HONOLULU (KHON2) — The popular aloha shirt maker, Reyn Spooner is alerting customers to beware of fake-ads pretending to be from the company. Customers have fallen for the false advertisement promoting Reyn Spooner products at a steep discount, all in attempts to steal sensitive information.
It was too good to be true for Carole Kaapu.
Kaapu said, “Just getting ready to go to bed and I saw that Reyn Spooner was having a sale and I’m like ‘yes’!”
Sales like she had never seen before, all the sizes and styles, classic and new available. But soon the excitement started to wear off, she realized the advertisement and the website she clicked on were not legitimate.
“Did everything and checked out,” said Kaapu. “It was when I got the confirmation email which is pretty sophisticated, I’m a proofreader and it said Reny Spooner, not Reyn Spooner. “
Customers like Kaapu thought they were getting a great deal, thinking products that retail for more than $100 were just a fraction of the price.
The Senior Director of E-commerce for Reyn Spooner, Veronica Elliot said they started getting reports from customers about possible scams. The majority of the complaints came from Hawaii customers.
Elliott said, “So we really think that the company is pretending to be Reyn Spooner in order to obtain sensitive information from customers, such as credit card information.”
Elliott said they are working with social media companies like Meta to remove the false ads, but as soon as they come down another one pops up.
Shoppers are being asked to take a closer look at the seller’s information.
Elliott said, “The usernames are usually misspelled or they don’t say Reyn Spooner at all or the Reyn, the r in Reyn will be capitalized the S will be lower case, it’s very subtle.”
And it is easy to fall for, Kaapu said she never thought she would fall victim to these cybercrimes.
Kaapu said, “I immediately canceled my card.”
Cybersecurity Specialist and retired Honolulu Police Department Detective Chris Duque said many of these organizations operate outside the United States. He said people should keep a record of any fraudulent activity.
Duque said, “Get copies of emails, and transactions get a screen capture, get a confirmation number don’t delete that.”
He advises reporting these incidents to the bank, the Better Business Bureau and the police.
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