Top Luxury Scams in 2024: Tips By Legit Check Co-CEO David Ch

Roberto Popolizio
Updated on: July 3, 2024

Welcome to another interview by Safety Detectives, where experts from the best companies in the world analyze the current state of cybersecurity and online privacy in their industry.

My guest today is David, one of the co-founders of the Legit Check App, which is known as the world’s leading authentication hub for luxury goods. Before that, he built and sold Simple.ink by the age of 19(!) and runs r/SaaS, a subreddit with ~70,000 members.

Legit Check By Ch is an app and service teaching people how to spot real vs fake goods – ranging from sneakers to high-end designer bags and watches. They’ve got years of expertise with all today’s popular brands, from Nike and Adidas to Louis Vuitton and Hermes.

Their Library of authentication guides and authentication service have positively impacted 11M+ readers and over $100M+ worth of luxury merchandise. As of 2024, Legit Check is trusted by $1B+ companies, public and private, as well as 100,000+ small to medium businesses from all over the world.

Add to that the +600 individual ‘real vs fake’ guides teaching people how to spot fakes of their favorite items, plus thousands of testimonials (including a beautiful 4.6/5 rating on TrustPilot), and you can see why “Leading authenticators in the industry” is definitely not a self-proclaimed title.

What are the most prevalent threats related to counterfeit items in the fashion industry today?

The #1 threat has to be the uncertainty when purchasing a luxury good – that it’s so hard to tell if an item is actually authentic or not. With so many fakes on the market, I’m convinced there are many buyers and sellers who both don’t even know they’re handling replicas due to how close to the authentic they started to get in recent years.

The most replicated brand we’ve seen is surely Nike, as they’ve got so many collaborations with rappers, sports figures, and so much more. Hence, we’re not seeing just sneakers, but also many clothes!

However, for more luxurious brands, I think it has to be Louis Vuitton. It’s one of the most popular brands worldwide, and that really reflects in the amount of fake bags we’re seeing in our Legit Check requests.

As a buyer, it’s definitely frustrating to find out that you’ve spent a significant amount of money on an item that costs just a fraction to produce. We’ve seen people spending over $20,000 on Hèrmes Birkin only to be declared a fake (and it probably costs under $500 to make). But it doesn’t end there…

Counterfeit products pose several health and safety risks:

• Harmful Metals: Counterfeit jewelry is often made with cheap metal alloys containing toxic substances such as lead, cadmium, and nickel. These can cause skin irritation, allergic reactions, and long-term health problems.
• Toxic Dyes and Chemicals: Counterfeit clothing is often treated with toxic dyes and chemical finishes, leading to skin irritation, rashes, and more. Counterfeit jewelry items feature lead-based paint, posing a risk if ingested or absorbed through the skin.
• Low-Quality Gems: Counterfeit jewelry may include low-quality or synthetic gemstones treated with toxic chemicals like hydrofluoric acid.
• Unsafe Adhesives: Counterfeit clothing and jewelry are often assembled with cheap and potentially unsafe adhesives, which can cause the pieces to fall apart or irritate the skin.
• Flammable Materials: Inferior materials used in counterfeit products are more prone to catching fire, posing significant risks to consumers and their properties.

However, that’s why we’re selling the Certificate of Authenticity aside from our authentication service.

The certificate is an official authentication document which helps people who’ve purchased a replica get a refund for the fake item (100% of their money back). Besides working on eBay, Mercari, and other stores, the certificate even holds up in court – people have previously won cases with it in legal courts.

How have online scams evolved in the fashion sector over the past few years? What new techniques and scams are emerging?

I don’t think there are any new methods of scamming people with designer goods. Nobody goes as deep as ripping parts from an authentic product and stitching them into a fake, to make a “frankenstein” replica – as people call fake watches which have some authentic parts attached.

The most common way people get scammed is the old “bait and switch” method. It’s when you see a good–looking authentic product online and proceed to buy it. Then, when it arrives, you realize it’s a fake, whether alone or with Legit Check.

People would pay for an authentication and often send pictures of the listing, without having the item in-hand. While that isn’t bad, it still doesn’t confirm the authenticity entirely, as you can always get the bait-and-switch.

Scammers exploit the ease of creating accounts and the lack of regulation on social media to sell you their fake products:

1. They create social media accounts and use hashtags like “#replica” or “#versacedupe” to show off fake luxury items. These posts contain attractive photos and videos, sometimes even supported by influencers to make the products look legit.
2. Through their social accounts, they lead you to websites selling fake items, using private messages or posting links. These sites often look like real luxury brand stores.
3. They also use targeted ads and group-buying features to reach more people.
4. Some influencers (sometimes unknowingly) promote counterfeit goods to their followers.

Can you share your top tips to avoid buying counterfeit luxury items online or in-store?

Let’s begin with online purchases. Besides the usual “stay away from dodgy sites”, I recommend that you don’t go for “too good to be true” deals, as they’re often not what they look like. And then, always pay via PayPal or credit card and authenticate the item when you’ve got it in real life, not through the listing pictures – sellers can always show you something other than what they’re shipping.

For in-store purchases, you’re most likely to be fine as no reputable store would go around selling fakes. Besides companies like Legit Check, there are also many individual expert authenticators, and with a physical store it’s super easy to spot fakes due to all the stock they’ve got.

Still, we’re all human and it’s normal for flames to slip through. This brings us back to the reason we’ve started Legit Check: if you’re not always sure of an item’s authenticity, whether bought online or in-person, you can always call our experts to do the hard work.

What common beliefs about luxury authentication do you passionately disagree with? Why?

I disagree that AI can properly authenticate luxury goods – at least right now, in 2024. I’m sure at one point it’ll become a thing, but I don’t see it even in the next 2 to 5 years.

Currently, ChatGPT doesn’t have the ability to create an image with text on it that doesn’t have grammar or spelling issues. It’s super hard to believe that even a trained AI can authenticate your item correctly. Those who say they’re using AI are probably doing it just to make you think “Oh, these guys are serious” – but at the end of the day, it’s just humans doing the work.

How does educational content help consumers stay informed and vigilant against counterfeit products?

Education plays a huge part. Companies like Nike, Canada Goose, or Dior aren’t going to put out guides like we did – I may be wrong, but it doesn’t seem like they’re willing to promote anything related to fakes, even though Legit Checking is just about telling the truth about an item.

We’ve always relied on written articles, although nowadays people are hooked up on videos, especially short-form content. We’ve experimented with video guides back in 2020, and we figured out people are very likely to watch a video rather than just reading a long article. We’ve done this mainly for watches – it was a new thing for us, but the goal was achieved: to visually show people what makes a fake watch.

That’s also the reason why we’ve started focusing on short-form content. Nowadays, we create short Legit Checking videos like this:

See? Super simple – it gets you engaged in just a few seconds and it shows what you’re looking for. Then, if you’re interested in learning more, you can always check the pinned comment and go to the full written guide with side-by-side real vs fake comparisons.

That’s the theory we’ve developed for education.

What resources does Legit Check By Ch. provide to educate consumers about the risks of counterfeits?

We’ve got over 600 individual tutorials where we compare authentic and fake products side-by-side. Here’s what a typical comparison picture looks like:

It’s probably overwhelming at first, but with the explanations we’re adding under the images, it’ll get way easier.

The best part is that all of these guides are 100% free. We only charge for our professional authentication service, which you can get if you’ve checked the guides and believe you’d like an expert to handle it.

We’re doing our best in putting out as many comparisons as we can. For instance, we’ve got over 100 comparisons of individual colorways of the Yeezy Boost 350 V2. It is a really demanded sneaker, and we want to teach people the best ways to tell every fake colorway there is. Sometimes, a ‘tell’ from one colorway doesn’t apply to the other. That’s why we make individual guides and have avoided ‘general-colorway’ or ‘general-model’ guides for a long time. If we’re doing a thing, we want it to be 100% correct.

And then, we’re doing our best to diversify the library of guides. We’ve got tutorials for clothes, sneakers, bags, watches, other accessories, and collectibles.

For example, we’re covering how to spot fake AirPods Max. While they’re electronics, the AirPods Max are a super hot and expensive item, so we want people to know what they’re buying.