Holly HY / 29 June 2025 / Categories: Education, Useful Guides

Chris Papasotiriou Alchemy Wear Dot Pics

Where’s your Shopify Store Gone on Shop App

I am sure I am not the only one looking for Chris Papasotiriou the owner of Alchemy Wear dot pics website on the shopify platform. My loss from what now appears to be a fraudster on Shopify platform wasn’t massive but others probably have lost out too. How many who knows.

I came across the alchemywear.pics website using Google images to locate a specific item, a Vince sweatshirt I’d sold in

My own Shopify store ironically and had sold out of. I decided I should have kept one back for

myself so was on the hunt to find one elsewhere which I did, at Alchemy wear in Miami, Fl.

This was a big shop, over 6000 items in the Shopify store if I remember correctly. The size and scale was one of the factors that made me trust Chris Papasotiriou. I read the FAQ from top to bottom. It said the site owners purchased discount stock in bulk the reason they were able to offer goods at reduced prices. The free shipping globally should have been a warning in hindsight and no tracking provided using the postal service but having lived in the US and having experience of the US postal service I expected the item would appear in 10 days as things usually did.

My order seemed even more legit when there it was in my Shop app account with an order number and details of my payment, it was showing a shipped confirmation on partially completed scale showing my sweatshirts transaction journey.

When I think back this was a pretty elaborate con.

I even emailed support@alchemywear.pics (an email that is now non existent and returns undeliverable) and got an email back from the scammer. Although I did not get an order confirmation from Shopify a URL which I later needed to report the fraud to Shopify, another warning in hindsight I was being conned.

I ordered on 14th June, 2025 and by the 26th June, 2025 I started to

investigate where my parcel might be.

I emailed Chris Papasotiriou again on support@alchemywear.pics This time my email was returned undeliverable. I went to my shop app to find the whole store had completely disappeared.

If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

I was surprised a trusted brand name like Shopify could fall prey to a big scam like this. I was grateful

to find the details of the business on Merchant genius which told me the scam had been set up on Shopify platform on 27th May, 2025 and I wondered how many people had shopped globally between then and the 14th June when I purchased. They had to shut it down pretty quick as they only had about a two week window before customers would begin asking where their product was but I cannot imagine with over 6000 products in the store how much money they made in that short amount of time.

I have a Shopify store myself so I immediately notified Shopify although I had to login to my account to do this, so not sure how non Shopify merchants do this, report a fraud or a merchant on Shopify. I did receive an email back saying if they needed more information they would get back to me but Shopify have thousands of merchants and independents using their platform so it would be virtually impossible I would think for Shopify or the shop app to know a store was ripping off consumers until after the fact. I paid with Barclaycard and they also have a way to notify them on their app about any fraudulent transaction although if I get my money back I am not sure Barclaycard will ever recoup the loss from Chris Papasotiriou. He’ll be long gone.

The things in hindsight which should have been massive red flags, no tracking information or order confirmation even though there was an explanation for this in Frequently asked questions. Free global shipping, my item was small and light but some of the products on the website weren’t, cutlery, pans and household goods all would have been heavy and expensive to ship.

Shopify and shop app are globally recognised brands so it’s easy for scammers to hide behind these online business tools and give credibility to their enterprise. If Chris Papasotiriou was able to do this so elaborately there may be loads of others too.

Don’t believe in an online shop just because of its size and scale. This is probably the number one thing that made me believe it was legitimate, a massive inventory in a shopify store.

I like to shop independently and support smaller businesses and business owners. Maybe the reason people stay with massive brands like Amazon, better the devil you know.

In hindsight had I checked for reviews of the business and found None for such a large store this would have alerted me. In future I will always look for reviews negative or positive on a business before buying from them.

I’ll publish an update what happens and if I get my money back or not. I’ll be deleting the shop app, this was my first experience using it, once I hear back from Shopify and no longer need a record of my transaction and how Chris Papasotiriou managed to penetrate a platform we all know and recognise.

FYI I have just discovered another site like this Bfius.shop.com looks almost identical and the wording and FAQ is almost identical. This one is live at the moment so check it out trading under the name MEC Shopping advertising global duty free shopping, fast delivery and secure payments. This shop comes up as Oberflaechen.com on Google images but then converts Bfius shop when you click through offering great brands, great prices but another con artist I suspect. One thing I did notice when I looked more closely at Oberflaechen.com the product description is just packed with key word search strings, but no actual product description just to make it appear more frequently on google. All different variations, quite ingenious really. And yes it’s again my desired sweatshirt they are selling for a very good price. Oh and they are even offering terms from Fraser Plus. Once bitten.

Update the problem may be when searching to find specific products at a discounted or reduced price as I was just in search of some Reformation Mirella sandals, a sustainable eco brand out of California and I think I’ve uncovered another one, the Happy Thanksgiving Website, on Google images the picture of the sandals comes up under Taxation services provider, yep dodgy I know but would you notice if you weren’t aware. When you click through it takes you to the happy Thanksgiving website, again offering free shipping but the actual website address is oheat.backspace.baby a website with actually no search presence whatsoever on Google. Good lord how many of these sites are there.

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The common denominator appears to be free global shipping.