Adidas is one of the most popular sportswear brands globally, so seeing an apparent Adidas website for Philippines (adidas-ph.asia) sparks interest among Filipinos. But is this new site legit or a scam?
I analyzed adidas-ph.asia extensively along with customer complaints and reviews. Here’s an in-depth look at whether this is an authorized Adidas site or an elaborate scam tricking shoppers out of their money.
Scamadviser Analysis of Adidas-PH.Asia
Scamadviser is a website scanning tool that provides trust ratings and risk analysis of sites. I examined their full review of adidas-ph.asia which raised several red flags:
Free personal email used – The site’s contact email is a free Gmail address instead of an official company email. This makes tracking the owner’s identity difficult. Legit businesses normally use professional emails.
Hidden website owner identity – The domain owner’s information is redacted on the WHOIS domain record. Hiding this data is common for scammers to avoid identification.
Low website traffic – Adidas-ph.asia has a low Tranco traffic ranking compared to sites from the same country. Popular legitimate sites normally have higher rankings.
Hosting many risky sites – Scamadviser found the server hosts several other low-trust websites. Scammers often host numerous shady sites together on one server.
Young domain age – The site was only registered 6 months ago, making it high risk since scam sites tend to have short lifespans before getting shut down.
Site content blocking – Scamadviser failed to analyze the site’s content, indicating it’s blocking efforts to scan it. This is common with scam sites hiding illicit activity.
Other concerns include no company address display and use of a low-level domain validated SSL certificate. Ultimately, Scamadviser scored adidas-ph.asia only 35/100 in trustworthiness due to these dodgy indicators.
Analysis From WebParanoid Scanner
For further verification, I ran adidas-ph.asia through WebParanoid, another automated website scanning tool. It looks for connections to previously detected scams and suspicious behavior patterns.
WebParanoid also classified the site as high risk, outlining multiple reasons:
Suspicious website connections – The site uses a favicon (icon) identical to other dangerous sites and shares page design with risky entities. This suggests it’s related to scams or malware operations.
Matches known scam webpage titles – Its title matches those from identified phishing pages, signaling it mimics fraudulent tactics.
Online shop without social proof – As an ecommerce store, it lacks links to social media profiles most legitimate sellers display to engage customers.
Young age again a flag – Being under 6 months old fits the profile of short-lived scam websites that quickly disappear.
Hosting shady neighbors – The server hosts many other dubious sites indicative of mass scam website creation.
Low visitor traffic – The site lacks significant visitor activity expected for popular ecommerce stores.
With all these scam website patterns detected, WebParanoid also strongly cautions against using this online shop.
Official Adidas Response on Legitimacy
I contacted Adidas customer service asking if adidas-ph.asia is an authorized Philippines website run by their company. Their response:
“We checked and can confirm that adidas-ph.asia is not affiliated with the adidas brand nor an authorized adidas website or seller in any way. We recommend against providing any personal or financial information to this website.”
This official statement from Adidas solidly indicates adidas-ph.asia is illegitimate and likely a scam operation falsely posing as an authentic brand retailer.
Evidence of Fraud From Customer Reviews
While adidas-ph.asia has no reviews on Scamadviser yet, examining complaints elsewhere reveals consistent accounts of fraud.
On the Philippines Reddit channel r/Philippines, a discussion thread asks if adidas-ph.asia is legitimate. Users describe lengthy delays and zero product delivery after placing orders:
- One never received shoes after 45 days
- Another waited over 3 months with no shipment
- A user commented the site’s operations should be “fired” for terrible service
The lack of items shipped combined with refusal to issue refunds shows financial theft. Additionally, the site deceptively masks these problems initially by blaming high demand and COVID delays.
More examples of buyers being scammed appear on Philippine consumer complaint sites:
“They get the payment but didn’t shoulder their responsibility to deliver the items to the provided shipping address.”
“twice na akong nascam dito sa online na to never na ulit ako mag oorder dito”
These translate to English as the site taking payment but failing to ship orders twice for the same person.
While less numerous than larger scam websites, these complaints align with the assessment adidas-ph.asia functions as a fraudulent shopping scheme to swindle customers.
Final Verdict: Adidas PH Asia is a Total Scam
Examining adidas-ph.asia from multiple angles including automated scans, an official brand statement, customer reviews and complaints paints a clear picture – this site is 100% a scam.
Hallmarks of fraudulent tactics abound:
✘ Hiding true owner identity
✘ Deceptive limited-time sale counters
✘ Failure to deliver products
✘ Refusal to issue refunds
✘ Fabricating reasons for delays
Combined with confirmation from Adidas themselves rejecting it as an authorized seller plus scam site behavior patterns detected, overwhelming evidence flags this as an illegitimate domain masquerading as the popular sportswear company.
I strongly advise all consumers avoid providing any personal or financial data to adidas-ph.asia. Those who already ordered should contact their bank or payment provider to halt charges and recover lost money if possible.
Reporting the site to Philippine consumer protection authorities can also help get this scam website shut down to prevent future victims.
Stay vigilant about only using Adidas’ verified official website and channels when purchasing real branded merchandise online.
Third party sellers on marketplaces like Lazada or Shopee should also be checked for proper documentation proving resale authorization.
Using scam investigation skills covering analytics, confirming details with brands, and examining what actual customers report remains crucial to filtering frauds from genuine sellers.
Apply these critical assessment tips yourself when shopping to evade the many ecommerce scams infesting cyberspace.
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