Online shopping has grown in popularity over recent years, as consumers have become familiar and in many respects dependent on the convenience and simplicity of buying goods over the internet. At Christmas, the urge to buy gifts online is encouraged by discount prices and fast delivery options, whilst the current winter cold snap has also driven many people away from the high street to the relative warmth and comfort of their computers. However, shopping online continues to pose a significant risk to consumers in a number of ways. Credit card theft and rogue traders are among the most pressing concerns, which is why some consumers have failed to take to internet shopping as many others have done so. The decision of these apparent Luddites is occasionally vindicated when major online retailers are compromised by hackers, but by far the most worrying aspect of shopping online is whether the retailers themselves can be trusted.

A friend of mine bought his wife some Ugg boots before Christmas.  They were her main present, so he was extremely disappointed when they didn't arrive in time for Christmas.  He couldn't get in touch with the retailer at all, and was starting to get worried when a letter form the police arrived.  It told him that the goods he had bought were couterfeit, and they had been destroyed.  And there was no chance of a refund.

As we now inow, police in the UK carried out the biggest operation of its kind in order to crack down on rogue online traders. In total, the Metropolitan Police shut down 1,219 websites that were either fake, fraudulent or dealt with counterfeit goods. In many cases, customers who had purchased products from the rogue websites either received nothing at all or had their credit card details stolen, whilst the more unfortunate consumers experienced both. The Metropolitan Police decided to close down the sites at the start of what is traditionally seen as the busiest shopping period of the year, just a few weeks ahead of Christmas.

Working with Nominet, which is the organisation responsible for issuing and managing domain names in the UK, many illegal websites were closed down that were actually based in foreign territories. In particular, networks of criminal gangs in Asia and Russia, who are estimated to generate millions of pounds from fraudulent websites in the run-up to Christmas, were thought to be behind many of the websites closed down by police. As such, tracing and apprehending those in control of such websites is anything but straightforward, so consumers who have lost out to them must rely on their credit card providers for refunds; although, as most victims of credit card fraud and rogue online trading will testify, the route to redress is far from uncomplicated.

The Metropolitan Police's e-crime unit shut down domains such as Australiaugg4shop.co.uk, hotlinksshop.co.uk and etiffany-shop.co.uk, which hardly have the appearance of respectable traders but were evidently convincing enough to fool many shoppers. It is always important to note that, before buying from a website, its security and authenticity ought to be clearly demonstrated. In this respect, only those sites that offer secure transactions (SSL), clear returns policies and customer contact details should be used..

Among the 1,219 fraudulent websites closed down by the Metropolitan Police, more than 400 advertised the popular and fashionable Ugg boots. However, in many cases the boots on offer were counterfeit items, whilst other sites simply lured customers in with too-good-to-be-true discounts without ever supplying the boots (genuine or otherwise). In fact, during the past 12 months, customs officers have seized around 20,000 pairs of counterfeit Ugg boots and, with the January sales approaching, this figure is expected to rise substantially.

I asked my friend if he'd found the site on Shopsafe.  Of course, I already knew the answer, so when he said he hadn't, I reminded him to make Shopsafe.co.uk his starting point for online shopping.