IT’S frustrating when you see a dress you like on social media, but when you click through to the website, you see it’s sold out.
It happened to me recently.
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One of my favorite fashion influencers, Yasmin Devonport, showed off a gorgeous blue dress on her TikTok account.
At £120 from Asos it wasn’t cheap, but for a special occasion I could have justified it.
Unfortunately, as often happens with fashion items that go viral, it was sold out when I clicked on Asos.
A few days later I saw an ad with a video of Yasmin showing the dress. The ad was from the brand Like My Choice.
I had never heard of it before, but they describe their offering as “the latest boho-chic clothing and accessories”.
To my surprise I found the blue dress on the website, with the same photos as Asos, except that the model’s head was strangely cut off.
But this dress was £42 and was in stock in my size.
This was too good to be true, right?
My suspicions were reinforced by the niche prices.
There was also very little information about the brand on the website.
I decided to order the dress anyway, but when I had to enter the payment details, the currency was converted to dollars, so the price was $54, plus $6.09 for shipping.
When I ordered I was told it would arrive in 6-10 days.
Ten days later the time had come.
To compare what I got, I ordered the original £120 dress from Asos in the only size still available, a size 6.
At first glance the dresses looked similar, but the Asos dress they wore next to each other was much better quality and a deeper blue color.
The cheaper material of the dress seemed looser compared to the £120 dress.
That said, it looked fine. And when I asked colleagues which one they thought was the most expensive, not everyone chose the Asos.
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But morally it didn’t feel right.
I was charmed by the photos, which were clearly from another site, and by the influencer’s TikTok account… and I have little confidence that I can still return the dress.
Lynn Whiteside, 56, from Billingshurst, West Sussex, told me she couldn’t return a combi set she bought from Like My Choice for £50.40.
She found the material “cheap and nasty” and said: “I sent the company four emails asking how I could get my money back but have not heard anything back.
“I finally told them on the fifth email that I had written a negative review on Trustpilot and they replied . . . ”
But Lynn says they would only send a different size, and not give a refund.
She says: “People need to be warned not to shop at this company.”
Other sites also take images of legitimate brands or videos from influencers and pass them off as their own.
‘TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE’
Briselle UK claims to be a “French luxury clothing label”, but it appears to be borrowing its image from British brand House of CB.
Some customers complain that they never received the product.
One Trustpilot review said: “I wish I had read the reviews. It looks like I have lost my money as I have emailed several times to try and get it sorted but nothing.”
Beautley also advertises big discounts, but appears to have copied photos from Australian fashion brand Forever New.
One dress, the Amari Midi, which retailed for £82 at Forever New, is called Amira Paradise at Beautley and costs £32.95 (discounted from £66) — with the same photos as at Forever New.
James Bore, a certified security professional, says: “The price you pay is usually for the brand, not the production. Counterfeiters often use cheaper materials and production methods, but they do this simply to maximize their profit.
“With a little work, most counterfeits are indistinguishable from the real thing.
“Real brands continue to play a game of whack-a-mole.
“Because it is so difficult to track down the vendors in many of these cases, brands are largely limited to removing listings as quickly as possible and trying to stay ahead of the curve.”
In short, if you don’t recognize the brand selling the “bargains” and it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- We reached out to Like My Choice, Beautley and Briselle UK for comment, but no one responded.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE A FAKE
HELEN DEWDNEY, consumer expert at The Complaining Cow, explains how to spot a dodgy site:
1 Too generous a discount should raise alarm bellsCompanies do not offer 50 to 80 percent discounts on products that are in high demand.
Dubious sites use such offers to create an emotional “buy now” reaction. If something seems too good to be true, step back and take some time to think.
2. Check feedback on independent consumer review sites. There may be multiple bad reviews.
Only very positive reviews with few comments can indicate fake reviews. Moderators try to recognize these and keep them to a minimum.
3. Creating a sense of urgency is a common trick. This plays into human psychology, where a potential loss is more important than a potential gain.
A limited offer of just a few hours to buy at a huge discount convinces targets to take action before they become too suspicious.
4. Check the return policy and return address: is it legitimate?
5. Look for poor grammar, bad spelling, and sites that try to pretend to be based in the UK when they actually aren’t..
6. IIgnore reviews or star ratings displayed on companies’ own websites unless they can be easily traced back to real people. Real reviews on sites often include photos and videos.
7. Look for engagement on social media. A fake profile is less likely to interact with people and has few followers.
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