Lately if you post a photo on Instagram and use a hashtag mentioning SHEIN, you’ll soon get an e-mail inviting you to be a SHEIN model and collab with them for PR boxes and perks. Don’t fall for it! These e-mails are not associated with SHEIN and are just the newest scam to try and steal your money.

Update 12/12/2022: There are a few new twists on this story as the scammers are now targeting people who’ve never even shopped at SHEIN. They are also asking for more money upfront and have added a legit looking contract! I added example pics of the contract at the bottom of the post.

Update 11/2023: This scam is still going strong! And now there’s a new scam to get people to make fake SHEIN resale shops. Click here if you are looking for info on that scam!

SHEIN Collaboration Notice

If you aren’t familiar with SHEIN.com, it’s a fashion website with ridiculously cheap (and cute!) clothes. They have TONS of things, and they are almost all under $20. On top of that, they offer lots of sales and coupons. All the clothes are pretty cheaply made, but it’s a great resource for cute dresses and pieces for costumes. I shop there a lot when I’m looking for ready-made pieces for cosplay, and I always tag them on Instagram, but have never gotten any kind of response…until now.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit excited when I got the first e-mail with the subject “SHEIN Collaboration Notice.” Since I often share and tag companies on Instagram, it’s pretty normal for me to get collab opportunities sent to my e-mail. But also, since I get these type e-mails often, I sensed something off about the first one which claimed to be from the owner of SHEIN but had a Gmail e-mail address. I didn’t reply back to that one, but after getting another one today, I decided to reply back and see exactly what this scam is they have running.

This is the initial e-mail from the fake SHEIN people:

As you can see, it comes from a Gmail address, which immediately makes it look suspicious. At the bottom, there is no actual info below “Best regards,” it’s just blank. But wow, they’re going to send me a bunch of free stuff and pay me $1000 every time I post? That’s got to be legit, right?!? Not a chance.

I replied back out of curiosity and got a long e-mail response telling me about how they are branching out and need people like me to help! I just need to fill out the form they send.

SHEGLAM Influencer Collaboration

The link actually sent me to a page that looks like it may be on SHEIN.com. I filled out the form, which just requests your top three platforms and amount of followers, along with your e-mail. I then e-mailed back to let them know it was complete, and that’s when they start asking for money!

The text of the e-mail:

Dear esteemed, (this is how they address me on all the e-mails. Very legit, lol)

Please go to our website Shein.com and select 8 items you like . This can be Trousers, shirts, gowns, shoes and bags of your choice with sizes. When you’re done selecting send us screenshots of the items you’ve selected on here so we can get them together and have them ready for delivery to your address.

You will also attach the following information :

1.Your full name

2.Your current address 

3.Your contact details 

4.Your bank details or preferred method of receiving payments

This information is need to enable us make payments to you for your posts and also enable our delivery partners @FedEx delivery service ship your package to you

PLEASE NOTE THAT: For the first delivery we will only cover for 70% of the delivery fee and you will cover for 30% of the delivery fee which is $50 . This only applies for the first delivery, subsequently as from the second month we will be covering all the delivery fees. You will be receiving our products every month for 12months to use and make posts.

We await your response.

My response:

“Just to confirm, the delivery fee is $50? I can’t imagine the delivery fee on a few items would be $165! I could probably get 10 items plus delivery for $50 doing a regular order. “

As you can see, they want me to send them $50 to cover 70% of a “delivery fee.” So 70% of approximately $165 is $50. They are saying it is going to cost them $165 to ship me 8 items. Yeah right.

When I let them know I wasn’t interested in paying $50 for “free” items, they sent back this:

Dear Esteemed,
We understand your insecurities and the need to take precautions, this is an act that we commend as we’re aware of the many scam activities going on right now.
We would love to help take away any form of doubt that you’re currently having but we can’t do what you’ve asked of us.
This is due to the fact that our Instagram page is meant for showcasing our designs not for collaboration campaign as you will never see us announcing any of our collaboration campaign on our Instagram page.
We cannot send the PR package for you to work with, without the information we’ve requested from you.
We cannot call you now because we have thousands of influencers out there waiting for our calls and attention and we can’t get to all at the moment.
Regarding details about the shipping, we’ll like to inform you that you’re to pay 30% which is $50 for the first time delivery as we’ll be covering 70% of the delivery cost and custom charges.
Be informed that we will be sending you $5000 total worth of PR package as this collaboration campaign is a big deal to us.
You’re required to post only twice and week as we’ll be paying you $1000 per post tagging us @SHEINOFFICIAL all social media platforms .
It is a well known fact that influencers make at least $8,000 for a month of collaboration with us.
We hope you understand, inform us if you intend to proceed.

Best regards

And Now I Just Mess with Them

After that, I decided to write the blog post so I figured I would string them along and see where it goes. I asked a series of inane questions and they just kept replying back asking for me to send them the 8 items I wanted.

So finally I just took a screenshot of a page on SHEIN that showed several items, and sent them that, and said I was a Medium. This was all I sent:

It wasn’t even eight items, and I didn’t send color choice or anything. But what do they care? They aren’t really sending me anything anyway! Note that at this point I never did send them my location, address or any other info they might need for shipping.

They replied back confirming they had gotten my selections, along with all my shipping info (that I never even sent) and would be forwarding it to FedEx as soon as I send the $50 to their manager’s e-mail: majestyfrvr@gmail.com (yes, that’s the real e-mail. They are scamming people so if they get spam from it, then good!) And I need to mark it Friends & Family too, so they can access it right away and send me my free stuff.

At this point I just started replying back with random things like how I can’t get Paypal to work, why do they have a gmail address, can I add extra items, etc. They have diligently replied back with the request for $50 and affirmations that they are not a scam and once I sent the money, they will contact me from the actual SHEIN.com website. I’m not going to hold my breath for that.

If It Sounds Too Good to Be True…

This is another one of those that falls under the rule, “If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is.” Just like those companies that want to pay you big bucks for Facebook ads, these people are just trying to scam you with an offer that sounds too good to pass up.

I hope you found this post before you sent anyone money. As soon as I got suspicious about the e-mail I started Googling and didn’t really run across anything. So I’m posting this now to save other people from wondering about this new amazing (and totally fake) opportunity with SHEIN.

PS- In one of my follow-up e-mails I told them I only had $30 and would they take that? They said they’d be happy to compromise their fee to work with me. They must really like me! I wonder if they’d take $10?

Even More SHEIN Scam E-mails

I thought I was done, but I shared this post on Instagram, along with several SHEIN hashtags, and guess what? My inbox is filled with more SHEIN collab offers! I’m cutting and pasting a couple so you can see what they are sending:

*****

From: SHEIN OFFICIAL <sheinofficalmodelsdomain@gmail.com>

Hello

I am Amanda MacNeil PR manager at SHEIN

We @Sheinofficial are just launching our newest fall  clothing line @Sheinmodely and we look forward to working with new influencers on this project.

So we are just launching our influencer campaign and really want you involved, you would get free monthly packages (10 items of your choice per month), your own exclusive discount code to share, shoutouts and reposts to our Instagram and website!

Before we send you more details, we will like to know how much you charge per post, what social media platforms you are on?

Best regards

*****

From: Shein Curves <sheincurves.org@gmail.com>

We @sheinofficial will be launching our newest clothing brand @SheinModely and we noticed you have been a fan of our work.

So we are just launching our influencer campaign and really want you involved, you would get free monthly packages (10 items of your choice per month), your own exclusive discount code to share, shoutouts and reposts to our Instagram and website!

We will be sending you out free PR packages every month, this means you will get to show off our newest items completely free with no catch, in return just tag us with the clothing either wearing them or just showing off the package! 

You will also be getting 10% commission paid via bank transfer every time you post a shout-out of our newest brand, wearing them on your page.

Before we send you more details, we will like to know how much you charge per post on Instagram.

Best & Regards

New twist- there’s now a fake contract! Example below:

If you are reading this, I hope you found it before you got scammed!

About the Author

Candy Keane is a digital content creator and long-time cosplayer, most well-known for being on the cover of the Star Wars documentary Jedi Junkies. After making costumes professionally for over a decade, she now writes about geek culture and mom life, and continues to cosplay for fun, while sharing her love of costumes on Instagram @SewGeekMama. Her first children’s book, I’m Going to My First Comic Convention, was published in 2020 and won a Story Monsters Approved award for Excellence in Literature.

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