Kowalewska.store (Meledo Company Limited) | Fake or Real?

Leave a Comment / Website Reviews / By James Greening

Website Name

kowalewska.store (related to Meledo Company Limited)

Website Type

Online Store

Is Kowalewska Store Fake or Real?

Fake

Why is Kowalewska Store Fake?

Kowalewska Store is a website that claims to be selling an assortment of products at low prices. When I compared Kowalewska Store’s prices with competitors, it became obvious that the prices are too good to be true. A new and unknown website offering items at unbelievable prices is often the most obvious sign of a scam.

The domain information reveals that Kowalewska Store was registered on 4th August 2022. The registrant’s details such as name, location and contact information have been hidden using a privacy guard. However, there are multiple signs hinting that Kowalewska Store is operated from China. Therefore, it is a new website being run anonymously from a high-risk country.

The About Us page contains the following text:

Millions of people around the world visit kowalewskaSHOP to find clever and unconventional things that solve everyday problems large and small. By giving entrepreneurs everywhere a platform to launch new and groundbreaking products, we help surface innovations in tech, design, and much more, all before they go mainstream.

Our mission is to empower people to unite around ideas that matter to them and together make those ideas come to life.

The kowalewskaCommunity

Today, our group of backers is more than 1 million strong, representing 235 countries and territories. Always on the lookout for new solutions to everyday problems, our community thrives on making clever discoveries before everyone else. From live campaigns to ready-to-ship tech, curious humans rely on kowalewska to find the latest innovations in tech and design.

Anna Z.：”Products on kowalewska are unique, more interesting. They aren’t like what I’d find on the market. They aren’t mainstream. It’s the newest tech that companies don’t even know will be popular.”

Romil P：”I come to kowalewska to look for things that could be useful in my everyday life. I look for innovation – what kind of features does this have in addition to what’s already on the market.”

Upon analyzing the content, I found that the content has been copied from Indiegogo‘s website. I further discovered that at least 35 other websites are using the same text, all of which are likely to be scams. Qti.Ai’s Scami uncovered 415 additional sites using this text too, adding up to a total of 450 websites related to Kowalewska Store which are likely to be scams. The full list of sites is given at the end of the article.

Kowalewska Store’s website appears to be created using the Chinese XShoppy platform and inspecting the source code of the website reveals Chinese text. These signs hint that Kowalewska Store is likely to be a scam operation run by Chinese cybercrime networks.

While testing the checkout process, I found that Kowalewska Store has limited the maximum amount per purchase to $100. A shipping charge of almost $300,000 is automatically applied when the cart value crosses $100. A new and unknown website actively discouraging customers from spending more strikes me as extremely unusual. It is likely to be a tactic to avoid fraud detection by credit card companies and PayPal.

Even though Kowalewska Store claims to accept PayPal, this is not true as only credit cards are accepted during checkout. This shows that the website is not run by professionals.

There are social media icons given on Kowalewska Store’s website, but they are dummies as they lead nowhere.

However, I found that Kowalewska Store has a Facebook page. The page was created in 2017 and appears to have been hacked. Shockingly, this page is being allowed to run advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. A random email ID ‘zgofficialcustomerservice@gmail.com’ has been given for customer support.

The Contact Us page of the website contains the following information:

You probably arrived here through one of the awesome social media communities that we give our full 24/7 support to. And yeah, if you wondered about it…we own them and strive to bring you the content in the community!

Email: zgofficialcustomerservice@gmail.com

Thanks for your visiting on kowalewska.

For more help, please feel free to contact us by e-mail.

Email: zgofficialcustomerservice@gmail.com

Once receiving your mail, our customer service representatives will respond as soon as possible.（Most e-mails will be responded within a business day.)

Meledo Company Limited
330 High Holbom, Holbom,WC1V 7QT, London, United Kingdom (This is not a returning address) Company Number: 117368661
TEL: 442086385417

Notice：This is not a returning address.

These Terms of Service and any separate agreements whereby we provide you shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of UK.

Notice：This is not a returning address.

Company Name: FADEL-BEATTY LIMITED
Registration Number: 709295
Company Address: SUITE 10542, BALMORAL INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, ABBEYLANDS SOUTH, NAVAN MEATH, C15 D D72, IRELAND
(this is not a returning address)

Firstly, the T&C page misleadingly claims that the website follows the laws of the United Kingdom even though there are multiple indications that Kowalewska Store is a Chinese operation. The company details of Meledo Company Limited and Fadel-Beatty Limited have been formatted as images, possibly to avoid detection.

I have come across Meledo Company in relation to other scams such as Watersloo, Cowboyex and Pumacraft. Even though the company is registered in the UK, it was found that Meledo Company is likely to be a shell company created to launder money to China as it has Chinese owners. The same applies to Fadel-Beatty Limited which is registered in Ireland.

Notably, Meledo Company’s registered address does not match the one given on the website. The company’s owners and addresses have also changed multiple times.

I could not find any customer reviews for Kowalewska Store, which is not surprising as the site is less than two months old at the time of writing this. If you want to share your review of Kowalewska Store, you can do so in the comments below or on my social media pages.

Conclusion

It seems apparent that Kowalewska Store and the 450 similar sites may all be scams operated by Chinese cybercrime networks hiding behind shell companies such as Meledo Company Limited and Fadel-Beatty Limited.

Kowalewska Store is a new site created anonymously from China in August 2022. However, the website owners have deliberately hidden the site’s Chinese origin and are pretending that it is a business based in the UK. It is supposedly run by Meledo Company Limited which is registered in the UK but has Chinese owners. Therefore, it may be a shell incorporation created to launder money. The website also contains the details of an Irish company called Fadel-Beatty which has also been linked to several scams.

With help from Qti.ai‘s Scami, I found that there are 450 websites using the same content as Kowalewska Store and are likely to be operated by the same fraudsters. The prices on the website are too good to be true, which is often the most obvious indication of a scam.

The most peculiar thing about the website is that customers are prevented from spending more than $100 in a single purchase. A new and unknown business like Kowalewska Store forcing customers to spend less may perhaps be a tactic to avoid fraud detection by banks and PayPal.

Kowalewska Store has a Facebook page which appears to have been stolen from its original owner. Shockingly, the page is being allowed to advertise on Facebook and Instagram.

No real contact details are provided on the website and there does not seem to be any way to contact Kowalewska Store after making a purchase. No customer reviews could be found online. It is advisable to avoid shopping on Kowalewska Store or any of the 450 similar websites as they do not seem to be genuine businesses.

If you think that you have been scammed by any of these sites, you can contact your bank or PayPal for a full refund. Don’t accept a partial refund citing that the product is not what you ordered and refuse to ship the items back to China as the merchant claims to be located in the UK.

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.

If you found this information useful, please consider supporting my work.

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.

List of websites using the same content as Kowalewska Store

Additional list of sites found by Qti.ai

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.

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