In April, Bed Bath & Beyond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company started shuttering its retail stores and offering discounts to help clear out its inventory.
Overstock.com acquired the home goods retailer in June, and relaunched and rebranded to become Bed Bath & Beyond two months later. Overstock.com now redirects consumers to https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/
Recent posts on social media claimed to promote online clearance sales of Bed Bath & Beyond's merchandise.
One Facebook post shows an image of a Bed Bath & Beyond store closing sale with prices on items starting at $6.99.
Another Facebook post says Bed Bath & Beyond clearance items are on sale starting at $9.99.
This Facebook user shared another advertisement offering clearance items and asked if anyone knew if it was legitimate.
Several VERIFY viewers, including Molly, emailed us to ask if these are real sales or if they are scams.
THE QUESTION
Are the Facebook posts advertising Bed Bath & Beyond sales scams?
THE SOURCES
- Overstock.com, the new owner of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand
- Review of websites advertising Bed Bath & Beyond sales
- FakeWebsiteBuster.com, a website that tracks scam sales sites
- University of Denver Information Security Department
THE ANSWER
Yes, many Facebook posts advertising Bed Bath & Beyond sales are scams.
WHAT WE FOUND
Just months after Bed Bath & Beyond declared bankruptcy, the chain announced it would be closing nearly 400 stores across the U.S. But, some items were still available for sale online, even if they weren’t available in the store.
Scammers have seized on the news of the popular home goods store closing by posting on Facebook claiming to have items at steep discounts.
According to a press release announcing Overstock.com’s acquisition, customers will still be able to make purchases through bedbathandbeyond.com. The press release doesn’t list any other companies or websites that use the Bed Bath & Beyond name or sell its merchandise.
Here is how we VERIFIED the Facebook posts we looked at were scams.
One Facebook post, in which the poster asked if the site was legit or not, directs people to a store called Lumines.
When VERIFY reviewed that site, there is no evidence the website sells clearance items from Bed Bath & Beyond. The banner doesn’t include any Bed Bath & Beyond logo or branding.
The website appears to only sell clothing items – not Bed Bath & Beyond’s standard merchandise of home goods and decor.
When VERIFY added an item to the cart and proceeded to check out, the website said it would appear as “tayeisy HK” on a credit card payment.
VERIFY then searched for “tayeisy HK” and came across an alert from FakeWebsiteBuster.com. It warned that websites like this are actually part of a scam network of Chinese websites that appear to be legitimate sales sites but are actually created with the intention of stealing personal information, such as credit card numbers.
VERIFY looked at another website listed on a different purported Bed Bath & Beyond sale Facebook post and found it directed people to suewat.com. When trying to navigate to that site, the Google Chrome browser blocked the page with this warning: “Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www.suewat.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards).”
Here are some tips to consider before you click on any link. The University of Denver Information Security Department says to take a look at the web address, or URL, itself for these common red flags:
- The end of the URL has characters that don’t seem like they belong. Like underscores, hyphens or symbols. For example, google.com is not the same as google-search.com.
- The URL is entirely numbers.
- The link is shortened, which usually means it’s not in a typical “www.example” form.
The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter, text alerts and our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Learn More »