BBB warns of online scams surrounding major retail store’s bankruptcy

May 5, 2025

Ryan Brooks,

JACKSON, Tenn. — An online scam is affecting many West Tennesseans in the region.

With the news that retailer Joann Fabrics declared bankruptcy and announced the closure of all physical store locations, scammers are wasting no time setting up fake going-out-of-business and liquidation websites.

The BBB Scam Tracker shows this has been targeting West Tennessee residents following recent ads on social media.

“They go on to this website where they click from the ad. It takes them to this website that has all of the advertisement that Joann may have used, as well as all of their logs and things of that nature. But, always a tell-tale sign will be your URL’s. The URL was a little different than the actual Joann Fabrics store,” said Toddnetta Trice, communications specialist for the BBB.

Some users ask how scam purchases show up in transaction history statements.

“After they ordered the products they looked at their charge account and noticed that the person who charged their account was not Joann Fabrics, but perhaps another entity based out of the country. Now we all know if it was coming from Joann Fabrics you will see that on your account, and it won’t be a bunch of mumbo jumbo of someone from a different country that is taking that purchase,” said Trice.

Often when products that may have been in Joann Fabrics, or any store that’s going out of business, suddenly appears to show a price 75-80% off from the original–it’s likely a scam. A $100 product marked down to almost $5 is probably too good to be true.

“Use your credit cards for online purchases. I know, I know, but it protects you at the end of the day. With those debit card transactions, unfortunately, sometimes that fraud department have those tiny little clauses that say if you willingly gave out that information, and you willingly gave out your card info, a lot of times that means you’re on the hook for that charge. With a credit card it’s highly more likely to protect you,” said Trice.