Investigation Finds Majority of Tiffany's Jewelry on EBay is Fake

[mandy]

... We then brought her necklace to Tiffany's expert, who confirmed it was a fake. And it's not the only one. In fact, so many EBay sellers are pushing counterfeit Tiffany jewelry, that Tiffany is now suing EBay. The lawsuit came after the retailer's researchers found that almost three-fourths of all Tiffany jewelry sold on the EBay are knockoffs

"20/20" bought 16 new pieces from five different sellers (including the one who sold Paul her necklace) who advertised the items as Tiffany jewelry on EBay.

When we brought our purchases to Tiffany's experts, they told us only one of the items was authentic.

full article: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/story?id=1323373

[Nat]

I saw that episode on 20/20 last night - amazing.  I wasn't surprised that there was fake Tiffaney out there but surprised at how many pieces they bought were fake.

I noticed one thing 20/20 said, that if you buy something on eBay that your best protection is to pay by credit card or Paypal as that will "guarantee" you a refund if you get a fake.  They said that and my first thought was if you pay by Paypal with your balance and not a credit card through Paypal then you are not guaranteed a refund - you'll only get a full refund if the seller still has that in their balance otherwise you'll get what they have and then the seller gets their account locked. 

Gee, that was a nice little plug for Paypal from 20/20.

[amy]

if you pay by Paypal with your balance and not a credit card through Paypal then you are not guaranteed a refund

I don't think many buyers realize that.

[dnc_ont]

I don't think many buyers realize that.

I think there's probably a LOT of buyers that realize that.  Oh, but unfortunately they realized it the hard way, after the first time they got screwed.

Which may explain the lack of vibrant buyers, and eBay's various desperate attempts to make buying easier (ie. no signing up for PayPal until the 3rd purchase, etc)

[bargainbloodhound]

I wasn't surprised that there was fake Tiffaney out there but surprised at how many pieces they bought were fake.

I really wasn't surprised because fake designer goods are one of the main fraud complaints on all auction sites .  Earlier this month an Ohio TV station did a similar buying "experiment" with hand bags on eBay and the results were about the same.
http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...241.0.html

A UK article in August suggest that 92% of Louis Vuitton items sold on eBay UK are fake. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/fe..._id=354508&in_page_id=1879

EDITED to add: I don't think that the majority of sellers on eBay and other sites who are selling fake designer goods even know that the items are fake. I'm sure they thought they were buying the "real thing" from what they thought was a reputable supplier.

[iron_chick]

It's not just on the internet, though.  It happens IRL as well.  My son bought a knife at a local gun and knife show a few months back.    He certainly *thought* it was the real thing.  It *looked* like the real thing.  But it broke after about 2 months and the real thing would not have.    It is possible that that seller didn't even realize he was selling knock offs.