The entrepreneur gave advice to customers on detecting fakes on marketplaces

Marketplace buyers are increasingly facing the risk of purchasing counterfeit goods, but you can reduce the likelihood of error even at the stage of choosing and receiving an order. Dmitry Sidorkin, an entrepreneur, an e-com specialist, and CEO of the delivery importer, told Izvestia on January 15 how to distinguish the original from the replica and correctly check the purchase at the pick-up point.

According to him, in certain product categories, the share of counterfeit goods on Russian online platforms can reach 30%. At the same time, marketplaces themselves strengthen control: Ozon uses pre-moderation before the product card is published, Wildberries applies digital arbitration, and Yandex Market promptly responds to customer complaints. Nevertheless, it is still impossible to completely eliminate the risk of counterfeiting, so the responsibility partly falls on the users themselves.

The expert advises to start checking with the seller. The safest option is to purchase the product from the marketplace itself or from the official distributor of the brand. An additional signal of reliability is the marks "Brand", "Trusted seller" and the "Original" plate in the product card. However, even if they are available, it is worth carefully studying the reviews, especially negative ones. Mentions of "replica", photo inconsistencies, or questionable quality may indicate problems with the product batch.

Special attention should be paid to the visual component. Reliable sellers use professional photographs, video reviews, and describe in detail the characteristics and equipment. They often have social media pages or their own stores where you can additionally check the product.

"We found original products. Now we determine the reality of discounts. Sometimes there are promotions where the price of the product is specifically overestimated, and then the cost is reduced by sale. Ignore the price tags with "red numbers" as well "-70%", "-90%". Seeing this, our brain turns off critical thinking," the entrepreneur explained, noting that a discount in the range of 15-20% is already considered significant and plausible.

If the purchase turned out to be questionable already at the pick-up point, it is important not to pick up the goods until a thorough inspection. There are cameras in the PVZ, so all defects can be fixed immediately. A sharp smell, poor-quality seams, distorted logos, errors in the brand name, or incomplete packaging can give out a fake. In case of a defect or counterfeit, the appropriate category must be indicated upon return, in which case the product will be withdrawn from circulation and will not reach another buyer.

The expert emphasized that even with minor defects, it is worth contacting the seller first: it is often more profitable for the seller to compensate for the defects or send the missing items than to pay for the refund and logistics. According to Sidorkin, by spending a few minutes carefully checking the order at the pick-up point, the buyer can save time, money and avoid unnecessary conflicts.

In May last year, a source from Izvestia reported that a 21-year-old man was detained in Moscow, who is suspected of replacing smartphones in the PVZ from marketplaces. It is specified that the victim ordered two phones for a total of 210 thousand rubles, but did not wait for them. The suspect has completely repented of his actions. He was given a preventive measure in the form of a written undertaking not to leave. A criminal case has been opened under Part 2 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud").

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