PSA: Beware of Fake Aldi Sculpted Reindeer Online Shipping Scams
Joshua also contributed to this post.
Our first sign that something was wrong was a reindeer.
Since at least October of 2024, we have seen an increasing amount of traffic to our 2022 review of Aldi sculpted reindeer. This confused us, as the reindeer weren’t currently in stores and weren’t slated to hit shelves until early December of 2024.
Then we saw this on an Aldi Facebook fan group:
The post above was written by the administrator of an Aldi fan Facebook group. It reads:
Important Alert! If you’ve purchased reindeer decorations from websites advertised on Facebook, ensure they’re reputable and trusted companies. Many have bought without receiving their orders. If affected, contact your bank to report this. Aldi reindeer came out last year and have not been released by Aldi since. They should be coming back very soon, but no official release date has been announced yet. With holidays approaching, scams are increasing. Protect yourself: – Buy from trusted and reputable sites – Don’t send money to unknown people – Ask friends/family if they can go to Aldi for you Stay vigilant!
It looks like there was a scam advertisement on Facebook that potentially posed as Aldi and claimed to allow people to buy the sculpted reindeer for the 2024 Christmas season. Some commenters on Facebook mentioned they saw scam offers about “pre-ordering” the reindeer. Then, people who made orders or pre-orders never received the reindeer.
Some people commenting on the Facebook post above said they were able to dispute the charges with their credit card companies and get full refunds. Another commenter said the scammers claimed their reindeer were delivered, but when the commenter called the postal service they learned the tracking number was not legitimate.
If it Wasn’t Aldi, Who Did People Order From?
Based on comments we saw on Facebook, many people saw advertisements in the fall of 2024 from a Facebook page called Dardlaugh. The page is only two months old and only has a couple of posts that are about the reindeer and nothing else. The page managers have limited who can comment on the page, which is a common tactic of scammers. The page includes a link to Dardlaugh’s website, where we found a variety of pet supplies for sale but no reindeer.
The website is also only two months old, having been created in September of 2024.
We saw several subthreads of commenters on the Facebook post above who said they ordered reindeer from Dardlaugh and never received them. Some people said they contacted Dardlaugh, which assured them the reindeer were coming and gave them a tracking number, but the number did not work. Someone asked, “Does someone named Bella keep giving you a tracking number?” Several other people responded with “yes” and “me too.”
When we did a web search for Dardlaugh, multiple scam-detection and consumer protection sites at the top of our search results indicated Dardlaugh is likely a scam site. Dardlaugh also showed up on Reddit threads for other products, with similar complaints.
This site isn’t the first to try to take advantage of consumers, and it almost certainly won’t be the last.
How to Avoid Scammers Posing as Aldi:
To protect yourself, here are a few things to keep in mind.
- In the U.S., the only delivery company Aldi is associated with is Instacart. If you’re ordering through another site, you’re not dealing with Aldi.
- Aldi does not offer pre-orders or pre-sales on any products. If a product is not yet in physical Aldi stores, you can’t buy it online from Aldi.
- Aldi does not ship online through the mail. If a product is sold out at your local store, Aldi does not offer online ordering for that product.
Also, remember that with any website or Facebook page claiming to be a seller, the best thing you can do is Google the company to see if it’s legit. In this case, a simple Google search turned up several sites warning consumers against using it. Even with a legitimate site like eBay or Amazon, it’s always good to carefully examine the seller’s account and do a Google search to make sure they’re not a known scammer.
What To Do If You’ve Been Scammed:
- If you ordered using a credit card, contact your credit card company and dispute the charges.
- If you used a debit card, contact your bank.
Closing Thoughts:
Popular Aldi products can bring out a lot of excitement among Aldi fans. Unfortunately, some scammers may try to exploit that excitement by luring shoppers into buying things without knowing what they’re getting. These scams are easy to avoid, though, by searching to see if the site in question is reputable. And of course, always remember that Aldi only uses Instacart for its online sales, and Aldi never ships through the mail.
Stay safe.
