Jewellery & Watches
With jewellery and watches, fake shops offer high-quality-looking branded products at a fraction of the usual price. Authenticity is hard for laypeople to judge. The shops therefore work with forged certificates of authenticity and trust seals.
- January
- February: peak
- March
- April
- May: peak
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December: peak
A surge before Christmas and around Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, when jewellery and watches are sought as gifts more often.
A certificate of authenticity in a fake shop
The certificate is an image. Three things turn the image into proof, and all three can be checked.
Certificate of authenticity (example)
- Serial number
- Missing or cannot be queried at the manufacturer Missing
- Verification body
- Named, but without a traceable link Missing
- Seal
- Built in as an image, not clickable Claim
- Warranty card
- Pictured in the shop, not in the parcel Claim
- Status
- Authorised dealer, without an entry at the manufacturer Claim
- Claim in the shop
- Missing or cannot be checked
Profile
- Typical products
- Branded watches, smartwatches, gold jewellery, pearls and gemstone jewellery.
- Price pattern
- Discounts on luxury watches that authorised dealers do not offer. With gold jewellery, prices below the material value stand out.
- What is faked
- Certificates of authenticity, serial numbers, warranty cards and authorised-dealer status.
What to watch for in Jewellery & Watches
The general warning signs with examples- Well-known watch or jewellery brands are offered at a price well below the regular market price.
- A displayed certificate of authenticity or verification seal cannot be clicked or leads to no traceable verification body.
- Information on the serial number, warranty card or authorised-dealer status is missing.
- Payment is possible only by advance transfer or an unusual method (e.g. cryptocurrency, gift cards).
Recently listed in Jewellery & Watches
Typical scams in Jewellery & Watches
- Branded watches or jewellery pieces from well-known brands are offered at a price far below the usual market level.
- The shop displays a supposed certificate of authenticity or trust seal that is either invented or not clickable through to a genuine verification body.
- If anything is delivered at all, a recognisable counterfeit arrives instead of the genuine article, without a serial number, warranty card or original packaging.
- Returns are refused after receipt of the goods or rejected with an excuse such as supposedly damaged packaging.
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