In the summer of 2017, a clothing brand known as Sunny Co Clothing managed to go viral on Instagram from a post that offered a “free” red swimsuit. Thousands of girls hopped on the opportunity, they were under the impression that it was an amazing deal. Unfortunately, when it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Here’s how the scam worked:

"The free + shipping model perfect"

Sunny Co Clothing invented the "Free+Shipping" scam drop shipping model. The brand advertised the swimsuit as free, but they just asked for their followers to cover the shipping costs. Unsurprisingly, the "shipping" expense covered more than the cost to produce each item, and then some.

The swimsuits were purchased from cheap Chinese manufacturers from either Alibaba or AliExpress for about $3 each, and the brand paid another $3 or so to get the Sunny Co logo screen printed on them.

It sounds obvious, but this is why the scam was so convincing.

To make the deal seem more legit, their followers were required to repost the promotion on their personal Instagram accounts. This trick made it seem like Sunny Co was trading free products for publicity, which made the offer seem more convincing since the brand was gaining exposure in return. The more people shared, the more others believed the deal was real, which established credibility for the scam while also allowing to it spread quickly.

To bolster their credibility even more

Sunny Co also purchased a lot of fake followers to get the ball rolling. No one would trust a new brand with 100 followers to follow through on their claim for a free product, but the fact that they had 100K followers made it seem like they were trustworthy.

Their website was nothing special

They utilized a stock FREE Shopify theme without customizing anything. Normally, a barebones site like that looks suspicious, but their high follower count alongside the social proof of thousands of reposts was enough to make people trust that they were legit.

What Was the Goal?

Sunny Co wasn’t giving away anything for free. They profited by tricking everyone into overpaying for cheap, low-quality swimsuits that anyone could buy on Alibaba for a couple bucks. Alongside that, they got tons of free advertising from everyone who posted about their promotion. It was a quick and easy way for them to make money while also gaining brand exposure.

How could it be prevented?

If you ever come across a promotion like this, heres how you can tell if it’s real or fake:
1. Look at the website: If the site uses free or generic Shopify theme, be wary.

2. Search for reviews: A quick Google search can help you find out if others have been scammed.  it's also smart to google search the company's address and see if a real business location pops up.

3. Reverse image search the product: Screenshot the product and use Google’s reverse image search. If you find it for a few dollars on sites like Alibaba or AliExpress, it’s a drop shipping scam.

4. Check the followers: Don’t trust high follower counts alone. Look for engagements such as the amount of likes and comments. If there's a quantitative mismatch, they probably paid for bot followers

5. Think about the deal: nothing in this world is free, question what does the company stand to gain in return?

Take the time to do a couple minutes of research before you whip out a credit card next time you come across an offer like this on social media.

If it's too good to be true, steer clear.