- Common sense says it's easy to spot a knock off,
but these days they're getting more and more convincing,
especially on e-commerce sites, like Amazon.
Wirecutter ordered counterfeit goods and their authentic
counterparts off Amazon, and even experts
could barely tell the difference.
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To save you the trouble of accidentally ordering
an abibas instead of an adidas,
here are tips for spotting online counterfeiters.
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When you're at the flea market and spot a supreme hat
for $10 instead of the usual $150 price tag,
it's pretty obvious that it's a fake.
However, online counterfeiters often use realistic
prices to fool people into thinking
their products are legit.
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Ganda Suthivarakom, writes about these scams for
Wirecutter, and found that even internet
savvy consumers fall for this myth.
- I think counterfeiters are aware that people think
of price as an authenticity signal.
There was one Atlantic writer who wrote
about buying a fake Canada Goose jacket from
Amazon for the full price of $925.
You might look at a $50 Canada Goose jacket
and be like, that's definitely fake.
But you see the $925 and you're like, well maybe it's real.
And the problem is that, when you're on a site
that you trust and you're like, I shop here for everything,
don't look at price, you might be fooled.
- If a product ships within one to two days from the US,
many people figure it's authentic.
In reality, these products
might actually be coming from overseas.
- I think if you saw that something was gonna take
five to six weeks to ship, you might assume
that it was coming from overseas
and it's more likely to be fake.
Today, what these third-party sellers
can do is they can participate in Fulfilled by Amazon,
even if that stuff took six weeks to come by boat
to a warehouse, it can take one day to ship to you on Prime.
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So product reviews can definitely be gamed,
there are whole Facebook groups dedicated
to hiring people to write good reviews,
they get sent free stuff and then they write
a good review and they might get extra
payment on top of that.
There's the product rating which is on the page
that you're buying something from,
and then there's the seller rating
which tells you what customers
have experienced with sellers.
- Even legit product reviews are hard to parse,
especially because Amazon's star system
isn't simply an average of reviews.
It's actually an algorithm that gives more weight
to recent reviews or verified purchases.
So fake or paid for reviews, frequently skew the results.
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To avoid this we advise looking at seller
ratings which are separate from product ratings.
You can also take a look at the storefront
to see what other kinds of merchandise they sell.
This shop sells knock off Ove Gloves,
and also crab hats, Christmas decor, and massage chairs,
so I know to think twice before buying from them.
Keep in mind that Amazon often removes negative
reviews about shipping, or packaging
if they were the ones who fulfilled it.
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Apparel and accessories accounted for 15% of seizures
by Customs in Border Patrol.
But it's not just the fake Nike's and Hermes
in downtown alleys anymore.
Counterfeiters are also notorious for selling
low cost items like fake consumer electronics,
pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and cosmetics.
- And one of the sources I talked to said, "If you can make
"a dollar, somebody's counterfeiting it."
- Amazon's product images don't always reflect what you get.
Third-party sellers may be jumping on a listing
of existing photos, or using stolen
photos on a brand new listing.
This makes it impossible to judge a product's
authenticity just from the page photo.
Sometimes fake packaging is riddled
with spelling errors, and shoddy graphic design,
but some fake packaging is pretty convincing.
And without the real packaging for comparison,
it's pretty hard to tell.
We found a package for a counterfeit Ove Glove
that was nearly identical to the real thing.
And plot twist, the real package had a spelling error.
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- I think a lot of people would be surprised
that over half of the items that shipped
were actually sold by third-party sellers, not Amazon.
There are a lot of legitimate third-party sellers,
but there are a lot of third-party sellers
that you wouldn't trust.
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- You can avoid third-party sellers altogether
by limiting your search results to products
sold directly from Amazon.com
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But if you use this approach remember two things.
First, this filter might eliminate quality results.
YETI, for example, states on their FAQ that products
on Amazon are sold directly by YETI Authorized.
Second, be aware that filtering by fulfilled
through Amazon Prime, does not mean
a product is actually sold by Amazon.
Although you can usually find the seller info
on the right side of the page
directly below the buy button,
sometimes it moves around the product page.
For this Nintendo Switch Pro Controller,
it was in the middle of the buy box.
And for the shampoo, it was in the middle of the page.
To avoid playing the world's most frustrating game
of Where's Waldo, try browsing Amazon
on your phone or tablet, it's easier to locate
the seller info, it's always in the same
place on the mobile layout.
Also, be weary of Amazon's buy it again, and subscribe,
and save features, because if the original
seller is sold out, Amazon will automatically
select another third-party seller.
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We've come to depend on sites like Amazon
for quick, reliable service, and often don't think
twice about adding something
to the cart and checking out.
But sometimes it's worth
scrutinizing a page a bit more.
Check out the links in the description
for more tips on how to avoid those scammers.
(upbeat music)
You know I should have acted like Shaq (mumbles)
- [Woman] Oh my God, yes, do Shaq.
- This is big diesel.
Can you tell him that.
Big diesel and my slam (mumbles).