are counterfeit goods basically risk-free for the seller?

[thelawnet1]

So I bought some headphones on Ebay. They look convincing and worked for 3 months. But then they stopped working. And I found out they were counterfeit (should have a hologram on packaging, and some tiny errors like 'Lta.' instead of 'Ltd.' and other small things - actually I can't see anything fake about the headphones themselves.

As I understand Trading Standards probably have less money now than 25 years ago before internet shopping, EU expansion, etc., so you are wasting your time with them. The manufacturer don't seem very interested in investigating. http://portal.sennheiser.co.uk/faqs/service/counte...

And the police certainly aren't interested. So is this basically a risk-free crime?

[The Moose]

Nobody gives a fk.

About counterfeit products.

About credit card fraud.

Nobody gives a fk.

[HD Adam]

The Moose said:

Nobody gives a fk.

About counterfeit products.

About credit card fraud.

Nobody gives a fk.

Shouldn't that post end with "Cheers, The Moose" ?

It's a counterfeit post, I tell ye

[iphonedyou]

HD Adam said:

Shouldn't that post end with "Cheers, The Moose" ?

It's a counterfeit post, I tell ye

[BigMacDaddy]

Very good

[Type R Tom]

I was only thinking that the other day walking through a street market, racks and racks of M&S jeans. Didn't stop to check but assume they are fake but the sellers are as bold as brass even putting a sign up.

[singlecoil]

There are many that believe much of what is sold on Amazon is fake. Batteries for mobile phones being a good example.

[Ari]

Memory cards are popular too apparently.

I've always (perhaps naively) believed that buying direct from Amazon should be okay (surely they must know what they're buying and who from), it's the third party sellers to be wary of?

[bristolracer]

When it comes to expensive designer items you have to ask yourself this.
Would Oakley or D&G or whoever allow some bloke with a market stall a franchise to sell their expensive items? Would they allow somebody to discount them on gumtree or eBay?
You know the answer to this.
When it comes to cheaper items like memory cards or AA batteries then go to a supermarket and buy them. Tesco s will not be selling copy batteries or memory cards as they will have bought them from the manufacturer.

Trading standards can and do prosecute,but they cannot stop the gullible who seem to think that a pair of Nikes for £30 will be genuine.

[meehaja]

I got stung selling a fake guitar. It was a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop copy that had been badged appropriately. it was a nice guitar but too heavy for me. I had re-wired it and put decent pickups in it and set it up properly so it was of a good standard, but to anyone with half an eye on this sort of thing, obviously a fake.

put it on ebay, reserve of £200, collection only from Leeds. as you can't openly sell fakes on ebay, I described it as a "Les paul type guitar" and stated that it was "badged as a gibson but I strongly suspect it is not the real thing" and included photos of poor finish/ tell tale signs etc. Went for £480 to a guy in bournemouth. who wanted it delivering, then kicked off as it wasn't a real gibson (that would have cost at least £1000), broke it and sent it back with a paypal refund. stung with ebay fees, broken guitar and out of pocket. utter menace that guy! Cost another £40 to fix it and then sold it locally to a guy who wanted a fake les paul to use on stage when he didn't want to risk his identical and very valuable real gibson les paul.

I keep meaning to post some rocks to that muppet without a stamp!

[R E S T E C P]

Ari said:

I've always (perhaps naively) believed that buying direct from Amazon should be okay (surely they must know what they're buying and who from), it's the third party sellers to be wary of?

I have had counterfeit items direct from Amazon. They didn't seem especially interested when I informed them, and kept selling the item, although they did give me a refund.

I've ordered hundreds of things from Amazon though, and only one or two were counterfeit. It hasn't put me off.

[gregs656]

bristolracer said:

When it comes to expensive designer items you have to ask yourself this.
Would Oakley or D&G or whoever allow some bloke with a market stall a franchise to sell their expensive items? Would they allow somebody to discount them on gumtree or eBay?
You know the answer to this.

It's not always that simple. There are auctions up and down the country which sell off end of line clothing. A friend of mine does a good trade on eBay in clothing bought from respectable sources. A happy coincidence of that business is that the odd sizes which don't do so well in stores easily find a buyer online.

[thelawnet1]

bristolracer said:

Trading standards can and do prosecute,but they cannot stop the gullible who seem to think that a pair of Nikes for £30 will be genuine.

Not very often I suspect. I tried to contact them a few years ago and it was impossible, you just got recorded messages about consumer rights. I wasn't bothered about that, it was a £5 fake battery (though the seller was selling a LARGE volume of goods, so there was significant public interest, we were talking £1 million a year, not just someone selling on their holiday fake Rolex), I wanted them to prosecute.

Edited by thelawnet1 on Wednesday 8th March 11:29

[eltax91]

The Moose said:

About credit card fraud.

Nobody gives a fk.

Not true. The banks and card issuers absolutely care. There's an entire industry trying to defending against credit card or banking fraud

[bazza white]

I'm on a few Facebook local selling pages and it's rife, cigarettes come up pretty regularly. Kodi boxes are the being clamped down on and I think a few sellers may have been caught out from these pages.

[The Moose]

eltax91 said:

The Moose said:

About credit card fraud.

Nobody gives a fk.

Not true. The banks and card issuers absolutely care. There's an entire industry trying to defending against credit card or banking fraud

Hahaha. Pull the other one mate

When I spent a lot of time processing cards, I have obviously fraudulent transactions where people wanted to have the goods delivered and then the owners of the cards would charge the transactions back. The banks (both ours and theirs) didn't care, the credit card processing companies didn't care, the police and fraud hotlines that you find online didn't care, even Visa and MasterCard couldn't give a fk. Why? Because the merchant takes the risk at the end of the day and they foot the bill of any chargebacks.

[ymwoods]

I did have a problem where I (unknowingly) was selling a load of fake air filters online. I run a genuine parts business and the supplier I was using pulled a bait and switch after the second order. You could only tell once you opened the boxes which if I did that would mean the end customer would say its not new.

Anyway, guy that brought one before I knew any different become very rude about it, even thought I told him I would send him a full refund plus a bit more for the return postage of the item so I could investigate (didnt know it was all of them at that point and just thought it was the one item) He was insitant that I must have known about it and he was going to be contacting the Police and trading standards and sent me loads of links and information about how I was going to get many hundreds of years in jail whilst getting spit roasted by a gangster...heard nothing else about it.

It does make me wonder how some people do get away with it though seeing as i got that reaction within a few days of selling them.

[Alex_225]

bazza white said:

I'm on a few Facebook local selling pages and it's rife, cigarettes come up pretty regularly. Kodi boxes are the being clamped down on and I think a few sellers may have been caught out from these pages.

I noticed that as well, the number of fake Rolex watches that appear really surprised me.

Also there are various markets I've had a look round which are the same, fake bags, watches, perfume etc. Like being in a Turkish market.

Does genuinely seem that there are zero consequences 99% of the time so people just carry on.

[B17NNS]

The Chinese are doing a half decent line in replica Gibson Les Paul's at the moment. Known by those who know as 'Chibsons'. When you know what you're looking for they're easy enough to spot but I'd hate to think how many poor people have been ripped off into believing they've bought a £1500 guitar when it's a £200 piece of firewood.

[Sheepshanks]

thelawnet1 said:

bristolracer said:

Trading standards can and do prosecute,but they cannot stop the gullible who seem to think that a pair of Nikes for £30 will be genuine.

Not very often I suspect. I tried to contact them a few years ago and it was impossible, you just got recorded messages about consumer rights.

Trading Standards doesn't exist in most places these days, at least as far as the public in concerned. Enquiries generally get referred to CAB. I think if a pattern emerges then CAB have the ability to raise it with TS, but you can imagine how rare that is.

A guy locally did get done for selling fake Tiffany jewellery on eBay but only after someone sent an item to Tiffany because it went green and they investigated. The seller said in court he thought buying it in bulk from China with no boxes meant he was getting it wholesale!