How to avoid buying fake products with hazardous materials for health on Amazon

The next time you consider purchasing an item from your favorite online retailer, you may want to think twice.

A recent report from the US Government Accountability Office reveals that products purchased from third parties through the five largest online companies may be fake and dangerous to health.

Of the 47 products (including Nike Air Jordan sneakers, Yeti-branded souvenir mugs, Urban Decay makeup, and travel phone chargers) that the report's authors purchased through Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Sears Marketplace, and Newegg, 20 of them were fakes.

All the sneakers were authentic and only one of the phone chargers was fake, but the other two categories were not: six of the nine Yeti cups and all of the Urban Decay makeup sets were fakes.

The report does not specify which products were purchased on each platform, but it is known that a counterfeit and a legal item were purchased on the same website.

Consumers are not only being scammed, they are also being exposed to potentially dangerous materials. The report notes that fake iPhone chargers pose a fatal risk of electrocution, cups can contain high amounts of lead, and cosmetics contain substances such as cyanide, mercury, and rat droppings. Substances you wouldn't want to get on your hands or face.

What is most worrying is that it is difficult to discern the difference between what is false and what is authentic. The items, all of them from the US, were promoted as new and original, and were sold by third parties with an average rating of 90% by users, bringing together all the elements to earn the trust of the buyer.

It is also difficult to identify what is fake knowing that the five companies apply strict protocols and a zero tolerance policy with counterfeits, which, if necessary, leads them to remove them from the website, as they assure CBS News.

Even so, counterfeits continue to exist and account for almost 10% of world trade, according to the World Customs Organization.

"It's not that people don't buy anything online anymore, which would be illogical, but the truth is that you can try to identify several signals that could help prevent the purchase of counterfeits," Kimberly Gianopoulos, tells Circa News. Director of International Affairs and Trade Groups for the US Government Accountability Office.

She continues reading if you want to know the seven tips to detect fake products online.

1. Know who sells you the product

Those who sell online often use platforms like Amazon to get rid of excess product, gain visibility, or expand their audience. Although these companies do not advertise fake products, you have to be careful with them because many fakes come from them.

A writer for tech magazine How-to Geek who bought a fake on Amazon breaks down the three different types of products you can find on his website:

Therefore, limit your searches on these platforms to products that they sell themselves.

2.If it doesn't come from the seller, look it up

"You can find out if something is sold through a website or if it is managed directly. If the latter happens, it does not mean that the platform is selling it to you directly; it means that they are sending you the product, but from a third party", explains Gianopoulos, who adds that it is convenient to find a contact telephone number and an address of the original company in case the product needs to be returned.

She locates the seller through the product's website, checks his profile, and even does a Google search: spending time checking this information is worth it.

Michael Crider of How-to Geek warns about newly created seller profiles, as scammers often launch multiple accounts for short periods of time, as well as weird names. In an attempt to outwit the platform in question, scammers use randomly generated names.

Miss Booth knows how to decorate a classroom. @hill_grange https://t.co/QVYaySKTmK

— Matt West Sat Jul 10 22:43:03 +0000 2021

"If the seller's name is anything like what a drunken monkey would write, it's probably fake," he says.

3. Be wary of positive reviews

Don't be fooled by the Amazon Verified Purchase tag: While it adds credibility, sellers circumvent the system by creating accounts they use as puppets, purchasing products, and writing stellar reviews.

You can use online tools to determine the veracity of a review, such as Fakespot, which makes a score based on the probability that a product has false reviews.

But you don't always need the help of an online service: below you will find a series of signs that you can detect with your own eyes.

A large number of positive reviews in a short time may indicate that someone has written those reviews to make them appear that way. Spelling and grammatical errors, similar user profile pictures, and similar language can also be signs to watch out for, such as certain types of words and phrases: an abuse of the first person singular, as well as specific verbs and adverbs, such as references to people or exact details.

4.Check the logistics

Another sign is that delivery times are taking too long, especially from companies that sell on Amazon, who do not receive payments in their bank account until 14 days later.

A new seller with counterfeit merchandise has to keep their account active for at least two weeks, so they will schedule a longer shipping time than Amazon's processing time to avoid consumer complaints.

Also check where the product is shipped from. "I don't want to attack China, but that's where most of the counterfeits come from," James Thomson, a former Amazon executive, tells MarketWatch.

5.Examine the product photos

In the age of Photoshop and these types of technologies, it's easy for a scammer to edit or steal a photo to pass off their product as authentic.

Stuart Fuller, Director of Business Operations and Communications at NetNames, an entity that ensures the protection of the brand image of companies, recommends downloading an image and using Google Reverse Image, a service that allows you to trace the source of an image, to check if the photos have been obtained from another website.

He also suggests contacting the seller to ask for more photos. If they can't give you more, there's probably a reason behind it.

6. Be wary of low prices

Ryan Robison, of the Robison Group detective agency, tells MaketWatch that the great evidence of a fake item is the price.

"Almost always, the incentive for people to buy [suspect products] is that they are cheaper," explains Thomson. "But the reason they are cheaper is because they haven't been tested or certified."

In an interview with NewBeauty, Kelly McCarthy, a partner at IP protection firm Sideman & Bancroft, advises avoiding the temptation to purchase beauty products from certain websites; instead, they must be purchased directly from the brand or its sales department.

"If you see a 'bargain' on beauty products and the sale isn't from a store that you're sure is an authorized seller, you're increasing the risk that that product is fake," she says. "If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is."

7.Inspect the packaging

If you have followed all the steps above and still decided to buy a product, the inspection does not end here.

GoVerify on eBay offers tips on what to check to determine the authenticity of a designer product, such as watching YouTube videos to compare and see if anything doesn't add up.

There are a few simple tricks to check: labels, typography, misspellings and printing errors should be on our radar. The packaging must include all the elements of a new product, such as manuals or printed materials and barcodes.

Bharat Dube, chief executive of brand protection agency Strategic IP Information, tells MarketWatch that the packaging "may not have basic things like the plastic lining the box."

If something doesn't look right, return it and contact customer service for a refund.