Shoewawa: Buyer beware: fake Louboutins rife on the net

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Buyer beware: fake Louboutins rife on the net

I've been dimly aware for a while now that a number of sites based in the Far East are producing fake knock-offs of designer shoes, in particular the distinctive and hugely popular Louboutin styles. But the trend seems to be reaching fever pitch this week, with many well-meaning customers reporting disappointment with sites they thought were the real deal, including Louboutinsatin.com and ChristianLouboutinLondon.com both of which have now been outed as fake.

so what can you do to avoid being duped in this crime against shoe-manity? Read on for our advice...

• The first tell-tale signs is poor spelling and grammar on the site. You'd think anyone who'd take the trouble to rig up an authentic-looking website might spend some time getting this bit right, but no: so far all of the sites revealed as fakes have been littered with linguistic mistakes. Fake sellers are also rife on Ebay, so don't assume you're safe if you avoid unknown websites.

• If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. A genuine pair of Louboutin heels will set you back around £400 or more. Most of the knock-off sites are selling their fakes at around 70% off this price which is roughly £170.

• Can you contact the site owner? Dodgy sites tend not to give too much away about their whereabouts, and may only provide an email address, it that. Although most of the fake sites are registered in the UK there may not be anyone physically based over here, and the owners will be hard to pin down. Check for a valid VAT and registration number when tracking down genuine sites.

• Does the seller protest too much? Trustworthy sites are not usually plastered with reassurances about money back guarantees or excessive information on currency, payment and shipping options. If you notice a higher than normal amount of copy relating to shopper safety then the site is more likely to be fake.

If all these warnings have only served to make you want to get right on to one of the fake sites and bag yourself a pair of convincing copies, you might want to think again: ripped-off customers and those investigating the sites have said that the quality of the shoes is 'shoddy' and clearly not the real thing, suggesting they've probably been put together in sweatshops.

A more sobering reason to avoid them is that they are said to be run by criminal gangs, with profits going to line the purses of the mafia! Do you really want your footwear to be bankrolling international crime?

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Posted by Abi Silvester on July 15, 2009 2:11 PM Permalink | Comments (9) |

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Comments

If this is such a problem, why do you have fake louboutin suppliers advertising on your blog?

Posted by: Rebekah | July 15, 2009 7:37 PM

Was just about to say the same thing Rebekah. Shoewawa is suporting these knock-offs and making money from them.

Posted by: Jess | July 16, 2009 2:52 AM

Shoewawa does not chose the advertising on thier website. It is provided by google adsense which matches key words with people advertising through them.

So an article with the word loubourtin would link to these sites. Chances are, with the way blogs are set up they may be unaware or this. They should contact google se they can stop this.

Posted by: erin | July 16, 2009 9:53 AM

Oh how embarrasing, regardless of the fact that you cant control your ad space to be surrounded by the exact fake site you are discussing is comedy genius!

Posted by: erica | July 16, 2009 2:48 PM

blog fail.

even though the ads are automatically shown by google ads, shiny media ought to be vigilant for this sort of thing!

Posted by: lulu | July 16, 2009 11:39 PM

I agree with lulu. It is specifically through Shoewawa that I ended up on one of these fake websites as normally I do not google for louboutin shoes, I just go to net-a-porter or matches. Only because of my common sense I did not order a pair - simply because I believed it was too good to be true and there had to be a catch. Still I do believe that some responsibility should be taken. Otherwise there must be a very clear disclaimer that Shoewawa does not take responsibility for the content of these ads. How was I to know that these ads are placed here by Google? My initial reaction was that it must be trustworthy since it was linked to a SHOE blog I have now been reading for about 3 years. Something to be considered very seriously I feel.

Posted by: arelia | July 17, 2009 12:42 PM

Christian Louboutin's official website lists all his e-commerce stockists, so any website selling his items that isn't listed there is a fake.

Also, for e-bay buying, the ladies at the PurseBlog forum are very very helpful.

And I've noticed the fake website ads on here before and it makes me cringe.

Posted by: Hippy of Doom | July 18, 2009 7:31 PM

watch out for louboutindiscount.co.uk complete fakes! i've ended up with a pair and now theres no return address to send them to even though the site states returns can be made. I'm freaking out.

Posted by: Shannen | July 23, 2009 5:39 PM

thanks shannen was just about to buy and thought i shud check as was too good to be true!

Posted by: carolann | August 6, 2009 2:01 PM