Online shopping has been extremely popular during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns that kept people in their homes. With a few taps on your smartphone or a click of a button, you're able to do the shopping you normally do in person in the comfort of your own home. You can even shop for items from the other side of the world and arrive at your doorstep in a week or so if you're looking for something made in another country.
However, one of the problems with online shopping is that you never know if the item you're buying is legitimate or a counterfeit as you can't see the product for yourself, which is a big disadvantage on the customers' part.
Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the big names in the e-commerce industry and various governments, counterfeit items remain a problem. So much so that Mary Beth Westmoreland, vice president of technology at Amazon, said that the sale of counterfeit items has become "an industry-wide problem."
If you feel like the product you bought online is fake, here are some signs to look out for to know if it is fake or not:
Check The Item's Quality
Counterfeit products, as mentioned by Red Points, are usually produced by using cheaper and poor-quality materials such as fake leather, low-quality glass, inferior cloth materials, and old or used electronic parts. If the item you bought online doesn't feel or look right, especially when compared to the material then it should've been made out of, it is most likely a fake.
Look For Missing or Wrong Trademark Indicators
Companies usually leave several features like codes, serial or model numbers, trademarks, or any indicator that the item they made by them. These are usually seen on the product's packaging or on the product itself, according to the Economic Times. Fake products usually miss out on these indicators, or if they didn't, they don't place the correct mark.
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Look At The Reviews
You may want to check the reviews page of the product you bought online. According to Make Use Of, look for the mixed reviews on the product as they usually are legitimate. Those that leave stellar reviews without going into depth (describing first-hand experience with the product) are usually fake.
A low review score may also be a good giveaway that the product you already bought does not live to what was advertised, and is in fact, a fake.
Check The Retailer's Distrobutor
Most companies or brands have a list of approved retailers on their official website or within an item's packaging. for instance, Samsung has a list of authorized US resellers, both in-store and online, on its official website.
If you're having doubts about the source of the item you bought online, ask the person or the store you bought the item from for information on their distributor.
Check The Price
Although it's not always the case, counterfeit items tend to have a lower price than the genuine product likely due to the poor materials needed to make them provide customers an alternative source when the genuine item is too expensive for them. As such, if you bought your item at a much lower price compared to the original, what you may have in your hands is likely a fake.
Related Article: Amazon Reports Decrease in Number of Counterfeit Item Seller Sign-Ups
