MINNEAPOLIS — In Minnesota, a winter coat is like a suit of armor: a shield against the wind and cold.
So, when an ad comes up on your Facebook feed for a winter coat from The North Face for $20, who wouldn't click on it?
Mark Lanterman at Computer Forensic Services says it's a smart — but diabolical — way to trick people.
Offering up a $450 coat for $54? A pair of $65 kids boots for $9.75? Who wouldn't want that, right?
As we come off of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it isn't that big of a stretch to see see 80% off of otherwise spendy items.
"These types of well-thought-out, well-planned scams are becoming more common,” Lanterman says.
Even the website looks like the real thing, and the web addresses are very similar.
The North Face’s website is TheNorthFace.com, and Lanterman says the counterfeit website address is USTheNorthFace.com, making the only difference the “US” at the beginning. Lanterman suspects the scammers literally copied and pasted elements from The North Face's real website.
He says that’s how they were able to create hundreds of web pages with products and descriptions and a shopping cart you can fill with your purchases.
But according to KARE 11 viewers who fell for it, the money gets sent to different bank accounts overseas and there's no way to file a complaint or get a refund.
"With the counterfeit website, we're seeing that it registers back to China,” Lanterman explains.
The North Face headquarters is actually in California, not China.
Lanterman says consumers may think that since the advertisement is on Facebook, it must be legit, but he says that's not the case.
"These scammers are becoming more sophisticated, which means we as consumers need to be more sophisticated as well,” Lanterman says.
KARE 11 reached out to The North Face, and their parent company, to see if they're aware of this fake website.
We haven't heard back from them.
KARE 11 is also waiting to hear back from the Federal Trade Commission and the Minnesota Attorney General's Office to see if anyone has officially filed a claim.