How to avoid the lure of counterfeit goods online
Millions of shoppers are set to flood high-street and online retailers this week with the arrival of Black Friday today and Cyber Monday.
The four-day period from November 24-27 is traditionally one of the busiest pre-Christmas shopping days in the calendar, with £5.8bn spent in 2016.
Around £2.8bn of this was spent through online retailers – up 20% from £2.3bn in 2015, according to VoucherCodes.co.uk and the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).
However, as shoppers head online to snap up the latest bargains, they could be leaving themselves vulnerable to purchasing counterfeit items.
While this may be acceptable for some customers, others may feel ripped off if the goods become faulty or even dangerous.
Rosie Le Breton, a trainee trademark attorney at Cardiff firm Wynne Jones IP, said: “With shoppers set to spend huge amounts of money this week, we would urge them to be cautious of any online offers which seem too good to be true – as they are likely to be just that.
“Shoppers may be surprised to learn they have purchased a counterfeit item from a seemingly trustworthy source.
“Counterfeit goods not only leave shoppers unhappy, they also divert funds away from the legitimate brand, which has invested time and money into developing its product.
“By infringing the established brand’s intellectual property rights in this manner, counterfeiters can have a devastating impact across the retail market.”
In a bid to help shoppers avoid the online counterfeit pitfalls, Ms Le Breton has offered her top five tips on how to spot a fake online:
CHEAP PRICING
Shoppers who come across designer items at significantly reduced online prices could be forgiven for choosing to save money in the lead-up to the festive season.
However, they need to be realistic about the price point for such an item. If designer goods are offered at hundreds of pounds below the usual asking price, this should raise some red flags, Ms Le Breton warned.
“The price which is set by the original designer reflects a number of factors including production time, labour, material costs, importing, brand worth and so on. Therefore, if an item is sold at a significantly reduced price, this may signify that those steps were not factored into this item’s creation,” she said.
LEGITIMATE WEBSITES
The type of website from which the item is sold could also be an indicator. For example, a site which features misspellings or excessive popups, or doesn’t appear professionally created could be a warning sign.
While this doesn’t always indicate a counterfeit product, caution should be exercised if this is an established brand being sold at a dramatically lower price.
Sticking to licensed retailers and authorised sellers helps to entirely eradicate the risk of a counterfeit purchase, Ms Le Breton emphasised.
She said: “If in doubt, don’t make the purchase. Always use an established seller who has clear address and contact details.
“Alongside the risk of buying fake goods, purchasing from a counterfeit website could also potentially expose a buyer’s confidential details to those wishing to exploit them.”
PACKAGING & DESIGN IRREGULARITIES
Many established brands have achieved success thanks to their instantly recognisable and muchloved packaging and branding. It is these design aspects which set a product apart and is often one of the greatest draws for a consumer.
Coca-Cola and McDonalds are two of the most iconic brands in the world, but where would they be without their famous logos and design?
Hence, billions are invested by companies annually to protect the intellectual property rights to their design and branding.
However, counterfeit goods are often unable to accurately replicate the established brand’s packaging and design standards, as they simply don’t have the resources or funding.
As such, it is quite common for fake items to look “almost identical to the original, but not quite,” Ms Le Breton said.
She added: “Legitimate brands pride themselves and invest huge sums in packaging and design. As such, bad packaging is often a telltale sign that you’ve purchased a fake.
“Issues such as the item not fitting in the packaging properly, cheap materials which are discoloured or damaged, or spelling or grammatical mistakes on the packaging are warning signs.
“Slight design deviations or repositioning of key design elements on the packaging are also a good indicator. Comparing these to others which are legitimate can help you to quickly spot a fake.”
SELLER REVIEWS
Online selling platforms such as Amazon and eBay attract millions of legitimate sellers and buyers every day.
As two of the world’s most utilised retail sites, they both have stringent policies in place to protect buyers against purchasing counterfeit goods.
However, it is still possible for some sellers to exploit the system in a bid to encourage customers to part with hundreds of pounds unfairly.
One such safeguard which the sites have implemented is seller reviews. While these are often overlooked by potential buyers, they can prove to be an invaluable indicator of that individual’s selling activity, authenticity and interaction with customers.
However, reviews themselves can be a sign that the product is fake. Ms Le Breton warned: “While seller reviews can provide a more realistic insight into a seller’s activity, caution should be used. Increasingly we are seeing more and more fake reviews which provide an overly positive picture of the seller, or paid-for reviews. If a slew of overly positive reviews is written for the item in a short period of time, this could indicate that it is not real.
“This can be an invaluable tool, but always do your research into the legitimacy of the seller and the reviewer if in doubt.”
Concerned customers can also report a counterfeit purchase to both Amazon and eBay as a violation and detail why they feel the product is infringing a copyright or trademark.
SECURE PAYMENT
Established websites and shops will always ensure their customers are able to pay securely. One of the fundamental rights a shopper is entitled to when buying online is to know that their financial details are safe when making a transaction.
This not only provides them with confidence in the legitimacy of what they are purchasing, but also the company with which they are interacting.
The website address is a useful way of spotting a legitimate payment source, Ms Le Breton said.
She said: “If a website address begins with ‘https’ when payment is being taken, this demonstrates that the payment is secure.
“Without this, the payment may be unsecured and therefore the buyer’s financial details may be vulnerable to being shared.
“We would also urge customers to never enter their pin details online or click any suspicious pop-ups asking for bank detail confirmation.”