Counterfeit (fake) Shure products
Question:
I have heard reports of counterfeit Shure products being sold on the Internet. Is it true? How can I avoid being sold a counterfeit Shure product?
Answer:
It is true. There are Shure counterfeit products being sold on the Internet and in stores. Any company that has a brand known around the world is subject to counterfeit goods; examples include Sony, Rolex, Hermes, Coach, Levi's. Shure has an ongoing worldwide effort to find and stop entities that produce counterfeit Shure products, and to remove counterfeit goods from being sold on the Internet. It is an effort that never ends.
Note: Customers often provide photos of suspected Shure products and ask Shure to ascertain that the products are counterfeit based only a serial number or on photos. In certain instances, the photos have enough clues that Shure can determine that the product is counterfeit. But this is not always the case. Some counterfeit products are such good copies that they must be examined by experts at Shure to ascertain that they are indeed counterfeit. This is no different than counterfeit currency that must be examined by government experts. At times, photos, no matter how detailed, do not provide enough proof.
Also, photos alone, no matter how detailed, cannot provide enough proof that a product is genuine Shure. For this determination, the product in question must be sent to Shure for examination.
To protect yourself, we recommend these steps:
1) Purchase from a dealer that buys directly from Shure.
If you are uncertain if a dealer buys directly, and you are in the United States, you may use the Shure dealer locator: http://www.shure.com/americas/where-to-buy/in-store
or you can contact Shure directly: 800-25-SHURE http://www.shure.com/americas/about-shure/contact-us
Note: there are legitimate dealers that do not buy directly from Shure; instead they buy from a distributor of Shure products. Though not a direct customer of Shure, these dealers also can be sources for genuine Shure products.
2) If you are outside of the United States, contact the Shure agent for your country: http://www.shure.com/americas/countries/americas/
3) To get an idea of typical selling prices for the Shure product that interests you, look at mail order catalogs and visit local music stores or audio electronic stores. If the price you find online is much lower than the catalogs or the stores, be cautious as the product might be counterfeit, though an unusually low price does not always indicate a counterfeit product.
4) Be very careful when purchasing a Shure product via eBay or other online auction sites. Though there are many honest individuals and legitimate dealers selling genuine Shure products on such sites, there are also many people selling counterfeit Shure products. Again, if the price seems too good to be true, be suspicious.
5) Finally, beware if the Internet auction site dealer is in a different country than you. History has proven that many counterfeit Shure products are being sold from one country into another.
Shure has been asked to provide a list of ways to determine if a product is a counterfeit. There are two reasons that we do not:
#1) Many differences are subtle and cannot be adequately described in words or photos, such as the texture or shade of a product's outer finish.
#2) If Shure published the exact differences between Shure genuine products and counterfeit products, the criminal counterfeiters would know how to improve their fakes! Not a good idea for Shure or for our customers.