chinese company with a registered address in Cardiff.
She contacted The Times with her story to raise awareness of how hard this has been to tackle and warn consumers about the scam.
“The journalist really has done an incredibly thorough investigation,” Martha said on Instagram. “She even sent someone to the scammer’s address. I am determined not to let the scammers get away with this. And thank you again to all our customers Please do keep reporting any fake websites you see.”
