Beware of Fake Chinese E-Commerce Sites Imitating Apple, Wrangler, and Exploiting Payment Services like MasterCard and PayPal

A sophisticated phishing campaign, initially spotlighted by Mexican journalist Ignacio Gómez Villaseñor, has evolved into a sprawling global threat, as revealed by Silent Push Threat Analysts.

What began as a targeted attack on Spanish-language audiences during Mexico’s “Hot Sale 2025” an annual sales event akin to Black Friday has expanded into a massive fake marketplace scam affecting English and Spanish-speaking users worldwide.

Global Phishing Campaign Targeting Shoppers

Silent Push’s deep dive into this operation uncovered thousands of fraudulent websites spoofing major retailers such as Apple, Harbor Freight Tools, Wrangler Jeans, REI, Wayfair, and Michael Kors, among others.

Even more alarmingly, these scam sites abuse trusted payment services like MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and Google Pay to steal user data and payments under the guise of legitimate transactions.

A critical technical fingerprint, embedded with Chinese words and characters within the infrastructure, strongly suggests that the developers behind this network hail ...