Don't get duped into buying fake products online. Look out for these 4 red flags

How certain are you that the items you’re buying online are the real deal?

Chances are, you may have been duped at some point or another. Almost 7 in 10 consumers were misled into purchasing counterfeit items online at least one time in the last year, according to a 2023 study from Michigan State University.

That’s why consumers need to take extra precautions when shopping online, says Kari Kammel, director at the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection at MSU. “One of the most important things you can do is know where you’re shopping from.”

Counterfeit goods can be dangerous. Many of these products may not meet government-determined safety standards, says Kammel. “So you don’t really know what they’re made out of.”

Be especially careful when buying products “you can put in your body or on your body,” she says. “There’s a high potential risk of serious harm.” That includes medications, skin creams and vitamins; and items meant to keep you or a pet safe, like brake pads, life jackets and dog leashes.

Even clothes and shoes -- the most common counterfeit items according to MSU’s study -- pose a health risk. They may contain harmful chemicals such as lead.

Here are six red flags to help you determine whether an online purchase is counterfeit.

🚩Red flag No. 1: You’re buying cheap meds, without a prescription, from an online pharmacy. 

Avoid online pharmacies that claim to sell prescription drugs at deeply discounted prices without requiring a prescription, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are a potential health risk, and they are illegal.

The Partnership for Safe Medicines has found that many of these drugs have little to no active ingredients and may contain contaminants like floor wax, mercury, concrete, chalk, road tar, paint and other deadly poisons. And products sold by these sellers have been found to contain the dangerous drug fentanyl, states the CDC.

Safety tips: Only get prescription medication from a licensed pharmacy. The Food and Drug Administration’s website links to the pharmacy licensing databases for states and U.S. territories. Click on your state and see if an online pharmacy is listed. If not, the FDA says don’t use that pharmacy.

And if you’re taking a non-prescription pill or supplement, don’t get it from a random third-party seller online or social media, says Kammel. It’s too risky.

🚩 Red flag No. 2: You don’t recognize the name of the seller you’re buying from. 

E-commerce sites like Amazon (Editor's note: Amazon is among NPR's financial supporters and pays to distribute some of our content) and Walmart.com allow third-party sellers, or independent vendors, to use their platforms to sell their goods.

Not all third-party sellers are bad actors, says Kammel. But “counterfeiters have found this to be a loophole to get in front of consumers.”

It’s a huge global problem. In a 2023 report, Amazon said they stopped more than 700,000 bad actors from creating new selling accounts; and identified, seized and disposed of more than 7 million counterfeit products worldwide.

Safety tips: According to the MSU study, fake products were most commonly purchased on e-commerce platforms (39%) and social media (39%). So be wary when you shop on these platforms.

• Whenever possible, buy directly from the brand or manufacturer. “Most brands will have a website where you can buy their product. It’s the safest place to shop,” says Kammel.
  
• Check the product’s distributor. If you decide to use an e-commerce platform like Amazon, make sure you’re buying from the actual brand. Look for the words “sold by” on the product page, and you should see the brand or manufacturer’s name there. Sometimes instead you’ll see “sold by Amazon.com” or “sold by Walmart.com.” In that case, you’re not buying directly from the brand. You’re buying from Amazon or Walmart, which procured the products and is responsible for making sure they’re legitimate. This is slightly riskier than buying directly from a brand, because it’s a step removed, but it’s not as risky as your other option, which is buying from a third-party seller.
  
• If you decide to buy from a third-party seller, do some digging. Who are you actually buying from? Does the seller list an address? What’s the company name? If you can’t find anything when you search that name on the internet, your antennae should go up. After you’ve done your research, decide whether buying your product from that vendor is worth the risk.

🚩 Red flag No. 3: The reviews of the product and company are really bad (or have no bad reviews at all)

Reviews can help you evaluate a company’s reputation. Now, they “may not be 100% accurate or real, but sometimes they can be big indicators,” says Kammel.

Fake reviews are a big business. In 2023, Amazon blocked more than 250 million suspected scam reviews from its stores worldwide. The site also filed lawsuits against illegal companies that boost product ratings by using the “report” button to get negative reviews taken down -- or hide negative reviews by using the “helpful” and “downvote” features.

Safety tip: Take a moment to evaluate the reviews section of a product page. If a lot of people are complaining about a product or the customer service, that should give you pause. Same goes if the reviews section is seemingly devoid of negative feedback.

🚩 Red flag No. 4: The product doesn’t seem right.  

If you end up buying an item from a seller you’re not sure about, take a moment to examine its packaging and contents carefully. “If it’s something we call an ‘obvious counterfeit,’ you may be able to see something glaringly wrong with it,” says Kammel. “Maybe the logo looks wrong or the coloring looks wrong.”

Safety tip: If you suspect that the product is counterfeit, stop using it -- and report it (more on that below).

Unfortunately, as technology is getting better, counterfeits are getting better too, says Kammel. “There's no way to know with certainty whether the item from a third-party seller is an authentic product. The only one who can do that is the brand or the manufacturer.”

“What we can do as consumers is at least try to go to the safest place we can to buy our products,” she says.

Think you bought a counterfeit product? Report it!

If you think you bought a counterfeit or unsafe product online, stop using it and report it to the e-commerce platform where you made the purchase. The platform should refund you, start an investigation and consider taking the product offline.

You may want to report the counterfeit to the legitimate brand too. They may be able to look up the serial number on the product, or examine the product itself (if you mail it to them) and tell you if it is indeed a fake.

Lastly, report the seller to a U.S. government agency. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has a list of who to contact by type of product.

This episode of Life Kit was produced by Sylvie Douglis. The digital story was written by Malaka Gharib. It was edited by Marielle Segarra and Meghan Keane. The visual editor is Beck Harlan.

Want more Life Kit? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get expert advice on topics like money, relationships, health and more. Click here to subscribe now.