Washington, United States. Cybersecurity firm Bitdefender said it uncovered a wave of online scams using near-identical websites to the official Milano Cortina 2026 merchandise store to trick shoppers in Europe and the United States.
Fraudulent ads and cloned websites
Bitdefender Labs said the scam is spreading through fraudulent adverts on Meta platforms promoting discounts of up to 80% on supposedly official Olympic merchandise. Users who click on the ads are redirected to lookalike websites designed to harvest payment details, home addresses, phone numbers, email accounts and, in some cases, login credentials.
Impact on victims
Bitdefender said victims may receive counterfeit goods or nothing at all and risk having their personal data compromised. The company said the scam relies on highly convincing replicas of the official Olympics shop.
How the sites are built and promoted
The fraudulent sites use identical product photos, colour schemes, branding elements and merchandise collections, according to Bitdefender. Many of the fake domains were registered only days apart and are promoted through newly created Facebook pages, which Bitdefender said suggests a coordinated infrastructure built to rotate quickly and avoid detection.
Short-lived domains and limited recourse
Bitdefender said many of the rogue sites disappear within hours or days of processing payments, leaving no possibility of refunds.
Official response and platform comment
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics press office said it is aware of unauthorised websites that misuse the Games brand and that these are promptly reported to the relevant authorities to have them removed. Meta was not immediately available for comment.
Signs of fraud
Bitdefender said subtle differences can reveal the fraud, noting that the official store advertises offers such as “Sign up and save 15%”, while cloned sites promote “Sign up and save 80%”.
Have you clicked on an advert offering steep discounts on supposedly official Olympic merchandise?