Don't Get Deked Out by Scams: A Game Plan for Safe Online Holiday Shopping

Written by: Katie Lakusta

December 17, 2025

Time to read 14 min

Tis the season for festive cheer and gathering with loved ones—but as we prioritize our physical safety at parties and holiday events, let’s not forget to protect ourselves in the digital space too. The Christmas season is the time of the year when we’re all out there scrambling to prepare our homes with decorations, travelling, and buying gifts for friends and family… which also means it’s the prime time for scammers to make their move.

In this article, we’ll be looking at ways to identify potential scams you may see online and how to protect yourself. We will focus primarily on scams you may notice while shopping during this time of the year.

For your safety, we did not include any links or direct references to suspected scam websites. The only external links provided will be to the official Hockey Shop website or articles published on trusted sites (Further Reading). Additionally, any logos or identifiable details from potentially malicious sites have been obscured. Product links in this article all redirect back to The Hockey Shop's website.

Preview Photo by Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash

Scam Websites and How They Work

The Hockey Shop is unfortunately not immune to impersonated scam sites; if you buy a product on a scam website masquerading as us, we will unfortunately be unable to help, other than give advice.

Scam sites can work in multiple ways. If you’re shopping for hockey gear (or anything online), you may come across any of the following kinds of sites. All are very similar and may overlap, but there are a few distinctions.

Phishing Websites - Email/Text/Phone Scams

Phishing websites are sites that scam texts, calls, and emails try to send you to. These sites are not real, and once they hook you in, they may try to use other types of scams to steal your money or information (please see Further Reading for more on phishing websites and how they operate).

These sites try to imitate a legitimate site or company, often contacting you with an email or text citing "a shipping problem,” “suspicious activity,” or that your “order has been confirmed” for a product you never bought. This is how they hook you into clicking a link for a fake website. Some may also drop a phone number for you to call.

The link and site they send you to are the trap. Their sole purpose is to trick you into voluntarily giving them sensitive information through various means: entering your username and password into a counterfeit login box, calling a scammer posing as support, or making a small “verification” payment that not only takes your money, but the financial data you input as well.

Scam email telling the recipient that they need to increase their storage

A scam email I got while writing this article

Fake Shopping Websites

Primary Goal: Make you pay for a product that they never had or don't plan to ship out to you.

Similar to phishing sites, fake shopping websites go beyond mere impersonation; the main goal of these sites is to steal your money in a “sale” that will never be fulfilled. They integrate into your active shopping with displays of items that may never arrive, cheap counterfeit, or items that don’t even exist. In the case of the last two, they may use AI-generated images to design a fictional product.

Fake shopping scams that impersonate The Hockey Shop tend to steal images and compel you to buy, but have no intention of shipping the product.

These sites send you straight to a discount landing page, where everything may seem too good to be true. They are also capable of stealing credit card information at checkout.

woman shopping online with a credit card and phone

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Clone / Spoofing Websites

Primary Goal: Impersonate a specific, well-known retailer.

Clone sites may be better categorized as a subset of a fake shopping website, as their danger lies in their specialization in the first, critical step of a scam, which is gaining your trust.

These sites create a near-perfect, unauthorized copy of a real brand’s entire website, replicating nearly everything, not just the design and product images. Scam websites of The Hockey Shop have even copied our Shipping, Knowledge Centre, and About Us pages. They attempt to resemble the real thing as closely as possible, which involves using genuine brand identities, maintaining a plausible URL, incorporating authentic images, and even creating fake ads on social media to direct users to their site.

screenshot of a clone scam website for Team Canada merchandise

Screenshot of a confirmed clone scam website claiming to sell Team Canada equipment

This convincing disguise makes the subsequent theft—whether it’s taking payment for phantom orders, shipping counterfeits, or harvesting your data—potentially more effective.

The holiday rush is a prime time for all three scam sites, and they may frequently blend together, creating sites that appear close to the real thing, are part phishing trap, and/or are part fake storefront.

How Scams Get You

In hockey, no matter how well you read and predict the play, you still always want to keep your head on a swivel. It’s the same with checking for suspicious activity when shopping over the holidays.

You may be completely aware of the kinds of scams out there, and even suspect when a site is trying to trick you; however, as we become more aware, modern scams further adjust their tactics to become more deceptive and override that caution. They rely on exploitable weaknesses in our browsing and use psychological and technical tricks to make you second-guess yourself. We'll break down the most common tactics.

There is no singular, surefire way to indicate whether something you see online is a scam or not. Make sure you are double-checking multiple avenues to ensure you and your information are safe.

Typosquatting: Domain Name / URL / Email Address Spoofing

Scam sites may intentially misspell the domain name (change ‘o’ to ‘0’, add an ‘-official’ to the end, add an ‘s’ at the end, add a hyphen, etc.), or hijack defunct sites that may have once belonged to a store, but no longer exist. This is a practice known as typosquatting. Scam websites will try to look as close to the original as possible, even if they can’t use the actual domain name.

The Hockey Shop’s website will always say www.thehockeyshop.com in the URL bar.

Other variations of this link ARE NOT THE HOCKEY SHOP, and may be a scam website. Some links may redirect to www.thehockeyshop.com (if you typed www.thehockeyshop.ca into the URL bar, for example). Ensure that the URL is correct while you are on the site itself.

Examples of how scammers may change The Hockey Shop’s domain name include but are not limited to:

theh0ckeyshop
thehockeyshop-official
thehockeyshops
the-hockey-shop
hockeyshop
thehokeyshop

Similarly, scammers can spoof the display name on an email, but cannot do so for the actual email address. This means that when you receive an email, it may say it’s from The Hockey Shop, but it could still be a trap; you need to check the actual email address as well.

A legitimate email from The Hockey Shop would come from the following addresses:

sales@thehockeyshop.com

goalie@thehockeyshop.com

teamsales@thehockeyshop.com

Scammers may use several tricks to mimic these addresses, with varying degrees of subtlety. Carefully check the full email address to spot any potential deception.

Examples of how scammers may change The Hockey Shop’s email address:

A generic public email address with our name in the display.

Ex. <am***183002e8@gmail.com> or <support.sa***123@gmail.com>

A purchased domain with a sneaky misspelling.

Ex. <sales@theh0ckeyshop.com> or <service@thehockeystore.com>

An exact spoof: This one is the most dangerous, as the email appears to come from the exact address. These spoofs are rare, but they can happen.

One way to protect yourself is, if you see an advertisement, email, text, etc. detailing a sale on an item, verify it through a separate channel. That means searching for the website yourself on Google or typing the site directly into the URL bar. You can even contact the site directly to ask; some sites, including us at The Hockey Shop, appreciate reports of potential online scams looking to impersonate them for malicious purposes.

Too Good to Be True

Another big red flag is if the deal looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

Although some legitimate sites may show only a few left in stock or display a deadline for a sale, scam sites may look more obnoxious, with sales suggesting items are “70-90%” off, or “Hyperlite skates for $99!” The Hockey Shop does come out with deals during certain seasons with reasonable limits (around 20-60% usually). However, scam sites will go over the top, dangling impossible discounts like 80-90% off entire lineups of high-end equipment.

The ‘product’ may also be a giveaway by itself. Scam sites may push fictitious products, sell counterfeit goods, or even stolen items.

Taking 30 seconds to vet a site can save you from a major financial loss. Of course, these sites also don’t want you taking that extra 30 seconds…

Funny image from reddit "Free! Just pay shipping starter pack"

Funny image that Reddit user, thecanadianboss, made of a "Free! Just pay shipping" starter pack. Source Link.

Pressure

Pressure is unfortunately one of the most effective strategies that scammers use to reel you in, especially when the scam site has already lowered your guard with a believable, too-good-to-be-true offer.

You’ve probably seen this one before: sites with timers suggesting that the deal will end in 30 minutes if you don’t act fast! Or displaying limited quantities, like “Only 3 left!” These are tactics that scammers may use to pressure you into buying quickly before you can do any extra research. These warnings may flash on the screen, usually in bright red, to ensure that it is the first thing you notice on the site.

Artificial scarcity (deliberately making it appear like there is a limited supply) and deadlines are often weaponized by scammers; if the product is selling fast, it creates anxiety and may impair decision-making. It creates FOMO (fear of missing out), rushing us to make impulsive buys.

hourglasses on a desk next to someone on their computer

Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

Use of AI

Unfortunately, the frequency of fraud cases has only increased over the past decade, and now, with the steady rise of AI and its reach, it is becoming even more difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not. Clumsy misspellings and blurred imagery that once flagged scams are fading away, replaced with much more polished, persuasive pieces.

AI has become a powerful tool for scammers, enabling them to automate and dramatically improve the quality of their attacks. By analyzing and mimicking official communications and company websites, these tools can now generate convincing content that exploits any emotional triggers we may have on a much larger scale.

person holding a phone with various AI apps on the screen

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

It’s important to be aware of AI, no matter your stance on it—the more informed and familiar you are, the easier it becomes to spot. Scammers have not changed much, but their tools have. Emails, texts, reviews, and even deepfakes—that being, synthetic audio or video that may look virtually indistinguishable from the real thing—are on the rise, and scammers are taking full advantage.

See Further Reading for more information about how deepfakes can be used to scam victims.

Fake Reviews

We’ve all relied on customer reviews as a trusted guide for making smart purchases. However, the rise of AI is rapidly undermining that trust. Scammers now use AI to generate vast amounts of convincing, human-like reviews in seconds—in fact, one report estimated that a staggering 30% of online reviews may now be fake or inauthentic. Most of these reviews tend to be overwhelmingly positive, deceiving shoppers into buying fraudulent products.

Spotting these fakes is not easy. The old tricks don’t always work anymore, and even savvy shoppers can be fooled by the highly persuasive language that AI now produces. Your best defense in avoiding fake reviews is to not rely on a singular clue. Combine several verification strategies to identify the deception.

person holding a phone with a review for Impossible gyozas

Photo by abillion on Unsplash

Look for AI tells in the writing: Genuine reviews should include a balance and more personal account of using the product; for hockey skates, they may say something like “I felt a pinching in the side of my foot after about two hours.” Fakes, however, may use repetitive language, keep it vague (“Love it will buy again!”) and use overly formal or “hallucinated” details (features that don’t exist). AI tells are a bit more difficult to notice if you aren’t as familiar with how AI or different models sound.
Clustering: AI reviews may appear in groups in a small timeframe, all sounding typically the same.
Inspect photos and visuals: Check the lighting, angles, and personal settings of the images. Real users will upload proper photos, but AI might make mistakes. Again, this is easier to spot if you are familiar with what AI looks like, but a good way to check on hockey gear, for example, is to look at the tiny patterns along the sides. Do the patterns look jumbled? Like they break off in random places or don’t make sense? Are there extra pieces on the image that shouldn’t be there?
Focus on mid-range reviews: Skip straight to the 3- and 4-star reviews for more honest insights. Fakes dominate 5- (glowing praise) and 1-star (sabotage) reviews.
Cross-check sources: What do Google, Reddit, or other forums say about the gear? If everyone says the same thing, then the original review was likely real.

Maladvertising / Scam Ads

“Maladvertising” stands for “malicious advertising,” and can be a major issue during the holiday season when you’re online shopping and looking for possible deals on gifts.

The Hockey Shop only runs ads through Google, Facebook, and Reddit; if you see a clickable ad elsewhere, it could contain a link to a fake/clone website. If you see an ad while browsing the internet but are unsure, you can still always look up the retailer’s official site yourself to verify if the sale is real or not.

What You Can Do to Protect Yourself

As scams become more sophisticated with AI, recognizing them at a glance is now harder than ever. The most effective defense is making a habit of verifying and double-checking as much as possible. Using multiple strategies and identifiers is the best way to vet whether a website is real or not.

One solid way to start is to always verify through a separate, trusted channel. If you see a super deal on an ad, don’t click right away. Instead, open a new browser tab and search for the retailer’s official website yourself. This simple habit can bypass most cloned sites and phishing links. Also, while browsing shopping sites, if you don't see a lock symbol next to the URL, then the connection is not secure and it may be a dangerous site.

Scammers design sites to trigger emotional reactions, that being urgency, FOMO, or excitement over an unbelievable deal or sweepstake. This can override our logical thinking, even if we are aware of how scams work. While younger adults may be more susceptible to shopping scams from social media ads, and older adults to prize or lottery scams, anyone can be targeted. The best defense is to pause and question what you see.

Green shield with a blue lock at the centre

Shield with padlock by juicy_fish. Source Link.

Take one extra second.

Before clicking “buy,” run through a quick checklist of what you know:

Verify the product: Are the photos real, or do they look AI-generated or stolen (what quality are the images?)
Question the sale: Does a 90% discount on a top-model limited edition stick make sense?
Check policies: Is there a clear, professional return/refund policy?
Scrutinize the address: Is the URL correct? Are there misspellings (homograph/typosquatting) involved?
Feel the pressure: Is a countdown timer or or “act now!” alert pushing you to decide?
Trust your gut: Does something just feel “off”?

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

For some simpler pressure tactics, such as a timer or limited stock, you may be able to check their legitimacy if you refresh the page, change browsers, or visit the site in incognito mode. On some pages, the timer or limited stock might reset, indicating that the sale is most likely fake. However, this strategy unfortunately won’t work on all sites, particularly ones that have been programmed to track IP addresses. A more advanced test is to use a VPN or temporarily switch to mobile data to get a new IP address.

Additionally, be kind to yourself. Scams are not always easy to spot, and they continue to become more sophisticated by the day. I’ve personally received a good number of scams over the years, and in the past few, the only thing that’s saved me has been taking that extra second to cross-check and do more research before I buy.

a suspicious person typing on a laptop in the dark

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

This article focused primarily on identifying scam websites and related online threats. Please note that many other types of scams exist; for a broader look, please see the Further Reading section to continue building your digital safety knowledge.

a player sitting on the boards holding a stick