#instagram ads

No no no no NO. Kirsten on the left is a 35th anniversary doll, released in 2021, which is NOT before 1998. Kirsten on the right is indeed after 1998, but more accurately from circa 2011, not long before she was first retired. If you look at enough Kirstens you can see the differences in dolls that indicate when she was produced..... which is a skill you will never acquire by simply clicking on a shady Instagram ad.

Think I should suggest that this company buy ad time on new episodes of Strange New Worlds?

...or TOS reruns?

I will add the links of the two videos I watched. Part of me is disgusted by the waste of money and another one finds it entertaining. Maybe that's because I'm poor and unemployed. Ahah.

Back to the main topic: it seems that great part of those false brands (they have fake web sites, that usually disappear from a while, after scamming and frauding a meaningful number of people, I guess) copy this brand called House Of CB, stealing the modeling shooting of the clothes sold online by House Of CB. To make the scams more legit, those fake brand steals contents from the review section of similar (and least more honest) Amazon Dupes of popular clothing designs. In this section you can find a LOOOT of photo of people who happily post pictures of them wearing the products, the fake brands steals those pictures and use to make their sites look more legit. Another sources of images or videos to use as base for fake Ads of scam brands are the profiles of content creators, fashion vlogger, influencers or regular social media users who share their positive feelings about their new piece of clothing.

The thing I noticed immediately is HOW in this kind of scams the victims are more than one: in the first place we have the online buyers who has small budget and is scammed of their money; the second is the original brand or the designer, who is deprived of their entrances and of their intellectual property; the third is the content creator or regular social media user who sees their reputation and image trashed by the unconsesual association to a fraud.

It's important to notice that this kind of scam involves mainly Fast Fashion products, which are publicized under fake ads and sent to the clueless buyer, who thought to have found a big deal.

This is important, because fast fashion is widely renowned as an exploitative business model resulting in low wages, poor working conditions, a disregard for workers' rights and negative impact in environment such as water pollution and carbon emissions.

So, this kind of scams give a huge contribution to the exploitation of garment workers around the globe and also damage the planet in wich we are all living.

I want to say that those YouTubers were both from USA and I'm from Italy. I didn't see any fake ads during my Instagram and Tik Tok scrolling, I saw only small enterprises and single creators who craft and sew their own stuff and they seemed totally legit to me. Is this because in USA there is a less culture about costumers protection than in Europe?

I can't answer. Just be careful, buy ethically and support small businesses.

Edit: some reddit users report that they have been scammed by a copycat version website of House of CB, though a fake Instagram ad that reported some 'big sale' happening.