On the 4th day of Christmas, Trading Standards helped me with ... 4 Fake Furbys
Every year Trading Standards receives multiple complaints from consumers who have unwittingly purchased counterfeit goods online thinking that they are getting a genuine bargain. Often goods are described as genuine and are offered at discounted prices accompanied by photographs of the real thing. Unfortunately however, when the goods arrive they are often poor quality replicas, cheaply made in the Far East. There are numerous copycat websites which to shoppers appear to be the brand’s own website, but are in fact set up by rogues to sell counterfeit products or to take consumers’ money with no intention of sending out the goods.
Trading Standards works closely with E-Crime units that take down hundreds of counterfeit websites each year. The problem also extends to internet auction sites and social networking sites such as Facebook.
Trading Standards has seen an alarming increase in the number of complaints relating to sales via Facebook, where individuals are selling counterfeit goods on their own profile pages or through group pages set up for individual towns and cities. The seller generally requests contact using private a message and arranges to deliver goods or meet the buyer in a public place.
Counterfeit goods are not only of inferior quality but there are serious safety concerns, particularly in relation to electrical items such as hair straighteners, mobile phone chargers, electric scooters and other devices whose electrical safety may have never been checked/ tested.
What to do if you have purchased fake goods
Report it!! Contact Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133.
