Warning signs to watch for when purchasing online

Castira's Tips

• The seller uses stock photos. For listings with stock photos, you never know what you will receive. If you see what appear to be stock photos from the designer's website or another source, ask the seller if they can send you pictures of the actual item being sold.


• The seller is unable to provide additional photos and does not respond to your questions. If the seller is not willing to provide more photos or answer your questions, we do not recommend purchasing from them. It may be the seller does not actually have the item in their possession and is actually having it drop-shipped from a wholesaler. Also, it may be an indication the seller will be difficult to contact or communicate with should something go wrong.


• The seller has no feedback or negative feedback. If a seller has negative feedback, particular for selling fakes, this is a big red flag.


• The seller is selling large quantities of brand new items. This indicates the seller is most likely being supplied by a wholesale source. Oftentimes, the merchandise, in this case, is counterfeit.


• The seller is selling items at ridiculously low buy-it-now prices. If it is a current item that has not gone on sale in stores, be wary of prices significantly lower than retail price.


• The bags come with "extras" not provided with authentic bags. Watch out for fake authenticity and controllato cards, fake dust bags, hanging tags, swatches of sample fabrics, etc. For Gucci, beware of the black, credit-card sized controllato cards similar to the authenticity cards by Chanel as these are fake. Gucci has never made a card like this!