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TIPS FOR AVOIDING COUNTERFEIT PRODUCTS
Avoid House Parties, Office Parties & Hotel Sales:
All high end designer purses, leather goods and jewelry sold at house parties are fake. Often women find "good deals" on luxury designer goods sold at house parties. These parties are similar to other home sale parties, with one exception. The goods sold are low quality fakes and these purchasers are being unknowingly victimized. Typically the counterfeit seller claims the goods are discontinued designs, overstock, irregulars or "seconds" with minor cosmetic flaws. This, and the savings from eliminating the middleman, sounds logical and seems to explains or justify the "bargain prices," which may be as low as half the retail cost. The purses sold for $50 - $200 at these parties are usually nothing but shoddy $10 - $15 purses bearing a counterfeit trademark of a quality manufacturer. Dooney & Bourke, for instance, receives an average of sixty counterfeit purses each week from persons requesting warranty repairs. Manufacturers such as Chanel, Coach, Dooney & Bourke and Louis Vuitton never market legitimate products in this casual manner. Hotel sales fall into the same category unless hosted directly by the product manufacturer.
Avoid Buying Name Brand Products at Fairs and Street Festivals:
Legitimate brand name products, such as sportswear and designer sunglasses are seldom ever sold at such events. The quality of the counterfeit products sold at these events is typically exceptionally shoddy in our experience. Sunglasses sold at these events, for instance, often fall apart within days. In fact, frequently the innocent buyer takes the fake sunglasses to an authorized dealer for repair within a day or two of the purchase. This gives private investigators or law enforcement the opportunity to respond before the seller has moved on.
Be Cautious of Brand Names Sold at Flea Markets and Swap Meets:
This is another area where extremely poor quality counterfeit goods are often sold. One way to identify counterfeit apparel sold at these locations is to carefully read the labels. Often counterfeit T-shirts bear the label of a standard brand T-shirt, or there is no label at all. In other cases--particularly with kids clothing--the manufacturer's tag sometimes doesn't match up with the character depicted. For instance, we have seen images of Bugs Bunny (a Warner Brothers character) on counterfeit shirts bearing a Mickey & Company (Disney) label. Also, paper or cardboard labels on apparel should be closely inspected. Counterfeiters are inadvertently often quite cavalier with their spelling--and blurred colors or mismatched labeling is another tip-off. Poor quality stitching, inconsistent coloring and similar flaws are other tip-offs.
Beware of Goods that Lack Proper Markings:
Most legitimate goods and packaging contain manufacturers' codes, trademarks, copyrights, toll free phone numbers, etc. Many also contain bar codes, recycling signs or holograms. The more familiar you are with the brand, the easier it is to note whether there is missing information.
Beware of Goods Where Country of Origin Identification is Missing:
Many high end designer products are manufactured exclusively in the United States. Others are made in France, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil and other countries. Many of the counterfeit products come from China, Korea, Taiwan and other Asian countries. Since counterfeiters realize that many consumers would become suspicious of a $200 designer handbag or a $100 pair of designer sunglasses if a "Made in China" tag was affixed to the item, they remove the tags showing the country of origin.
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