San Francisco, CA: September 8, 2026 – Consumers are no longer cautious about online shopping because it is new; they are cautious because they have been burned. Pew Research Center found in 2025 that 36% of US adults had been the victim of an online shopping scam, and AARP reported that 39% of adults had been defrauded when buying through an online ad.
Those experiences have changed behaviour. Shoppers check for reviews, look for the padlock, avoid unfamiliar sellers and increasingly stick to a handful of brands they trust. The side-effect for brands is that trust has become a competitive asset, and a lapse in it is costly.
Where a brand is impersonated, even shoppers who never buy from the fake may blame the real company for a bad experience, particularly if the fake appears in search results or sponsored ads.
“Customers expect brands to keep the fakes out of their path. Showing that you do, with visible security and quick action on reports, is now part of the customer experience,” says Hannah Fletcher, marketing and events manager at MarkScout.