Avoiding Fake UGGS

Following on from your feedback and emails that followed the publishing of our guide below we have now added a section listing Authorised Retailers of Genuine UGG Australia products, so be sure to take a look here.

Type ‘UGGs’ or ‘Ugg Boots’ into Google and you will find a multitude of websites claiming to sell UGG products.  The problem is, only a minority of these websites are selling genuine UGG products.

 There has been a lot of media coverage lately on the extent to which dodgy traders, predominantly (but not exclusively) based in China are selling poor quality UGG imitation shoes and boots, passing them off as genuine UGG products.  Avoiding these products is not as easy as you would imagine; many of the websites look okay and don’t give the impression of having been knocked together by a conman in five minutes.  However, a bit of common sense and there is no reason to fall foul of the scamsters. 

Firstly bear in mind that there is a difference between “Australian Ugg Boots” and  “UGG® Australia”.  There are many online retailers, mainly based in Australia, who sell “Australian Ugg Boots”.  These retailers sell, in the main, good quality sheepskin boots. Some people are happy to purchase these products; they have been available for years and will often be of good quality – but they are not UGG Australia® products.

More alarmingly, there are a vast number of websites cropping up on the Google organic search results, or more frequently appearing on the sponsored results on the side of the page, selling fake products that they are passing off as authentic UGG Australia products.  To put it bluntly, these sites are run by conmen and crime gangs.  They sell cheaply-made, low quality Chinese fakes shipped direct from a factory somewhere in China and pass them off as genuine UGG products.

Not only will the product you get from these sites be fake (and of appalling quality) but you are also open to credit card fraud. There are many cases of customers being overcharged on their credit card or of their credit card details being passed on to third parties and fraudsters. 

With a little common sense you can spot a fake UGG website. We have put together our own list of dodgy fake UGG websites here.If the product is not described as genuine UGG® Australia then it’s not that brand.  However fancy the photos, however much the product, product name and description may seem to match genuine UGG products, do not be fooled.

Fake UGG Australia websites will usually have rather weird names, often having UGG somewhere in the name. You can Google the retailer; usually if they are dodgy there will be comments posted on various forums alerting you to the fact.  You can also look where the retailer is based on their ‘contact us’ page.  Alternatively, use the website http://www.domaintools.com and type the domain name into the whois tool. If the registrant is in China (country code CN) or the domain has been created only recently, then it doesn’t look good!

There are other tell-tale signs of a dodgy site.  Most obviously Price.  If the prices are lower than those you see elsewhere then it is usually for a reason!     Also, take a look at the Contact details. Legitimate UGG Australia retailers are usually established sites with proper support methods and contact details.

Poor English can also be a giveaway.  More recently this has been a little less of a giveaway as the English on the fake websites ‘improves’.

There is one extremely easy way to avoid falling victim to one of these scam websites.  Use our site!  We only recommend offers from UK based retailers who have been trading online for years.  All these retailers are authorised retailers of UGG Australia products.  Most of these retailers give us exclusive deals, offers and discount codes to pass on to our users/readers.  All of these retailers have an excellent customer service reputation and are easily contactable in the unlikely event that you have a problem with your order.  

 We hope that you have found this section useful; enjoy your UGG shopping!

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