Online Criminals Can Be Beauticians Too
Sep 20, 2011
By Steve Tepp
There’s not a sector or industry that online criminals won’t exploit. Rogue websites create an online bazaar of everyone’s favorite department stores aisles and hop the bandwagon of robbing jobs from hard-working Americans. Our next rogue site, www.ghd-factory.com, operating out of Hong Kong, specializes in copycatting and selling ghd brand flatirons and beauty styling devices. A visit to ghd’s official website and you’ll notice the lengths that online criminals go to deceive consumers. Company indicia and trademarks, famous celebrities, and product photos are all available on www.ghd-factory.com. Oddly enough, you can enjoy a “HUGE DISCOUNT” of “Two sets, 2% off; 3 sets, 5% off; above 4 sets, 8% off.” Now, does that seem like a discount that you’re used to? That’s because it’s not. 
The company itself has its own campaign warning consumers about counterfeit products available via rogue sites and www.ghd-factory.com is no exception. Assertions like “genuine product” should signal some alarms. When’s the last time you bought a product with that marketing tagline? Counterfeit products sold on rogue sites are dangerous. These products are often of poor construction and lack safety and quality control tests, leaving the potential for electrocution or serious burns. The company has recognized the growing threat of rogue websites and installed a website verification system to allow customers to see if rogue sites like www.ghd-factory.com are truly the authorized retailers that they say they are. Strangely, this rogue site fails to register.
Rogue sites, operating much like a criminal in the black market, have total disregard for U.S. laws which are designed to protect consumer safety and intellectual property. They steal American products and thus hamper our ability to invent, innovate, and create new products. Ghd-factory.com and its like on the Internet that operate virtual department stores of counterfeits have no place in the legitimate online marketplace. Rogue websites don’t play by the rules and we cannot continue to give them a platform to function at the expense of our jobs and our consumers. Congress needs to enact legislation without delay to cut off these rogue sites from the U.S. marketplace.
For more information on our rogue site of the week, please visit www.fightonlinetheft.com.
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