Digital Bargain Trap
For one week, fedpol's Cybercrime Coordination Unit and the Stop Piracy association are providing tips and tricks on how to recognize dubious offers on digital sales channels. The online action week "Eyes open!" runs until July 3.
Louisa thinks she needs to order a new pair of sunglasses before the summer vacations. She enters "cheap brand sunglasses" into Google and immediately lands on a page with unbeatable deals. The store offers a huge selection of the latest models at unbeatable prices. There's only one thing to do: grab them quickly! But oh, what a shock: after just a few days, Louisa receives a letter from customs. The package with the sunglasses, which came from China, was detained on suspicion of being a fake. Louisa never receives a response to her complaint to the operators of the online store. The money is gone and she doesn't have the new sunglasses either.
Counterfeiters are increasingly using the Internet to sell their products. Whether via specially created online stores or marketplaces, the Internet is one of the most important sales channels for counterfeit products. If an offer on the Internet is all too tempting, skepticism is advisable. Behind an online store that appears reputable at first glance and poses as a discount store for brand-name goods, there may be fraudulent gangs. If goods are offered with huge price differences to the original product, caution is advised, as the Federal Office of Police informs. Often, when you place an order on such a website, you receive counterfeit goods or no goods at all. At the same time, sensitive data such as credit card details are placed in the hands of criminals.
Kobik and Stop Piracy provide information on the background to counterfeiting on the Internet in a joint campaign week.
