Website Name
hotdora.com
Website Type
Women’s Clothing Store
Is Hotdora Fake or Real?
Fake
Why Is Hotdora Fake?
Hotdora is a website that claims to be selling women’s clothing items such as tops, robes, bottoms, shoes and accessories at discounted prices.
The items being sold are not original and can be found on other websites such as Zolucky and Noracora. These sites are known bait-and-switch scams operated by Chinese scam networks like ChicV and Orderplus.
The pictures of the clothing shown on the website are not accurate depictions of the clothes that customers can expect to receive. They are clearly edit images that show designs superimposed onto stock models.
A domain name lookup of the website shows that it was registered on 7th December 2020. The registrant’s details such as name, location and contact details have been hidden using a paid service. Therefore, it is a new website being operated anonymously, apparently from China which is a high-risk country.
The website is very basic and contains almost no information except for the product listings. Even the About Us page does not have any real information regarding the company running the site. It contains the following text:
À propos de Hotdora
Hotdora est une plateforme d’achat en ligne, engagée à proposer les derniers vêtements et accessoires de mode pour femmes.
Ces dernières années, nous nous développons globalement à un rythme rapide, gagnant la reconnaissance et la confiance de nos clients à travers l’Amérique, l’Europe et l’Australie.Notre mission
Hotdora est fier de fournir des produits de haute qualité provenant des entreprises les plus fiables au monde. Nous offrons à nos clients un endroit inspirant pour découvrir les produits les plus récents et les plus recherchés à des prix fantastiques, et gardons constamment un œil sur la satisfaction de vos besoins en matière de mode et l’optimisation de votre expérience d’achat.
The same text can be found on at least two other websites, both of which may be scams. There are undoubtedly more sites that are hiding from plain view. If you come across any of them, please leave a comment below or on my social media pages.
One of these sites also has a neighbouring IP address to Hotdora, suggesting that they may indeed be operated by the same owners.
While testing the checkout process, I found that the PayPal account associated with the website has the generic name ‘fashion shop’. This is another indication that the company running the site is deliberately trying to hide its identity.
The Terms page states that the site operates as per the laws of the UK and Wales. Not only does this confirm that Hotdora is not a French website but the line also a common feature on Chinese scam websites that hide behind UK shell incorporations.
There is a Facebook page and Instagram profile mentioned on Hotdora’s website. However, I found that Hotdora has nearly a dozen Facebook pages that are also being used for advertising. No real brand needs so many pages.
The page information shows that they are operated from countries such as Bangladesh, China and Indonesia. These are likely to be deceptions with China or Hong Kong being the real locations.
The only way to contact Hotdora is by email. The website has no company information such as name, phone number or address. There is no mention of China anywhere either. There is just the email ID service@hotdora.com mentioned on the Privacy Policy page.
The only customer reviews for Hotdora that I could find are on the Youtube video embedded below. They confirm that Hotdora is running a bait-and-switch scam with low-quality products arriving from China.
One commenter has also mentioned that they were asked to ship the items back to China at their own cost, which is a common trick used by Chinese scammers to make customers give up on refunds.
Conclusion
All the signs suggest that Hotdora and the related websites may all be bait-and-switch scams operating from China.
The website is less than six months old and is being run anonymously. There is absolutely no information about the company anywhere on the website. Even the PayPal account has a generic name ‘fashion shop’.
There are clear connections to other websites that are known bait-and-switch scams run by Chinese scam networks. The clothes sold on the site are mass-produced Chinese goods too.
The images of the clothing are edited and not actual photographs of the products. Therefore, the images are misleading as they do not actually show what the customers will receive.
Similar to many other Chinese scam sites, Hotdora is operating nearly a dozen different Facebook pages and advertising through them. The page information of these sites also confirms that it is run from China.
The only way to get in touch with Hotdora is by email as no other contact details are provided.
There are a few reviews available that confirm the suspicions about Hotdora being a Chinese scam store. Customers have stated that they were lured by deceptive ads to purchase items that are much inferior in quality that what was shown.
When a customer tried to return the items, they were asked to ship the items back to China at their own cost. This is a common scammer trick, however, you can get a full refund if you refuse to ship the item back saying that it is not what you ordered and that it was never disclosed as being shipped from China.
It is advisable to avoid shopping on Hotdora or any of the related websites, as there are several hints of them being scams operated by Chinese companies.
If you feel that you have been scammed by any of these sites, you can file an abuse report with Shopify and GoDaddy.
How to Get Your Money Back from a Scam
Remember: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
To read about other Ecommerce Scams, click here.
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List of websites using the same content as Hotdora
- dresscloe.com
- ellescot.com
- es.noracora.com
- miatrendy.com
- superswieto.pl
- voonia.com
- zolucky.com
If you have been the victim of an ecommerce scam, you can take the following steps:
- Lodge a cybercrime complaint online or with the local police office
- File a complaint with the payment portal and ask whether the payment can be reversed
- Leave a negative review on review portals such as Scamadviser, TrustPilot, OnlineThreatAlerts and SiteJabber
- Give a low rating to the website on Web of Trust. You can also install their extension for the same
- Report the scam site to web filtering companies.
Disclaimer: This review is intended for information only and should not be relied on when making financial or business decisions. If you are a website owner and would like to provide clarifications regarding your business and/or website, please get in touch using the Contact Form.