Idaho Shoppers Warned About Dangerous New Scams As Many Stores Close

Over the last few months, a number of well known brands have announced the closure of one or all of their Idaho locations. It’s a great opportunity to score a deal on products you love in a liquidation sale, but it’s also opens the door for scammers to take advantage of Idahoans. 

Many Big-Name Brands Closing Locations Around Idaho

We’ve written about the closures at length, but so far Idaho’s lost a Kohl’s, a JC Penney, a Macy’s, several Big Lots locations and a handful of Advance Auto Parts stores.  Now things are winding down at Idaho’s eight remaining Idaho JOANN Fabrics and Craft locations. All of these stores are closing due to the brand’s second bankruptcy in a single year. 

• Boise: 3275 S Federal Way
• Boise: 1085 N Milwaukee St
• Coeur d'Alene: 200 West Hanley Ave
• Idaho Falls: 2408 South 25th East
• Moscow: 1854 W. Pullman Road
• Nampa: 1509 Caldwell Blvd
• Pocatello: 1790 Hurley Dr
• Twin Falls: 840 Blue Lakes Blvd N

At this point, the stores haven’t confirmed their final day but many retail bloggers estimate that it will happen sometime in May. They stopped accepting gift cards after February 28. 

JOANN Scams on the Rise As Business Winds Down

Liquidation sales are underway at all of the Idaho JOANN locations and scammers see this as an opportunity to steal money from crafters hoping to score a discount. 

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According to ABC News, there’s been a rise in the number of fraudulent websites that look nearly identical to JOANN’s official website. Many shoppers are being led to these websites through social media ads advertising the craft giant’s “going-out-of business” sales. 

Shoppers who found themselves on those websites say they were offered 80-90% off of products they were used to buying through JOANN but were offered additional discounts as they added items to their carts. That was the first red flag for some. Others said they became suspicious when they were getting pop-ups that someone else had just purchased the same product. Loyalists know that JOANN doesn’t normally doesn’t do that. 

And that’s when the Better Business Bureau started getting reports about the scam to their Scam Tracker website. Once JOANN became aware of it, they shut down their online store front and shared this message on their social media accounts: 

Some of the fake web addresses shoppers have reported include:

• Joannoutletstore.shop
• Joann-us.com 
• Joann-clearance.com 
• Joanndiscount.com