Holiday Shoppers Better Beware of Counterfeit Goods

Consumers squeezed by the rotten economy are shopping online in ever-greater numbers to save money on their holiday purchases. But increasingly, buyers who purchase items on eBay and other sites are inadvertently paying for counterfeit items.

Consumer Ally partnerSiteJabber, a site dedicated to helping consumers find legitimate sites and protecting them from fraudulent ones, recently published an eye-opening graphic detailing the size and sources of the global counterfeit economy.

"We decided to package the data into a graphic to raise awareness amongst consumers of the magnitude, scope and nature of counterfeit goods," SiteJabber co-founder Jeremy Gin told Consumer Ally.