Beware Of Websites Posing as Summit Racing & Your Favorite Automotive Vendors—Here’s How to Spot Fake Sites

An unfortunate new scam is taking hold of the internet, particularly within social media:

Fake websites and online advertisements posing as trusted brands.

And the automotive aftermarket is not immune to this epidemic. The Summit Racing IT team and its cybersecurity experts have been made aware of fraudulent websites pretending to be Summit Racing Equipment and offering products at heavily discounted prices in an attempt to scam consumers. Other prominent manufacturers in the aftermarket are seeing the same thing.

Summit Racing says it’s working diligently to identify and shut down these fake sites, but new sites can easily pop up overnight—it often becomes a virtual game of Whack-a-Mole.

These scams are sophisticated and the online ads often feature familiar logos, product photos, and company information—but they are not affiliated with the companies they pretend to be. (We have also received reports that there are social media ads and emails advertising these as “incredible deals” or “warehouse sales.”)

We’ll give you some tips below to help you spot these knockoff site scams but—as a general rule—if you see a deal that seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

Rest assured, the SummitRacing.com website remains secure—you can continue to buy with confidence when you are shopping at SummitRacing.com, using the Summit Racing mobile app, or at the official “summitracing_sales” eBay store.

Tips on Spotting Fake & Fraudulent Scam Websites & Online Ads

For starters, always check the URL of the website or verify the email address of the sender carefully—wherever you shop online. Some common tricks among scammers include using a different domain (not .com), adding words or dashes to the company name in the URL, or slightly misspelling the company name.

Emails may look like they are coming from a legitimate business, but upon inspection of the sender’s address, you will find something totally different.

Unfortunately, this is a common practice, with scammers posing as a company and targeting unsuspecting buyers before moving on when it is no longer easy to get sales. Please check URLs carefully any time you shop online and check the sender’s email address if you receive an irresistible offer.

Here are some of the fraudulent ads customers and trusted vendors have reported to Summit Racing. We’ll give you some common clues to look for in these ads, so you don’t get snared.

Fraud Ad Example 1

1. Note that the ad is from an entity called “Premium Motor Garage” and not Summit Racing.
2. If you follow a brand closely, you get used to its “voice.” We’ve never heard a Summit Racing advertisement use the “Everything Must Go” cliché—if something seems off with the phrasing of the ad, then trust your instincts.
3. Even though there’s a picture of a Summit Racing store here, it’s very easy for nefarious scammers to steal images from the web.
4. Most importantly, the connected website is not SummitRacing.com, instead it includes a hodgepodge of other common deceptive words and characters.
5. For a social media ad, check out the comments—you might discover that other folks are as skeptical as you are.

Fraud Website Example 1

1. When we click through the ad above, we see the URL at top—it has a “usa-” prefix that should tell you that it’s not the real SummitRacing.com.
2. Whoa Nelly, look at those prices. Yeah, we love a bargain as much as anybody, but c’mon, the real price of that ZZ632 crate engine is $38,000. Selling it for $1,995—over a $36,000 loss—should set off your skeptic meter, right? Again, if it’s too good to be true…it probably is.
3. Check out the “Trusted Store” logo here. It’s just a picture, nothing more. A legitimate certification will have a link or explanation as to why that badge was earned.

Fraud Ad Example 2

This was sent in from our pals at Holley.

1. Again, the photo of the Holley sign was likely poached from someone’s personal social media profile.
2. Unless this is your first day on the internet, the young lady in the profile photo should be a massive clue that something’s amiss here.
3. And notice that it’s not the Holley brand profile here—the scammers have made a new “Holley Summer Special” profile.
4. Look for the likes and followers as a clue to a newly-established profile. (A well-known brand like Holley would have way more than 5 followers.)
5. Same deal with reviews—for a major brand like Holley, you should expect plenty of legitimate customer reviews.

Fraud Website Example 2

Here’s another one from Holley—looks legit, right?

1. ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION TO THE URL! As with the Summit Racing example, it’s not sending you to Holley.com, but instead a scam site with those common website naming tricks like dashes, dots, and a “shop” suffix.
2. Again, the “Trusted Store” icon here is likely just a pretty picture and not backed up by any legitimate certification.

Fraud Ad Example 3

OOooof, even the gang at Blueprint Engines got sucked into these shenanigans. Here again, we see a lot of the familiar tricks:

1. The ad isn’t from Blueprint, it’s from a place called “Discount Stores.”
2. Not a whole lot of likes here either, for such an established and respected brand.
3. We see the oh-so-familiar “Everything Must Go” line too.

Fraud Website Example 3

Here’s what happens when we click the above “BluePrint” ad too…yikes, this doesn’t look legit at all.

1. Yup, check out the URL at the top, it’s not BluePrintEngines.com, but rather a fraudulent website—again with the common fake “-us” address modifier.
2. There’s a broken image link in the header marquee, as noted by the circle/arrow icon. That’s something the BluePrint Engines website management team would NEVER allow to happen.
3. Those misaligned pointed finger icons are really out of date—they certainly don’t fit with the typical BluePrint Engines presentation standards. Again, if something looks amiss…it most likely is.
4. In a similar vein, it looks like there’s supposed to be some text or a photo in this blank spot here, right? That’s another telltale sign of a hastily thrown together scam site.
5. Finally, the fake “Trusted Store” icon is here again. It’s easy to just slap a icon up here, so don’t just take a certification like this at face value. A legitimate security check will likely offer details regarding who certified the site as safe, along with a link to learn more about the trusted site approval process.

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If you have discovered a site pretending to be affiliated with Summit Racing or one of its vendors, please add a comment below. We diligently monitor the comments here at OnAllCylinders, so if you see something awry while shopping online for your project car or truck, let us hear about it!