Fake Fridays: Swish Official
This Fake Friday we are taking a look at a store that has been approaching marketing agencies to come up with a digital promotion plan. That’s right - we've been told a fake store has been contacting legitimate marketing agencies with the hopes that they would help market its brand and fake products.
We've already shown you fake stores that promote via Google Shopping but this takes it to a whole new level. Enter: Swish Official - one of the more legit looking sites. But be warned - this store is as fake as those pushing BAPE x Yeezy slides and definitely not “official” like their name tries to convince you. DON'T trust them.
Visiting the SwishOfficial website, you are greeted with clean logos and banners. The site proudly states "the online retailer you can trust" and goes on to explain how online shopping is being held back by a lack of trust. This is extremely ironic. Swish doesn't ever state their products aren't real and go out of their way to mislead you into thinking they are legit. They expect you to "trust" them that they are selling legit products with no proof to back it up. Swish just state they stock "premium quality fashion and footwear" and have "official" in their name to try to create an association between their products and official items.
With platforms like Shopify and WordPress, it’s become easier and easier to make a store look as legit as Nike - for example. And that’s all Swish is. A Shopify template filled with fake products. Don’t be fooled into thinking a store selling fake items wouldn’t put so much effort into making their site look so good. A website like Swish could be up and running in a few days max with little effort but loading your fake products and filling out the pre-loaded pages. There is nothing wrong with Shopify though. It's an amazing platform. Often legitimate retailers and resellers have sites built with Shopify too, and it’s this reason Swish is so dangerous. With the use of similar themes, they can create a similar look and feel when compared to legit reseller and retailer sites - making you think they must be legit by association too. They aren’t.
Other features the site has to further convince it doesn’t push fugazi is an official payment gateway, order tracking tab, reviews section, as well as a pop-up showing you recent purchases from their victims. The order tracking can be extremely convincing as usually, legitimate stores have these higher-level processes in place. The site uses an Aftership integration via Shopify to achieve this. Another way Swish uses the technical knowledge to make themselves look legit.
A lot of fake stores on Instagram only take payment via EFT. This has increasingly become known as a red flag in the community and as a response, stores have adapted. Through Shopify plugins, Swish accepted Debit/Credit cards and proudly display the Visa and Mastercard logos on their website. One has to wonder how they get away with so many official integrations and partnerships.
Finally, let’s take a look at the actual products. As we have done many times before, a simple glance at real resell prices will show you a Dunk at R1499 (below retail) is just not possible in today’s hype-driven market. A popular Nike Dunk can fetch R3500+ so why would they sell them at more than half that? It’s because the photos on the site aren’t the stock they have. They post legit images, take your money and deliver a fake, low-quality pair. The same goes for their Jordan 1s and every other sneaker they stock. Legit stores don't just sell Dunks, Jordan 1s and other popular sold-out sneakers. That's because there is always a strict allocation from brands with hyped products. But when it's fake, there is no limit. That's why they have full-size curves and never sell out.
Just take a look at their reviews section to see the product they actually deliver.
SHELFLIFE WEEKLY TIP
Just because a website tries to look clean and official does not mean the product is. Always do your own research on the average prices for hyped releases and compare them to stores. A real store won't be selling hyped sneakers on sale nor will they have unlimited stock.
