Carinthia residents targeted by fake online shops

Two residents of Carinthia, Austria, have fallen victim to fraudulent online shops in separate incidents.

A 30-year-old man from the Klagenfurt-Land district attempted to purchase a pallet of wood pellets from a website called ‘cashandel.shop’ after finding it via a search engine. Upon entering his personal and credit card information, several hundred euros were debited from his account, but he never received an order confirmation and could not contact the seller.

In a separate incident, a 41-year-old woman from the Villach-Land district was defrauded while attempting to purchase an e-bike from a fraudulent bicycle retailer. She transferred over 1,000 euros via online banking to a German bank account before realizing the website was a fake shop.

Police have issued a warning regarding these online scams, advising citizens to be suspicious of unusually low prices, missing or incomplete company information, and unusual payment methods. Further guidance on identifying fraudulent shops is available on the Federal Criminal Police Office website.