Ecommerce brings unprecedented convenience to consumers and brands, but it also opens the door to sophisticated scams. Cybercriminals and online opportunists deploy increasingly complex campaigns to rip brands off and steal from innocent shoppers. Fuelled by powerful AI toolkits, these scams now use services like Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to amplify their convincing fake online shopping websites.
These scams no longer rely on manual efforts, and they can’t be detected or solved manually either. Here, we’ll explore how scammers exploit CDNs, the challenges they create, and what brands can do to protect themselves and their customers.
What Are CDNs, and How Do They Differ from Traditional Fake Shop Scams?
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) refers to a network of servers distributed globally, designed to deliver web content—like images, videos, and scripts—quickly and efficiently to users based on their geographic location. CDNs power many legitimate websites, ensuring fast load times and smooth user experiences. Almost all large-scale businesses and organizations use CDNs for their websites, even governments. However, scammers also abuse CDNs to create and distribute fake online shopping websites.
Unlike traditional fake website scams, CDN-based campaigns use Content Distribution Network infrastructure to host malicious content. This approach allows scammers to create hundreds or even thousands of deceptive domains that appear legitimate, making detection and takedowns far more challenging.
These large-scale CDN scam campaigns often trace back to organized ecommerce fraud syndicates. Cybercriminal gangs structure themselves like legitimate businesses. Some start with negative cashflow investment phases to fund Google Ads and social media marketing to generate traffic to their fake websites. Others even employ quality control teams and specialized departments to siphon data, steal cash, fight back against takedown requests, and plan their next impersonation on another household brand.
How Scammers Use CDNs to Multiply Ecommerce Fraud
Scammers exploit CDNs in several ways to scale their operations. They often upload counterfeit logos, product images, and even entire website templates to CDNs, enabling them to create fake shops that look nearly identical to legitimate brands. By leveraging the speed and reliability of CDNs, these fake shops load quickly and perform well, tricking users into believing they are visiting a genuine ecommerce site.
It’s not just Content Delivery Networks that scammers abuse: they host all kinds of technical assets and servers, from payment system servers to databases and domains. In some cases, a handful of servers and payment gateways lays the foundations for tens of thousands of fake shops. Scam networks of different sizes target each brand, besieging business owners with small nodes and colossal campaigns alike.
Scammers use AI and automation tools to algorithmically generate hundreds of fake shop domains in minutes. These domains often cluster and multiply, creating a network of interconnected fraudulent sites. Clusterization makes it hard for manual takedown efforts to keep up, as scammers quickly replace removed domains on the fly.
A Real-World Case: Hundreds of Deceptive Domains Targeting a Global Retailer
We recently detected a network of hundreds of scam sites impersonating a major international retailer specializing in white goods and household supplies. The scammers used a content delivery network (CDN) to host shared resources—such as product images and branding—across multiple fraudulent domains. Each site mimicked the retailer’s official presence, tricking customers into purchasing non-existent products.
This operation demonstrated the increasing sophistication of large-scale fake shop networks. By algorithmically generating domains and distributing infrastructure across multiple providers, scammers created a system designed to evade traditional detection methods. The use of CDNs allowed them to manage and update hundreds of sites efficiently, ensuring that any takedowns had minimal impact on the overall operation.
For brands facing these threats, tackling them requires more than just identifying fraudulent domains. Effective action means mapping out scam networks, investigating their infrastructure, and pursuing enforcement at scale. Without this combined approach, scammers can continue to replicate and adapt, prolonging the risk to businesses and consumers alike.
What to Do If Your Brand Falls Victim to a CDN Scam
If you discover that scammers are using a CDN to impersonate your brand and launch fake online shopping websites, you must act fast to protect your clients. Start by documenting all fraudulent domains and gathering evidence. With this information, you can build a case for hosting providers to take down any infringing domains.
However, manual takedowns are rarely sufficient to address the scale of these attacks. Businesses must look to preemptive, automated, and wide-reaching solutions like online brand protection. These services specialize in detecting and eliminating fraudulent domains at scale. They use advanced tools to monitor threat channels and identify emerging scams.
Taking down fake shops manually involves identifying each fraudulent domain, gathering evidence, and submitting takedown requests to hosting providers or CDNs. While this approach can work for isolated cases, it becomes ineffective against large-scale, algorithmically generated scams.
In contrast, comprehensive online brand protection uses advanced technology to detect and eliminate fake shops at scale. These solutions monitor the internet for unauthorized use of your brand, clusterize fake shop assets, and automate takedown requests. By addressing the root of the problem, brand protection services provide a more effective and long-term solution.
How Proactive Brand Protection Works
Proactive brand protection operates like a digital detective, searching threat channels and joining the dots to uncover large-scale technical campaigns of ecommerce fraud. These services use AI and machine learning to analyze patterns, identify clusters of fake shops, and predict emerging threats. By staying one step ahead of scammers, proactive brand protection helps safeguard your customers. Ultimately, detecting and deterring fraudsters secures your online revenue.
The benefits extend beyond protecting customers. Proactive brand protection also reassures your colleagues, partners, and legitimate resellers, ensuring that your brand’s reputation remains intact. By demonstrating a commitment to combating fraud, you build trust with your audience and strengthen your position in the market.
Take Action Today with a Free Brand Audit
Don’t wait until your brand becomes the target of a CDN-based scam. Take proactive steps to protect your business and your customers. In fact, you can get a free brand audit right here. Our experts will analyze your online presence, identify potential threats, and provide actionable recommendations to safeguard your brand.
By acting now, you can stay ahead of scammers, protect your revenue, and build a stronger, more resilient brand. Let’s work together to create a safer online shopping experience for everyone.
