{"id":530080,"date":"2026-07-17T04:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/530080\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T04:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:00:37","slug":"think-twice-before-calling-that-number-in-your-shop-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/530080\/","title":{"rendered":"Think twice before calling that number in your Shop app"},"content":{"rendered":"

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CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Scammers are exploiting the Shop app to send fake invoices to users\u2019 accounts, according to a cybersecurity expert and a statement from Shopify<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The scam generates a notification alerting a user that an order is processing \u2014 one the user never placed. The notification links to a real-looking invoice inside the app, complete with a phone number to call and dispute the charge.<\/p>\n

What the scam looks like<\/p>\n

One invoice included a $345.07 charge for a Geek Squad<\/a> Family Subscription, with a phone number listed in the item description. No money was taken from the account.<\/p>\n

Others have reported similar fake invoices appearing in the Shop app.<\/p>\n

What Shopify said<\/p>\n

Shopify<\/a> responded with a statement addressing the activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe identified bad actors misusing our platform to generate fake order notifications and rolled out new controls that have significantly reduced this activity and improved our ability to detect it going forward,\u201d the company said. \u201cAnyone who receives a suspicious notification should avoid calling any phone numbers in it and report the store directly in the Shop app.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the tech expert said<\/p>\n

Tech expert Dave Hatter said AI is making these scams more convincing.<\/p>\n

\u201cScammers are everywhere. It\u2019s surprising to me that they have figured out how to manipulate this Shop app to create these fake invoices. I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re doing it,\u201d Hatter said.<\/p>\n

Hatter said getting a user on the phone is the scammer\u2019s primary goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to talk to you. They know if they can get you on the phone they can tell you whatever lies you need to hear to give them your credit card number, your bank account number, access to your computer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hatter said the scam reflects how bad actors follow large concentrations of users online.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t understand spoofing \u2014 the idea that people can make it look like something that it\u2019s not. And social engineering \u2014 \u2018I\u2019m going to convince you you\u2019re going to lose money unless you call this number or click this link.\u2019 Things like that,\u201d Hatter said.<\/p>\n

What to do if you receive a suspicious notificationDo not call any phone number listed in the notification.Check your bank accounts before taking any action.Report the store directly in the Shop app.The FTC said victims of this or similar scams should file a complaint on its website.<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 WXIX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Download the FREE FOX19 NOW news app for iPhone Download the FREE FOX19 NOW news app for Android…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[19754,45456,261613,3402,261615,4131,261612,45455,261617,342,111,43,139,69,261618,261614,261616,145,45454],"class_list":["post-530080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-19754","tag-channel","tag-channel-19-news","tag-cincinnati","tag-fake-invoice-scam","tag-fox","tag-fox-19","tag-fox19","tag-geek-squad-scam-2026","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phone-scam-fake-charge","tag-shop-app-scam","tag-shopify-fraud","tag-technology","tag-wxix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}