{"id":410320,"date":"2026-01-13T16:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410320\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:05:09","slug":"concern-ghost-stores-taking-advantage-of-bondi-massacre-in-online-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410320\/","title":{"rendered":"Concern ‘ghost stores’ taking advantage of Bondi massacre in online scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

An online fashion retailer accused of “unconscionable conduct” is under investigation for allegedly profiting off the Bondi terror attack.<\/p>\n

NSW Fair Trading issued a public warning about “ghost store” Isla & James, which said it was holding a closure sale due to the mass shooting on December 14 and made “false claims” about being based in Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

The site claimed one of the co-founders, James, was “shot” in the massacre and there was no “moving on” after the shooting.<\/p>\n

NSW Fair Trading Commissioner Natasha Mann said the agency now believed it was a “ghost store operating from overseas”.<\/p>\n

“We think they’re using the Bondi Beach terror attack to really try and exploit the grief of our community to try and profiteer,” she said.<\/p>\n

Do you know more?<\/p>\n

If you have any information about a story, contact Millie Roberts at roberts.millie@abc.net.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Samia Goudie was one of the customers who was duped by Isla & James last month, after coming across an emotionally-charged advertisement on Facebook.<\/p>\n

They emphasised the business, once their “dream”, was closing down that night and the prices had been slashed so they could “start out [their] new lives”. The site also featured an an AI-generated image of the pair.<\/p>\n

“Looking back, if it hadn’t had that emotional hook, I probably wouldn’t have looked at it,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Goudie said she did “periphery checks” but the site looked “sophisticated”, with a map pinned to Bondi and a correlating Instagram page.<\/p>\n

She spent $250 in her order, saying she did not “have the ability really to spend a lot of money” but wanted to support a good cause.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Samia Goudie wanted to show her support in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack. (ABC News: Nicholas Haggarty)<\/p>\n

Ms Goudie even emailed the store to express her sympathy and when they replied to say they were not closing down at all, the first red flag went off.<\/p>\n

The order has not been sent out, and she later found out the items were likely from an e-commerce platform.<\/p>\n

“The first reaction was, ‘How dare people do this?’ This is absolutely disgusting to use a tragedy to get people’s sympathy or empathy,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t even like for myself, like, I’ve fallen for this. That was much later, you know, how stupid am I? … I felt like an idiot.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a reminder to people … to double-check what they’re donating to.”<\/p>\n

Concern others ‘may take similar approach’<\/p>\n

The website appears to have been registered on December 23 from an IP address in Arizona, in the United States.<\/p>\n

NSW Fair Trading said there was no contact number or trading address in the state, “nor any other evidence that the store is associated with a trader at Bondi Beach”.<\/p>\n

Other warning signs for ghost stores can include no Australian address, no phone number or “.au” domain, or if the ABN cannot be verified.<\/p>\n

Ms Mann is now warning the public about dealing with Isla & James, who she said may have engaged in a range of contraventions of Australian consumer law, including “misleading or deceptive conduct” and “unconscionable conduct in connection with the sale and supply of goods”.<\/p>\n

She said ghost stores could claim to be closing down due to a tragedy to pressure people into buying goods, but were often selling low-quality goods or sometimes, nothing at all.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ghost stores piggyback off of tragedies, like the Bondi terror attack, to lure in customers. (ABC News: Mary Lloyd)<\/p>\n

“These ghost stores often are using really emotional stories to try and get consumers to rush into a purchase,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The difficulty is that the operations are based overseas to avoid returns and refunds, which means that consumers are left in the lurch.”<\/p>\n

Its website has now been taken down in a “welcome outcome”, but NSW Fair Trading has warned the retailer may crop up again under a different URL or “other traders may take a similar approach”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our investigation will focus on making sure that this one remains shut down and actively monitoring to make sure that others do not arise also,” Ms Mann said.<\/p>\n

“The main message to consumers is just really be vigilant when you’re engaging with online traders.”<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Aghion says using deception off the back of the massacre was “callous”. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Daniel Aghion, said at a time Jewish businesses were facing “victimisation and attacks” as well as closures, it was “callous that somebody somewhere in the world [was] trying to make money off the misery of others”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The idea that someone might try to profit from the massacre and do so by deception is just disgusting,” Mr Aghion said.<\/p>\n

“I feel for the shoppers that genuinely tried to support Bondi traders and victims of Bondi, but ended up being deceived.”<\/p>\n

NSW Fair Trading has urged anyone who was not satisfied with their interaction with Isla & James to lodge a complaint with them or Service NSW.<\/p>\n

It said any suspicious stores, fundraisers or offers linked to the Bondi attack should also be reported to Scamwatch.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An online fashion retailer accused of “unconscionable conduct” is under investigation for allegedly profiting off the Bondi terror…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,89155,99,217139,192985,2733,217140,20109,16919,670,120749],"class_list":["post-410320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bondi-beach","tag-business","tag-isla-and-james","tag-massacre","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-fair-trading","tag-online-scam","tag-online-shopping","tag-sydney","tag-terror-attack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}