Jeweller Tiffany is suing eBay for selling fakes

Its most famous auction website, eBay, is a prime target for such conmen. A quick glance online shows zentai tens of thousands of items claiming to be 'genuine designer' items of clothing, jewellery, watches and handbags.

It's almost impossible to tell whether something is real or fake.

Normally if you were trying to decide if something was real, you could pick it up and really examine it to make sure. But on eBay, buyers are entirely reliant on photographs, which are often of poor quality and can even be of the real item, whereas what is sent to you will be a fake.

We soon discovered that if the picture is genuine, there are some giveaways to look out for particularly if you are able to compare it to its real counterparts on the brand's official website.

This was obvious, for example, with classic designs such as the 'Please Return to Tiffany & Co's New York 295' key fob, because some of those we saw on eBay had lettering which was inconsistent with the original. ON THE whole, counterfeits are shoddily made. Wallets and bags tend to be sewn catsuits unevenly, so it's worth studying the stitching, lining, fastenings and logos on goods either on the screen or when they arrive, if you do buy one.

One 'Louis Vuitton' wallet had poor stitching, which gave it away, and the brand's authentification stamp was on a different side of the wallet than the original another common mistake by counterfeiters.

There are myriad tricks eBay sellers use to try to fool unsuspecting buyers.

One tactic is to photograph an item with the brand's logo on display in the background. We bought a necklace and earrings separately but from the same seller, who posted photographs of the pieces perched on a plump chestnut cushion surrounded by a labelled carrier bag and a delicately placed ribbon.

All this paraphernalia created an illusion of authenticity about the products, but crucially there were no close-up photographs of the jewellery and no hallmark detail could be garnered from the distant shot on screen.

Within seconds of being handed the goods after they arrived in the post, a store sales assistant confirmed they were all fake.

We discovered it is also relatively common to come across an item on eBay that carries a brand's name but is not a copy of a known design.

We bought a fake Chanel necklace which was pictured on a shiny black box with the brand's trademark overlapping Cs. In reality, the necklace was of shockingly poor quality the gold had rubbed away on the chain, leaving an unsightly green tinge, and the words 'Chanel, 31 Rue Cambon, Paris' were printed, rather than engraved on the charm.

Chanel later confirmed that neither the design nor anything similar existed. The same occurred with a Versace 'Signature' shoulder bag, bought from a seller who insisted that her products were genuine. An expert informed us that Versace has never produced such a bag and that the 'Signature' line was completely fictitious.

Another telltale sign can be if someone is selling multiple numbers of the same item cheaply.

One eBayer called Susan270157 was selling Prada socks in bulk, with six pairs in a pack, for £18.97.

We bought some and took them to an expert at Prada who described them as 'completely counterfeit'. Once again, the socks were not of a known design and the fashion label had not produced anything similar.

When we confronted the seller by e-mail, they offered us a refund on return of the goods, but claimed that spandex zentai the socks were 'overstock' that she had bought from an unnamed store in Manchester.

She has since stopped selling the socks on eBay and told us that she is looking into the matter.

The way most eBay buyers decide whether a seller is trustworthy or not is by the 'feedback' system.

Every time an item is purchased online, the buyer can leave a message marking the experience as 'positive', 'neutral' or 'negative'.

It is recorded and can be seen by all potential buyers the next time the seller uses the website.