{"id":605271,"date":"2026-05-26T18:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/605271\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:54:12","slug":"increase-in-north-yorkshire-shoppers-being-duped-by-ai-high-street-scams-yorkmix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/605271\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase in North Yorkshire shoppers being duped by AI \u2018High Street\u2019 scams | YorkMix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">Shoppers hunting for online bargains are being duped by sophisticated scam websites that convincingly pose as well\u2011known UK high street retailers, North Yorkshire trading standards officers have warned.<\/p>\n<p>The fake sites often feature polished images of smiling customers and familiar-looking shopfronts in London and other UK towns and cities. <\/p>\n<p>But behind the professional appearance lies AI\u2011generated imagery, overseas sellers and, for many victims, lost money and worthless goods.<\/p>\n<p>Trading standards officers in North Yorkshire have seen a growing number of complaints from residents who believed they were buying from legitimate UK businesses after seeing photographs of supposed physical shops and happy customers.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, the images and website text are generated using artificial intelligence, and the goods are being sold by overseas traders \u2013 primarily based in China.<\/p>\n<p>Residents are being urged to carry out simple checks before clicking the \u2018buy\u2019 button:<\/p>\n<p>Businesses selling goods online must provide contact details. Check these carefully \u2013 if they are missing or cannot be verified, trading standards\u2019 advice is not to proceed with the purchase.<\/p>\n<p>If a shopfront image is shown, check it using online street maps.<\/p>\n<p>Read reviews and comments on social media posts carefully.<\/p>\n<p>Check when websites and social media accounts were set up; scam sites are often newly created.<\/p>\n<p>If a business claims to be a limited company, check its details on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/business-and-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">www.gov.uk\/business-and-industry<\/a>, which will confirm who operates it and when it was set up.<\/p>\n<p>North Yorkshire Council\u2019s executive member for managing our environment, Cllr Richard Foster, whose responsibilities include trading standards, said: \u201cTrading standards officers are now receiving complaints from around 20 residents every month who thought they were buying from genuine UK businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead, many have either lost their money entirely or received poor\u2011quality, and potentially unsafe, goods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn many cases, people then discover it is virtually impossible to return the items or obtain a refund, leaving them out of pocket with no recourse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cllr Foster added: \u201cWhile AI used responsibly has many positive applications, it is increasingly being used to mislead shoppers who might otherwise avoid anonymous overseas sellers and choose reputable UK businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would strongly urge people to spend a few minutes confirming who they are buying from and questioning whether a business and its products really are as they are being advertised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who wants to report a website or get advice about faulty goods or non\u2011delivery can contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline on 0808 223 1133, or via web chat at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizensadvice.org.uk\/consumer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">www.citizensadvice.org.uk\/consumer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shoppers hunting for online bargains are being duped by sophisticated scam websites that convincingly pose as well\u2011known UK&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-605271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}