Pakistan sporran maker using UK photo

[FossilHunter]

How do you know it’s fake advertising and not a real Margaret Morrison Sporran that they are selling?

It’s being sold as new and you can buy multiples so its new product rather than someone’s used sporran. MM sporrans are significantly more expensive than the eBay listing.

Most damning is that they are shipped from Sialkot, Pakistan.

[Wareyin]

One can also check the seller's ratings and previous sales. This seller has only 30 reviews, all positive, but not one for sporrans. They've sold a lot of powdered coffee creamer and pretzels, one mountain bike, but all of their listings are for sporrans and wrestling belts (American WWF style tv wrestling belts), plus one varsity style jacket and one "tweed argyll" jacket listing. This has a lot of the hallmarks of a scam.

[OC Richard]

The thing is, Pakistani makers get generally high reviews on Ebay.

Some people don't know the difference between Pakistan-made items and UK-made ones.

Other people do know, but accept the tradeoff between quality and price.

What gets me is when the Pakistani makers use photos stolen from UK makers' sites.

For example more than one Sialkot maker has used photos of the House of Edgar "peat" tweed jacket. They're easy to spot because the jacket is displayed on a mannequin wearing a County Cavan kilt, the tartan designed and woven by HoE and as far as I know not copied by the Sialkot makers. https://kiltboxshop.com/products/men...sh-kilt-jacket

(You can "massages" that maker, by the way.)

What's more amazing is when the stolen photo has recognisable faces! Like these Pakistani copies of the popular Mr Antony BandSpec rain capes. (Robert Mathieson and Jim Kilpatrick MBE) https://www.ebay.com/itm/30445356934...xoCODgQAvD_BwE

Here's a legit company selling the actual BandSpec rain capes using the same photo https://www.pipeline-bagpipes.com/PC.../rainCape.html

Just for fun, Jim Kilpatrick MBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpy8Tg1P5uY

[Wareyin]

The thing is, Pakistani makers get generally high reviews on Ebay.

Some people don't know the difference between Pakistan-made items and UK-made ones.

Other people do know, but accept the tradeoff between quality and price.

The high reviews this particular Pakistani seller/maker have gotten are not for sporrans, however. They're for bars of soap, tubs of pretzels, and jugs of powdered creamer. It's a common tactic to list several cheap items, have a second account or a friend "buy" them, and give you high reviews. Then you list a bunch of expensive items and prospective buyers see your positive reviews and think you are trustworthy.