Online Ordering Restored for Wearing Conscious
Over approximately eight days, from 2/1 to 2/9, we received numerous customer reports of marketplace outages.
- Customers reported being unable to complete orders at checkout.
- Wishlist items were reported to have disappeared from user accounts.
- Links to several popular products directed to 404 error pages.
- Users were unable to leave product and website reviews.
- Many items were missing from the marketplace.
As of 2/9, all site functionality and most products have been restored. No new incident reports have been received since 2/9.
As we work to reorganize the site, we encourage you to use the "Search" function in the interim to find what you're looking for.
Missing your faves? All brands and products will be available on the marketplace again soon, along with our full product categories and website organization. Please note that ReVuitton was removed from the marketplace for other reasons, as detailed in this post.
Our Investigation: What Happened?
WearingConscious.org began experiencing excessive bot activity on 2/1/26, as evidenced by a spike in direct web traffic.
Excess of Fraudulent Orders
Bot traffic flooding the site resulted in dozens of fraudulent orders in a short period. This caused our payment processor to temporarily suspend service. Unfortunately, while this shut down bot-related fraud, it also blocked legitimate customers from completing their orders.
Brands Disconnected from the Marketplace
In addition to preventing orders, shops connected to Wearing Conscious via the marketplace were disconnected if their products had been subjected to multiple fraudulent orders. Therefore, the outage resulted in the loss of many products and beloved brands from the marketplace.
Wearing Conscious and its partners are still working through inventory reconciliation, which is delaying the return of some products to the marketplace. In addition, some items may still be listed as "out of stock".
Email Links Disabled
Hundreds of bot accounts signed up for our mailing list or logged into the site via Shop, overwhelming our email processor. The suspicious activity led to the revocation of our URL validation, and links were disconnected from our email processor. As a result, links to order tracking, customer accounts, reviews, discounts, saved carts, wishlists, and similar features were disabled. Customers who received the emails were unable to click through.
Safeguards for the Future
Wearing Conscious cannot prevent bot traffic from bombarding the site, but we have taken several key steps to mitigate future damage and prevent customer disruptions.
High Risk Email Assessment Implemented
Email addresses tagged as "High Risk" are now automatically blocked from receiving Welcome, discount, Rewards, and cart-reminder emails. This will prevent the system from flagging the website, allowing legitimate users to continue receiving notifications with valid links.
High Risk Order Cancellation
Our new fraud prevention system will automatically cancel orders assessed as "High Risk of Fraud". This will prevent inventory issues, keep brands safe in the marketplace, and assure availability for legitimate customers.
Customer Rewards Program Safeguards
High-risk email addresses will be prevented from signing up for Customer Rewards, ensuring customers continue to receive reward notifications and redemption options accurately. This also prevents bot-to-bot referral traffic, significantly reducing bot traffic and restoring site trust.
What If I Was Affected?
Email links sent during that period should now work, and order functionality has been restored. You should now be able to complete those actions as usual.
If you experienced any difficulties with Wearing Conscious, please email us to explain the issue, and we will work with you to find a solution.
- If you find your favorite brand or product missing and can't find it using the 'Search' function, please let us know, and we will prioritize restoring access for you.
- If you believe your order has been tagged as High Risk in error, Customer Service will work with you to identify the issue or create the order manually as needed.
- Subscription orders may have been replaced with an item with a different URL. This is not an item substitution; it replaces the removed item URL with the restored item URL.
- Some subscription items may be listed as out of stock; subscriptions will renew as soon as inventory for your item is restored/corrected.
On behalf of Wearing Conscious, we appreciate your patience during this outage and are happy to have safeguards in place to protect you going forward.
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