Vinted: victim of a multitude of counterfeit sales

Vinted is an online platform for the sale, purchase and exchange of second-hand clothes, shoes and accessories between private individuals. It is now the leader in its sector in France, with two transactions per second.

With its 16 million subscribers in France, the ultimate dress-vacation application obviously attracts its share of scams and counterfeits. TF1's "Sept à Huit" devoted an investigation to the subject a few days ago.

Don't buy luxury on Vinted

As soon as items move upmarket, Vinted users may be confronted with counterfeit goods. If you're looking to buy luxury clothing on Vinted, you need to be very careful. Juliette, an influencer with more than 27,000 followers on her Vinted account, says that when there are no labels to confirm the authenticity of the item, you should be wary because they are probably counterfeit. Her advice is simply to avoid buying luxury, top-of-the-range brands such as Dior or Chanel, as these are very counterfeit brands on this platform.

Victim of counterfeiting

A month ago, a young girl fell victim to counterfeiting on the clothing clearance platform. She thought she'd made a good deal because she'd managed to find one of the most coveted pairs of trainers of recent times, the Dior B23, for just €600, even though it sells for €890 on the official Dior website. In fact, it was a counterfeit. It was only a few days after receiving her parcel that the young girl realised there were a few defects. In particular, there were spelling mistakes on the label that was supposed to prove the authenticity of the pair of luxury sneakers.

She lodged a complaint

The young victim's mother then went to a Dior boutique in Paris to check the authenticity of her product. She was able to compare the shoe she had bought on Vinted with the one on sale in the Dior boutique, as explained in our article on how to avoid buying counterfeit Dior B23s, but she also approached advisers to find out whether the invoice sent with her Vinted parcel was a genuine invoice. These advisers quickly told her that it was not a genuine invoice, as neither the paper, nor the format, nor the logo matched the authentic invoices from the high-end boutique. They also indicated that they had already reported to Vinted several hundred counterfeits sold on the platform.

The young victim's mother went back to the seller, who denied having sold a counterfeit and refused a refund. She therefore decided to lodge a complaint.

The Dior B23 pair, the subject of numerous counterfeits

A second young woman, who also thought she was getting a bargain, was also a victim of counterfeiting on the same product, the Dior B23. She didn't realise it straight away. When the victim received her parcel, she tried on the pair of shoes, which she then found too small and decided to put back on sale at the same price on the online platform. She was shocked when she received an email from Vinted telling her that her ad had had to be withdrawn for counterfeiting. She asked for a refund, as her purchase had originally been made on Vinted, but the platform simply replied that it was too late to make such a claim.

After trying to find the seller, to no avail - he had already deleted her account - the young woman went to the police station to lodge a complaint. Unfortunately, the police were unable to do anything for her, but told her that as it was forbidden to possess counterfeit shoes in France, she had to leave the pair of shoes with them.

Buy and sell second-hand in complete security with Obvy

Despite its system for identifying and blocking counterfeits on its platform, many counterfeiters still manage to slip through the net. To avoid buying counterfeits, you need to pay attention to the smallest details before you buy: check the identity of the seller, the quality of the product, the quality of the invoice, and don't hesitate to ask for additional photos...

However, the advice you should remember is that you should not buy top-of-the-range products on Vinted because there are a lot of scams and you are not necessarily protected. Use Obvy to buy and sell your second-hand products.

Thanks to our simple and secure payment system, you can trace the transaction, check the identity of both parties involved and, if you realise, thanks to our guide to avoiding counterfeits, that you are in possession of an imitation, you can return it to the seller.