Fake Ikea transactions in PH rising; cases hit 700

The local unit of Swedish retail chain and home furnishings company Ikea on Friday warned Filipino consumers against scams using the company name, as fraudulent websites claiming to be them reached 64 and complaints rose to around 700.

Catherine Egagamao, customer contact center manager of Ikea Philippines, who has dealt with many of the complaints, said purchases included luggage, e-scooters, treadmills and laptops.

Leontina Bucur, country sales manager of Ikea Philippines, stressed that the company has only one point-of-sale channel and that is on their website, ikea.ph.

“We are selling only on ikea.ph. We are not selling on Facebook, we are not selling on any social platforms or other e-commerce platforms,” said Bucur, highlighting that they do not conduct sales transactions through social media.

Jasmine Cruz, communications manager of Ikea Philippines, said in a briefing on Friday that the first recorded case was back in June of 2022 where Tiktok advertisements redirected buyers to one of the fraudulent websites.

“There were several customers who asked us why their product deliveries have not been received. Then we realized there are websites using the Ikea logo and, unfortunately, there have been Filipinos who fell victim to those,” she said.

Cruz said they thought the scams would stop after they posted warnings on their social media accounts, but found that those only stopped temporarily and have since resumed.

She added that the individual transactions mostly fall within the P2,000 to P3,000 range, but have totaled nearly P1.4 million.