Have seen a couple of those on ebay. Reported them but ebay doesnt care at all. They get them from Aliexpress if i remember correctly.

 

I got one of those from ebay some time ago, but that is not a big problem, as the seller give me full refund right way, so I think ebay is a bit more secured than facebook market place, in the way that the payment is done via ebay.

 

Just google Citizen on Aliexpress on most fakes will pop up. Keep an eye on those models. When sth looks off just ask us in the forum.

 

wow, this looks exactly like that one that I got, thanks man, that is a great tip, cross checking with Aliexprs

 

Ebay might be safer but I still would try to not get a fake.

 

yes ofcourse, I don't want a fake, I'm not using them, but sometimes I'm an impulsive buyer, I see something that looks good, so I just jump on it, and I don't have much experience, I'm still learning about what it can be red flags when buying a watch, so far I'm thinking to just focus on watches that come with box and papers, and definitely avoid this new watches never worn without boxes, I mean, who buys a new watch, takes it out of the box, throws the box and never use the watch?!

 

You eventually learn to spot a fake immediately, but the first two red flags are no serial number on the back and Citizen doesn't use clear stickers with a red stripe on new watches.

Sometimes you learn the hard way, best to do your homework and not act on impulses. Look for identical models before you buy, takes a few minutes. If you don't want to invest that time, stay away from more expensive watches, lots of fake Swiss watches out there.

Paypal G&S would have helped, probably.

 

Thanks for the tips regarding the serial number and the clear stickers.
I uploaded the seller pictures on google images, and it returned some info including a model name, and I thought that is good enough, but you are right, I should have gone deeper, search for that model in particular and pay more attention to the small details, well, lesson learned, I will be more careful in the future.

 

Some fake vintage Citizens do have a serial, but there are other clues for those. Fortunately, there aren't that many fake Citizen models, relatively speaking, but when in doubt just ask this forum before you buy ;-)

 

I also have seen modern fakes with the serial number '123456789' . Citizen usually use this one on their official pictures and the fake producers just copy it.

 

I hope we will be vigilante enough to spot this, usually if there is a long line of numbers i don't bother reading it, but this one should pop up and be easy to notice, thanks for another tip, maybe I should make a list with all the things to be aware of when buying watches online

 

i believe you can report them on Facebook

 

i tried, but I don't expect much from them, let's see if something more will come up

 

You might be able to report him to the police for selling counterfeit goods, probably won't do much but at least they will be aware of him if he does it again.

I know apple got a bunch of "counterfeit" (they weren't, they were the same ones that apple put their branding on) accessories (i think it might have been mac batteries and chargers) seized at the border for being "counterfeit".

 

Wow, on Facebook Marketplace? That is shocking.

 

Fake Citizen? Wow!!

 

In all honesty, that's a pretty decent fake. Probably would've fooled me too. Once you get it in hand did it feel cheap or were their any tells from a quality or tactile perspective?

 

To be honest its not a very good fake. Depends on the person. As I'm a Citizen collector and i do a lot of research its an easy spot for me.
But if this was a Seiko, Hamilton, Rolex or whatever I could be fooled too.

 

Here a fake Fugu. Check the serial number.

 

Facebook and watches-

 

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Just last week I received a fake Citizen Eco-zilla from E-bay. The seller used the stock images, but sent a really bad fake. I reported it to E-bay and received a full refund, seller offered me money off twice to keep the watch but I sent it back. Tried leaving feedback but am unable to.

 

I have seen Citizen watches on Aliexpress, but the give away is the prices as even on some sort of promotional special a watch that sells for hundreds of dollars is not going to sell for well under one hundred. So these have to be fakes. Ditto for Seiko, recently there was a bunch of green Street Tunas, they looked legit, but the price was too low, This was confirmed when the exact same watches appeared on an image search with another brand name you have never heard of, plus the WR quoted was the usual 30 m or barely splashproof, not the correct 200 m.

 

The obvious way to avoid fakes is to buy new/used from a reputable dealer. Eco-Drives are not expensive - why not just buy a new one from a legit source and avoid all this?

 

interesting, thanks for the warning

 

brought and returned