Counterfeit products catch online shoppers off guard

VANCOUVER -

Shopping online comes with risk. Often you do not know with whom you are dealing and that can lead to problems.

Just ask Andrew Forrest. He recently went online searching for two portable wall heaters. He clicked on what looked like a legitimate product from a real business but ended up with potentially unsafe counterfeit products. Now he was out about $200 and fighting with the seller and his credit card issuer to get his money back.

“I ended up with a runaround, classic runaround,” Forrest said.

It all began in November of last year when he ordered the heaters online. When they arrived, he said it was clear to him that there was a problem. They had not been properly packaged and the boxes were damaged. When he plugged the heaters into the wall, they fell out.

He tried dealing with the overseas company to return the merchandise to China, then in April, all communications stopped and he says the website disappeared.

Forrest then turned to Scotiabank to get the charge reversed on his credit card. However, more than 120 days had passed and the clock had run out on the time limit he had to dispute it.

He contacted the Office of the President at Scotiabank to complain and was told: “You were advised per VISA’s dispute regulation, the merchandise needs be returned, and the tracking number and refund voucher are required to proceed with the dispute case.”

However, the advice Forrest received from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre was the exact opposite.

“We advise the consumer to immediately just throw it away. Destroy the product,” said Sue Labine of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. “No, we don’t recommend it gets sent back because what they’ll do is sell it to somebody else.”

The CAFC determined that Forrest had been dealing with a counterfeit seller. The website appeared to be piggy backing on a legitimate business by using the same name and changing up the URL address in a way that would trick a consumer into purchasing.

CTV News reached out to Scotiabank and received an email response. The bank apologized for any inconvenience Forrest may have experienced. However, it did not answer any of our questions regarding its dispute procedures. Yet the bank did contact him and credited him for the purchase.

“It was probably after you intervened. So thank you,” Forrest said.

Forrest says be careful of what you click on before ordering.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says losses tied to merchandise scams are mounting. The total loss reported to the centre in 2019, before the pandemic was about $3 million. Last year it was three times as much nearly $10 million. A lot of it related to personal protection equipment purchases.

Watch out for pop up ads on social media and carefully check the websites to make sure they are legitimate companies. Look for a physical address and confirm if it exits, check the BBB and look for reviews. If the price is too good to be true, it probably is.