Keywords to look out for

If you visit a site and suspect it deals in fake ugg boots, here's a few keywords used to dupe customers so look for out for them. See any of these and you'll know you've found a site that sells fakes.

• 'factory direct' - The only way to get UGGs is from the manufacturer or from an authorized dealer. Check the UGG Australia site for authorized dealers. None of them claim to be factory direct.

• 'outlet' - UGG has an outlet store in Calabazas, CA, I believe. But online? no such thing. so if you see a site that claims to be an outlet, it really just sells fakes.

• 'surprise gift' - wonder if that surprise is your credit card bill getting run up by the folks who just stole your credit card number? 

And always remember, if the price looks too good to be true (especially before Christmas), it most likely is.

When categories are used to promote products

Another way to detect a fake site: On the left navigation bar, if you see style names as headers instead of product categories (ladies boots, mens slippers, etc.) like you see on most websites, you're looking at a site that sells fakes. Check out this screen shot of the left navigation bar on a site that sells fakes:

Ever seen this sheep image on a site?

Don't know why but fake ugg boot sites love this poor little sheep picture. I often wondered how they plan on backing up their 'guarantee', since most of these boots aren't real sheepskin!

Another thing to look for.. links to Chinese statics sites

Another thing I noticed today about how counterfeit sites operate is that they'll use free web-based statistics on their home pages and put links up to them. A couple of these third party statics sites are www.51.la and www.cnzz.com. If you notice these small icons on the page, then you know you're dealing with a chinese counterfeiter, so stay away.

Shopping engines vs. search engines

One realization came across me today. As I was searching online, I noticed that counterfeit sites aren't selling on shopping sites such as shopzilla.com or yahoo shopping, but they're everywhere on the search engines. Why is that? I don't have an explanation other than maybe it's harder to open an account on these sites than it is to open an Adwords account with Google.

So look to shopping engines for better results over the search engines!