If you have your heart set on the latest Fendi bag or Gucci sunglasses — but these luxury items aren’t in your monthly budget — you may consider going online to find bargains on these hot items. While the majority of online sellers are honest and reliable, the sale of counterfeit items on the Web has been dramatically increasing the past few years. Unfortunately, luxury goods providers cannot authenticate items unless they were purchased from their own store, Web site or authorized dealer, so it is up to the buyer to choose wisely when purchasing higher-end items online.
Steve Woda, founder of online trust and safety company buySAFE, offers the following tips to protect you from online fakes:
+ Don’t buy based on price alone. We all know that if the price is too good to be true, it probably is. Not all knockoffs sell for cheap, however. High prices can add a sense of legitimacy, and many knockoff sellers know this. Just because the price is high doesn’t mean it’s authentic.
+ Pictures are not always worth a thousand words. If a seller only has a few pictures, and won’t share more, you know you’re...