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Counterfeiters target trade and consumers
Study finds 1,300 suspicious e-commerce sites attract 56m visits annually, with 4,000 unauthorised suppliers targeting trade customers with counterfeit shirts
Enterprise brand protection specialist MarkMonitor said it has discovered the extent to which counterfeiters are using the loyalty of sports fans to take advantage of brands and fans online by offering fake sports apparel.
In a study of five well-known brands from the world of sport, MarkMonitor said it identified more than 1,300 e-commerce websites selling ‘questionable jerseys’ featuring one or more of the five brands in the study. The sites attracted more than 56 million annual visits, it said, and sell an estimated 800,000 units annually. MarkMonitor said the vast majority of these sites were linked to Chinese domain name registrants or registrars.
A further 4,000 individual, unauthorised suppliers were found to be offering counterfeit shirts on twelve B2B exchange sites. Again, MarkMonitor said, this supply chain consists of suppliers who are based predominantly in Asia and are estimated to sell 300,000 jerseys annually.
During the study period, MarkMonitor also examined around 480,000 paid search ads, triggered by more than 280 keyword combinations and found almost 28 per cent of these ads promoted suspicious goods, driving an estimated 11 million annual visits.
The study was part of a special MarkMonitor’s Brandjacking Index looking into the sale of counterfeit sports apparel online.
“Online fraudsters see a tremendous opportunity in the passion and loyalty of millions of sports fans, taking advantage of both brands and fans online,” said Frederick Felman, CMO of MarkMonitor.
“These scammers compete with legitimate online advertisers and e-commerce sites, driving up costs for the brands and confusing fans.”
