Watch out for fakes on Amazon!
Fans are reporting a rising number of "fakes" of our puzzles on Amazon that look like they are selling our puzzles but are not. We're trying to get Amazon to take...
Fans are reporting a rising number of "fakes" of our puzzles on Amazon that look like they are selling our puzzles but are not.
We're trying to get Amazon to take them down, but so far no-luck with that, so we need to warn you.
Here, we'll show a few examples and point out some differences so you can make sure you know what you're looking at.
Here is one fake purporting to be an Artifact Puzzle. This is another fake - note both of these are using Kevin Sloan's art without a license but we unfortunately haven't been able to get these listings removed.
FAKE:
FAKE:
REAL THING: This is what the title for an Artifact Puzzle should look like:
The #1 thing to look out for is the "by Artifact Puzzles" which tells you that we are the seller. And our puzzles usually have a decent number of reviews (unless they are new).
Our titles almost always follow the format with Artifact or Ecru Puzzles followed by the artist and name of the art featured, then end with Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle.
Tips to spot fakes on amazon:
- Being sold by a company not Artifact Puzzles.
- The shipping cost is also a tip-off. Since Amazon handles our fulfillment for all our puzzles bought on Amazon.com, we will never have weird, high shipping costs like these.
- We also set our prices to round dollar numbers.
- They also lack reviews, and their titles don't follow our format.
- We generally don't mis-spell words like "elephant" in our listings and don't include click baity terms like "Fun Game" or "Intellectual Development" in the title itself.
- Our key details are also fairly standardized and you should be able to tell that they're ours as they'll look like this:
Our product descriptions are pretty standardized: we just give a piece count, approximate dimensions, and note that the puzzles are laser-cut and wooden and made in America.
The product descriptions for fakes usually have some English problems or use language in a non-American style.
Also, our product images generally consist of the art for the puzzle as the main image (which these fakes do imitate) but the other images are usually just 0-2 additional close-ups of the image, 1-3 photos of some individual pieces, and usually a photo of the box the puzzle comes in. We don't include lots of text or human models in our images.
In addition to the fakes we linked above, we've seen a few more from companies with names like the four-letter ones in those examples or "He Nan Hong Zhu Dian Zi Shang Wu You Xian Gong Si" - they might copy our product name or information more exactly, but they can't copy our seller name, so make sure you check that it says Artifact Puzzles.
We don't want our customers to think they're getting our high quality product and end up with something like this, which was what person who accidentally bought fakes received:
If you have any other tips to help us or other customers deal with fakes, let us know in the comments.
Meanwhile, we're working on finding a lawyer who can help us convince Amazon to take these down - let us know if you can recommend someone.
As dirty as it is, I don’t think there’s legally anything you can do about a seller posting a similar product with the same art/images selected by Artifact. The person who owns the rights to the image (e.g. Kevin Sloan) would have to be the one to take legal action unless you have an agreement with him/her that grants you exclusive use. Report any listings that use your name or product images to Amazon of course but there are some simple things you can do to deter it such as adding watermarks and a copyright notice. You might consider asking your developer to add code to your webpage that prevents people from rightclicking as well since that’s the easiest way for someone to copy your images. It won’t stop advanced coders from swiping images but it looks like you’re mostly dealing with amateurs anyway.
In Reply to Tonia F asking about Shelika.com
We would strongly advise against making purchases on any site that doesn’t share location or contact information like this. We have no relationship with Shelika.com. For us in particular, any listing not on Amazon or this site are unauthorized and may be fake.
We can’t tell exactly what’s going on with Shelika.com, but it’s a new site (less than a month old) and the e-mail listed at the very bottom of the website has been associated with other apparent scam sites in the past. Be careful with your money! Here’s some more generic tips:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0020-shopping-online
There is a website that is somewhat suspicious that has Artifact Puzzles listed for sale. Have you sold your puzzles to Shelika.com? They carry 16 of your puzzles and the way they are posted look legitimate. The reason the site looks suspicious to me is that there is no information on the site where the company is located and I couldn’t find any reviews.
On April 4th, I purchased the Old Friend puzzle off Amazon also that is being shipped by He Nan Hong Zhu Dian Zi Shang Wu You Xian Gong Si. I haven’t received a puzzle yet and will also be making a claim to Amazon.
Thanks for putting this info out. I have learned to look for the sold by Artifact Puzzles and fulfilled by Amazon below the add to cart button. If it’s a fake company, this is where you’ll see the letter companies or the string of Chinese names company.
I was unfortunately suckered into the latter, because their posting follows closely to the true Artifact postings, and this spot, below the add to cart button, is the only place that mentions the bogus company, “He Nan Hong Zhu Dian Zi Shang Wu You Xian Gong Si”.
I have yet to receive any kind of puzzle after ordering in early April. I’ve sent an email requesting a canceling of order and refund, but haven’t received any type of response. My next step is to contact Amazon.
I have a pretty serious addiction to Artifact puzzles, and while I used to only buy directly from you, I have recently been checking Amazon. I have no problem seeing the real Artifact puzzles because I am very used to your format, but I have noticed that when I search for “Artifact puzzles”, there are many not-Artifact puzzles that show up, and usually higher on the page than the real ones. You have to look very carefully How about those of us that are on Amazon, give warning reviews to puzzles that are clearly trying to fake a real Artifact puzzle (using your name/image). Got nothing but time here in SIP ;)