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Shark Tank India judge and boAt co-founder Aman Gupta took to Twitter to spread awareness about the mushrooming fake websites dealing with counterfeit products of the audio and wearables brand. While earlier, duplicate products indicated a brand’s relevance and significance, the trend has now turned into a hassle for customers in search for the genuine item, Aman said. It affects the brand as well as consumers, he added.
“I used to feel nice when fakes came out offline as it was like the brand was finally being recognized. Now it’s a major hassle because consumers buy it believing it’s genuine, which is not good for them or for the brand,” he tweeted.
Urging boAt users to exercise caution while buying the brand’s products online, he said that www.boat-lifestyle.com was its only official website. He requested people to double check the URL before placing orders and to report any fraudulent activity on this email – cyberfraudhelpline@imaginemarketingindia.com.
He added that the company was in the process of initiating action against such ‘unfair practices’.
The message read, “We have seen the rise of multiple fake websites claiming to sell original boAt products. We take this opportunity to inform you that www.boat-lifestyle.com is the only official brand-owned website along authorized channels selling original boAt products. Beware of any other counterfeit websites.”
In a follow up tweet, he warned, “This is a fraud that’s taking place now online by fake sellers. Please be careful and guide if you know how to handle this.”
Many users flagged incidents of being duped online by the numerous fake boAt products floating in the market currently.
Several users talked about YouTube not verifying the authenticity of the advertisements being shared, with one user sharing a screenshot of a duplicate boAt site.
A person who faced a similar experience wrote, “Yesterday I got a YouTube ad saying BOAT tws earbuds for just 50rs and when I clicked the site, I was shocked because apart from the price there were no other red flags.”
Another Twitter user commented, “Yup . I bought my first Tws (I’m 17 so..) from an offline shop . I was so happy to buy and use boat product .But then after 3 months it stopped working and since I still had the warranty period I went for an exchange but was informed that it was a fake product.”
