Aposta: Revista de Ciencias Sociales (ISSN 1696-7348) Has Been Hijacked — How to Recognize the Fake Website and Protect Your Research

1. What happened to Aposta: Revista de Ciencias Sociales?

Aposta: Revista de Ciencias Sociales (ISSN 1696-7348) is a peer-reviewed social sciences journal founded in Spain in 2003 and indexed, among other services, in Web of Science (Emerging Sources Citation Index), DOAJ, Latindex, Dialnet and Redalyc. The genuine journal is published in Móstoles (Madrid, Spain), appears quarterly, and — as confirmed by its Latindex record (folio 1370) and its DOAJ record — has never charged authors any fee.

During a period in which the journal’s web presence was not actively maintained, the domain revistaaposta.com was registered by a third party on 16 March 2026 (verifiable in the public RDAP registry record). Within weeks, the new registrant deployed a fake journal platform impersonating Aposta — copying its title, ISSN, history and indexing claims — and began soliciting paid submissions. On 10 April 2026 the official ISSN Portal record was even altered (through the Brazilian national ISSN centre) to name a Brazilian company, “Future Publishers Group LTDA” of São José dos Pinhais (Paraná), as the journal’s publisher — a change the genuine journal never requested or authorized, and which is now being formally disputed with the ISSN network.

This is a documented phenomenon known as journal hijacking: criminals clone the identity of an established, indexed journal in order to sell fast, fake “publications” to unsuspecting authors. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker currently lists more than 400 cases worldwide. Searches in Spanish and Portuguese — “revista Aposta falsa”, “revista Aposta clonada”, “revista secuestrada” — refer to this same incident.

2. Red flags: how we know the site is fake

The evidence was verified on 24 July 2026 directly from the clone website and public registries:

• A brand-new domain pretending to be 23 years old. Registry data shows revistaaposta.com was created on 16 March 2026, yet the site presents a fabricated archive of 117 issues dating back to “Vol. 1 No. 1 (2003)”.
• An invented backfile and impossible numbering. The clone lists 1,171 article records, including issues published in a monthly rhythm the journal never had, and a future-dated issue — “Vol. 24 No. 117 (2027)” — already “published” in July 2026. The genuine journal is quarterly; its issue No. 94 corresponds to 2022.
• An industrial spam volume. The clone claims 569 articles in 2026 alone, with single “issues” containing 81, 128, 133 and 136 papers — including cardiology and engineering papers far outside a social sciences journal’s scope. No legitimate peer-review process operates at that speed.
• Fraudulent fees. The genuine journal charges nothing. The clone demands an APC of R$ 950.00 or USD 180.00, solicited through a Brazilian WhatsApp number (+55 11 98749-0214) and the address editor@revistaaposta.com.
• Hundreds of counterfeit DOIs. More than 559 DOIs (prefix 10.23900) have been registered with Crossref under the genuine journal’s ISSN by an unrelated depositing member (“Editoriales Iberoamericanos”), all resolving to the fake website. The genuine journal never registered Crossref DOIs.
• Editorial board listed without consent. The fake site names prominent, unaffiliated academics — including a well-known French CNRS sociologist as “Editor in Chief” — a standard hijacking tactic. None of these scholars directs or represents this operation.
• Fabricated prestige pages. The clone includes fake “Journal Citation Reports” and “Qualis CAPES” pages and displays ESCI/DOAJ/Scopus-style badges to which the operation has no right.
• A falsified ISSN record. The official ISSN Portal entry was altered on 10 April 2026 to move the journal from Spain to Brazil — a change made without the publisher’s knowledge and now under formal dispute.

3. Genuine journal vs. fake website — side by side

4. How the hijacking operation works

The scheme follows the textbook pattern described by Retraction Watch and hijacked-journal researcher Anna Abalkina (LIBREAS, 2025):

1. Acquire a plausible domain matching the victim journal’s title — here, registered the moment it became available in March 2026.
2. Clone the journal’s identity: title, ISSN, fake backfile, fabricated editorial board, and copied indexing claims (ESCI, DOAJ, Qualis).
3. Launder credibility through registries: the operators obtained an official ISSN Portal change naming themselves publisher, and deposited hundreds of real Crossref DOIs so that fake articles appear in scholarly infrastructure.
4. Monetize the journal’s reputation: authors — often early-career researchers under pressure to publish in WoS-indexed journals — are charged R$ 950 / USD 180 per article via WhatsApp, with “acceptance” in days and no genuine peer review.
5. Scale aggressively: hundreds of papers per month, special issues on demand, and a second clone domain (revistaaposta.com.br) targeting Brazilian authors in Portuguese.

5. How to verify the genuine journal

6. How to protect yourself from hijacked journals

• Never trust a journal website alone. Reach it through an independent directory (DOAJ, Latindex, MIAR) instead of a search-engine ad or an unsolicited e-mail/WhatsApp message.
• Check the domain’s age with a free WHOIS/RDAP lookup. A “journal since 2003” on a domain registered months ago is a definitive red flag.
• Be suspicious of any fee when the journal’s DOAJ/Latindex record says it charges none — and of payment arranged through WhatsApp or personal accounts.
• Check the publication rhythm. Quarterly journals do not publish 130-paper issues or future-dated issues.
• Verify editorial board members on their own institutional pages — hijacked journals list real academics without permission.
• Check the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker before submitting to any unfamiliar journal.
• Confirm DOIs in Crossref (search.crossref.org): check who deposited them and where they resolve.
• Ask your university library. Librarians maintain up-to-date lists of hijacked and predatory journals and answer verification requests quickly.

7. What to do if you already submitted or paid

1. Stop all communication and do not pay further amounts (no “fast-track”, “DOI registration” or “certificate” fees).
2. If you paid: contact your bank or card provider immediately to dispute the charge as fraud, and keep all receipts, WhatsApp conversations and e-mails as evidence.
3. Withdraw your manuscript in writing and state that you do not authorize any use of your work. Then submit it to a legitimate journal — articles “published” by the clone have no academic validity.
4. Do not list clone publications on your CV as publications of Aposta; institutions and evaluation agencies are being notified of the hijacking.
5. Report the fraud: to the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, to Crossref (counterfeit DOIs under ISSN 1696-7348), and to your local consumer-protection or cybercrime authority.
6. If you are named on the fake site’s editorial board without your consent, demand immediate removal in writing and consider legal advice — your name is being used to lend credibility to a fraud.

9. Official sources and references

1. Verisign RDAP registry record for revistaaposta.com — rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/revistaaposta.com (creation date: 2026-03-16).
2. ISSN Portal, record for ISSN 1696-7348 — portal.issn.org/resource/ISSN/1696-7348 (unauthorized change of 2026-04-10, under dispute).
3. Latindex, Sistema Regional de Información para Revistas Científicas — folio 1370: latindex.org/latindex/ficha/1370.
4. DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals, record for ISSN 1696-7348 (no APC): doaj.org.
5. Dialnet métricas — Aposta: Revista de Ciencias Sociales: dialnet.unirioja.es/metricas/revistas/5050.
6. Retraction Watch — The Hijacked Journal Checker: retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-hijacked-journal-checker.
7. Retraction Watch (26 May 2023) — “Three journals’ web domains expired, then major indexes pointed to hijacked versions”: link.
8. Abalkina, A. (2025). “Hijacked journals: best practices for editors” — LIBREAS 47: libreas.eu/ausgabe47/abalkina.
9. Web of Science Master Journal List: mjl.clarivate.com.