Discount Tiffany & Co. diamonds? You wish! Fake Hong Kong site rips off iconic jewellery
Experts warn consumers to think twice before being tempted by discounts on 'Tiffany' goods
With discount diamond rings, priority shipping to Hong Kong and a logo eerily close to Tiffany & Co's iconic blue, an online jewellery store has drawn criticism for ripping off the premier American brand.
While the Hong Kong-linked site appears to sell classic items like the Tiffany Grace ring, in platinum and diamonds, and Elsa Peretti Open Heart Lariat necklace, they are sold at steep discounts: HK$398 for the ring instead of the official price of HK$17,784 and HK$298 for the necklace instead of HK$3,488.
The website uses a shade of turquoise that is darker than Tiffany Blue and adopts the same minimalist style, a white backdrop, for its catalogue of products. However, it raised suspicion with typographical and grammatical mistakes on its website, as well as its Facebook page.
Tiffany & Co said its genuine merchandise is exclusively sold through its website and that Tiffany & Co does not sell its merchandise to online liquidators, online wholesalers or any other internet distributors.
As of yesterday morning, the fake site was inaccessible, but the social media page was still online.
The "Tiffany & Co Online Shop" on Facebook was created on July 31 and currently has more than 860 likes, compared with the authentic Facebook page, which has 7.6 million likes.
"Are [you] the official online shop for Tiffany & Co?" asked, Candy Cheung, a Facebook user.
According to the merchant's answers to interested buyers, the "Tiffany" store offers free shipping until August 15.
"The shipping normaly [sic] will take 5-7 days, since our goods are imported from USA and it will be shipped from USA to HK first," the site reads. "If you would like to return or exchange an item you must send it back in the mail."
When asked about warranties, the merchant said they were covered for one year.
Professor Sherman Chow Sze-ming of Chinese University's department of information engineering warned users against sending data to untrustworthy sites. "Pretending to be an official website is very easy; anyone can apply for a URL," said Chow.
"All the information you give to the site could be used by them for other purposes," he added. "I would advise people to think twice."
