Exclusive: Consumer advocates call for crackdown on ‘fraudulent players’ as Guardian Australia finds scores of sites masquerading as local businessesElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThere have been more than 140 “ghost” stores operating online in Australia falsely marketing themselves as local brands and selling everything from poor quality clothing to counterfeit sports labels – or nothing at all. Affected customers have told Guardian Australia that if the products they bought from these sites actually arrived, they were of “rubbish” quality and it was nearly impossible to organise a refund.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is investigating after a surge of complaints about ghost stores, but experts say Shopify and Meta need to take responsibility for enabling these sites and allowing them to run false advertising.Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter