Nov 26, 2020
Berlin, November 2020: The Christmas season is approaching and Corona is strengthening the online market immensely. Black sheep use the boom in online marketplaces to disguise their forgeries. "If you don't want to be taken in by plagiarism, you need to know about the latest tricks of the trade," warns Nicole Jasmin Hofmann, CEO of brand protection provider Sentryc. With her help, even untrained eyes can uncover illegal offers outside the trusted shops.
1. who is who?
The practical thing about online marketplaces is that information from the seller can be viewed. Even if the seller's name is very similar to the original manufacturer's name, this does not automatically indicate a licensed dealer. A simple Google check helps in the assessment: Is the provider present on the Internet? Does he have his own website? Does the information he found look serious? If none of this applies to the provider, or if further advertisements appear with products that do not look serious, the purchase should be made with another dealer.
2. where does it come from and where does it go?
The country from which the goods are shipped should be the same as the manufacturer's address or a warehouse in the EU. If an item comes from China or Southeast Asia, caution is advised. Before buying, clever customers should also check the return policy. Is a return possible at all? And if so, where to? No information on this means bad news for those willing to buy. Similarly, return addresses such as China or Southeast Asia provide a warning for major brands that usually have warehouses around the world.
Third lookalike?
How is the advertised product presented visually? It is a fact that original suppliers use amateurish photographs. But suspect offers also include those that only contain images that the manufacturer shows on its own website. Forgers simply copy the photos from the website and use them for their misleading offers.
Four. Too soon to be true?
If, for example, a game console that will only be launched in a few months' time is already available for sale in advance on an online marketplace, it is almost certainly a fake. Original manufacturers never offer their new products before the official launch.
5. Cheap without a reason?
If interested parties find the desired product from the manufacturer's current collection online at a considerably lower price than on other, trustworthy sites without a clear discount campaign, this indicates a fake. Discounts of 20 percent on new goods, for example, are disproportionate and therefore unrealistic. This also applies to licensed products of sports clubs and Co.
6. valuations with value?
Of course there are also fakes among the ratings: Providers buy external positive feedback to give their listings a better reputation, so negative ratings are all the more revealing. Some feedbacks contain additional photos of the incoming goods. Clever shoppers also filter offers based on ratings.
"Particularly low prices often lower the inhibition threshold for a fake purchase," says Hofmann, "but if online customers use a few hacks, nothing stands in the way of a bargain purchase.
About Sentryc
Sentryc GmbH is a technology company founded in 2019 with headquarters in Berlin and locations in Barcelona and Szczecin. The team of currently 25 people around managing director NicoleJasmin Hofmann offers companies a digital solution with its own developed trademark protection software, with which product piracy and trademark misuse in online marketplaces can be detected and stopped. The online experts provide their customers with a cloud solution that searches websites for products, identifies and documents potential counterfeits and then automatically reports them for deletion. Well-known companies such as Junghans, Fischerwerke and the Solingen Chamber of Commerce and Industry trust in Sentrycs Produktschutzmade in Germany. Prioritizing data protection, the company hosts its products in Germany and works in compliance with DSGVO. Further information is available at www.sentryc.com