LaBuBu dolls are expensive. So are Lego sets, gaming gear and other electronics, luxury purses, nice shoes, and many of the other things our kids are asking for this Christmas.
It’s no surprise that many parents stumble across an unbelievable price, is that a Labubu doll for $12? and jump on it, many of them entirely unaware that what they’re ordering is even fake. The result can be a toy that doesn’t live up to expectations, or no toy at all.
A recent seizure of counterfeit products may affect the Christmases of thousands of children, and getting a refund may be difficult.
Counterfeit Toys Seized In Virginia Port
Customs & Border Protection just shared with news outlets that a few days before Thanksgiving, the agency seized thousands of toys and other items entering the country at a port in Norfolk, Virginia. They report that the seizure involved goods valued at more than $775,000, comprising over 17,000 items.
They included plush toys, including fake Labubu dolls, items from the Hello Kitty, Mario, and Disney product lines, among others. Other items included music boxes, backpacks, snow globes, and more, according to WTKR.
This particular shipment was destined for West Virginia, but it’s just one of many shipments and seizures the CBP may have carried out, or may carry out between now and Christmas. Homeland Security Today reports that the agency seized over 79 million such products over the past year.
The Risks To Consumers
Often, counterfeit products are made with subpar materials. At best, they are not subjected to the rigorous standards that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other agencies typically impose on manufacturers.
Some may be perfectly safe, while others may have lead levels or small parts that would not pass inspection. Consumers are typically advised to avoid counterfeit products for these reasons.
However, this seizure highlights another risk. If you’ve ordered your child a plushie of their favorite character, a sports jersey at a fantastic price, or some really cheap headphones that purport to be AirPods, there’s a chance your item won’t reach you at all.
The timing of the press release is also a warning. CBP shared this seizure with news outlets almost a month after it occurred. This may be due to procedures (someone had to count and quantify all those items), but it may hint that a seizure today wouldn’t make the news until after Christmas, if at all.
What Happens If Your Items Are Seized?
Most items seized this way are bulk purchases intended for resale, not individual orders, but those can be seized, too. Some of the bulk items may also be for items individuals have already ordered from the reseller, meaning they may still be items for which parents have plunked down their money and expect to arrive before Christmas.
Don’t expect to be contacted or notified if your purchases are seized, though. Instead, consumers may find themselves wondering why their shipment is delayed, long after it was expected.
Contacting the seller may or may not yield any answers, and refunds are likely to be delayed, if provided at all. If there was already a long shipment time, these delays may push past your bank’s chargeback time limit, especially if the seller is unresponsive or disappears altogether.
That leaves you without the gift your child wanted, and raises the risk that the legitimate items are already sold out, and/or that you don’t have the cash on hand to rebuy them.
How Can Consumers Avoid Accidental Purchases Of Counterfeit Goods?
If you’re not sure whether the items you’re purchasing are legitimate or counterfeit, some signs can help you make a good guess. Bear in mind that these aren’t infallible — people have purchased items that should have been legit only to find them swapped somewhere along the way. However, watching out for these red flags will reduce your risk.
Check the seller. Is the brand name misspelled? Is it actually the name it looks like? Sometimes scammers will use spellings that look like the real thing, for example, spelling “Disney” in all caps, but with a lowercase L in place of the I. It looks the same at first glance, but it may be misleading. Substituting an “m” for the letters ‘rn’ (or vice versa) is another trick.
Look for significant price discrepancies. If the price for your product at Walmart and Amazon is $150, and the price you’re seeing is $30, it’s probably a fake, or at best a cheaper brand being sold as the name brand. (If you’re happy with the more affordable brand, that’s great, but buy it from someone honest enough to sell it for what it is.)
Watch out for grammatical oddities or errors caused by poor translation. Apple, Nintendo, and every other major brand will publish English product descriptions that make sense. When the product description sounds like gibberish or is packed with awkward phrasing, consider it a red flag.
The best way to protect your purchases is to buy from trusted sources. Choose local businesses, or purchase from chains with protective return policies. In stores, check the packaging before heading to the register. If online purchases arrive with damaged packaging, check the contents before stashing them in your Christmas hoard.
When possible, buy early to avoid return hassles, but balance this with return policies. A 30-day return window can be detrimental if the video game console you purchased in October turns out to be defective on Christmas morning.