Gym and fitness equipment

Consumers looking to buy new or second-hand gym equipment are warned to watch out for fake websites, classified adverts, and social media pages operated by scammers.

How to protect yourself

• Be wary of websites selling goods well below market prices.
• Look at the overall quality of the website, grammatical errors in text and poorly edited images.
• Be very suspicious if scammers ask you to pay via electronic funds transfer or using a money order, pre-loaded money card or a crypto currency such as Bitcoin; as it’s rare to recover money that is sent this way.
• Use payment methods such as credit card or PayPal, which allow you to dispute transactions when you do not receive the goods or something else goes wrong.
• Take the time to locate the real website of the legitimate business and contact them independently to verify their offer is genuine.
• Do an internet search of the website and business to read comments and reviews from other consumers who have used the same site.
• Ask to see and inspect the goods in person.

❗️ Do NOT buy gym equipment from these websites ❗️

WA ScamNet warns consumers not to buy gym equipment from the following fraudulent websites. While WA ScamNet will try to remove fake websites and social media pages as soon as possible, they warn that scam pages often quickly reappear under different names – so ongoing caution is advised:

• AXM Fitness Group - axmfitnessgroup-au.com (Nov 2021)
  WA ScamNet has received a number of reports from consumers who responded to advertisements for gym equipment through Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree, with two victims losing a total of $1,309. After responding to the adverts, the consumers were directed to the ‘axmfitnessgroup-au.com’ website which advertised home gym equipment at discounted prices. Not only was the ABN information stolen from legitimate businesses but it also falsely claimed to have a store located in Perth CBD. Once payment was made via bank transfer, minimal updates were provided to the victims about the delivery of the gym equipment. Some victims reported the scammers then demanded more money due to ‘issues’ with the delivery, such as paying ‘customs’ and ‘insurance’ fees.
• MCG Fitness - mcgfitness-au.com (Jan 2022)
• Mobility Fitness - mobilityfitness.com.au (Nov 2022) & mobilityfitnessau.com (Dec 2022) 
• PR Fitness - prfitnessandhealthau.com (Mar 2022)