The recent news stories about fake UGG boots have underlined the warnings we at alltheshoes have frequently published about the plight of disappointed purchasers of fake UGGs. To repeat our advice: Only buy from Authorised UGG® Australia retailers. UGG Australia has a list of them on the official UGG Australia website – online retailers checklist.

Over 1200 fraudulent websites featuring counterfeit UGG Boots and other online designer retailers were closed down by an online police raid on Thrusday (3rd December 2009). Hundreds of fraudsters in parts of Asia have set up websites hiding behind British domain names. Det Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, head of Scotland Yard’s e-crime unit said, “Fraudsters target the victim’s desire to buy designer good at reduced prices, particularly at this time of the year”.

The offending sites offered discounted goods including UGG boots and Tiffany Jewellery. Police say the customers sometimes received counterfeits but sometime received nothing at all for their money. It is reported that 1219 sites were closed down by Operation Papworth. The police’s operation was co-ordinated with Nominet who register .co.uk website addresses. Information on the sites closed down is available on www.consumerdirect.gov.uk. Det. Supt McMurdie laconically warns, “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is”.

That means if very cheap UGG boots online are absolutely is NOT genuine UGG®Australia. At alltheshoes we only list Authorised sources of Official UGG Australia goods. So click the link below for the UK’s cheapest genuine UGG boot deals.

Been stung and need advice? then check out my original fake UGGs post on the subject of fake UGG boots websites.

Sincerely

Dr Crocs

UGG Australia has recently published an explicit counterfeit warning regarding Genuine UGG Boots on the official UGG Australia website. The full details are now on UGG Australia’s website click for the Official UGG Australia guide on Counterfeits and UGG fakes.

The UGG Australia warning contains some helpful clarification which can assist in the identification of fake UGG websites – that is websites claiming or appearing to claim their product is genuine UGG Australia boots when in fact the products are fake Chinese UGGs.

I quote “If you are viewing UGG® Australia product on-line anywhere other than uggaustralia.com and the domain name includes “UGG”, or any variation of this word, or includes one of our style names in the domain address, e.g. “Cardy”, this product is most certainly counterfeit.”

A good proportion of the fake UGG websites we have identified so far on this blog do have the word UGG in the domain name so this clarification from UGG Australia marks them out definitively as fake UGG websites.

With the help of my blog readers I have now identified 500 fake UGG websites. You’ll find the full list on my original fake UGGs post.

The other two pieces of news I have on the subject of Genuine UGG Boots vs fake UGGs came from the London firm of lawyers appointed by Deckers / UGG Australia to enforce their trademarks within Europe. They got in touch with me recently and thanked me for identifying fake UGG sites (credit goes to those who responded to my initial post on the subject).

UGG Australia’s lawyers are now trying to get these fake UGG sites removed from Google search results. If you have noticed the message “In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.” in the search results – this is a result of complaints made on behalf of UGG Australia. UGG Australia are focusing initially on websites that are using some of the stock images to mis-represent their products i.e. UGG Australia images on fake UGG websites.

The second thing is that Google have now stopped companies using the terms UGG and UGG Australia in the Google adwords (sponsored Ads) system unless they have been pre-approved as genuine UGG Australia stockists/retailers. Speaking to some retailers this has meant a frustrating delay on getting their own legitimate Ads approved. Also looking at the sponsored ads returned for common search phrases like uggs, ugg boots, ugg boots sale and cheap ugg boots shows that the fake site have just adapted their text to circumvent the new Google trademark infringement rules. It seems they can use UGG in the middle of a word so they are using combined terms like ukugg, australianugg, 09ugg etc to tempt people to click their ads.

As I’ve said before this is all depressing stuff and means that this coming winter, like last year, thousands of customers will be ripped off by Chinese fake UGG sites and although some steps have been taken by Google and UGG Australia, it shows just how difficult it is to stop internet fraud when the fraudsters are so determined and well resourced.

The only solution is to educate people that there are tons of fake sites out there and that to avoid being ripped off and they should purchase their Genuine UGG Austalia Boots only through suppliers they know and trust.

If you want to read more on this subject then please check out my fake UGG boots post.

The Good News

If you are looking for the best UK deals on the full range of UGG® Australia – as always you can find the best deals on 100% genuine, real and authentic UGG Australia products from authorised UGG Australia stockists on my price comparison website. I post the best deals I can there and you can be sure you’re getting the real McCoy. After all you deserve only the best quality not fakes!

Here are links to my UGG Australia price comparison sections:

Short UGG Australia Boots

Tall UGG Australia Boots

UGG Australia Accessories

Men’s UGG Australia

Kid’s UGG Australia

UGG Australia Baby

UGG Australia Sandals

UGG Australia Shoes

UGG Australia Slippers