Counterfeit luxury goods are rampant in online shops, even at e-tailers with an air of legitimacy like Amazon.com and Bluefly.com.

Canal Street in New York and Santee Alley in Los Angeles have done a roaring trade in fakes for years. “Purse parties” have sprung up in between the coasts as a way for women to make a little extra money by pushing bogus goods. And websites like iOffer.com connect sellers looking to become entrepreneurs on eBay with wholesalers of counterfeit products.

Counterfeit Chanel sunglasses with faked authenticity papers, from iOffer.com.

Certifications are also now being copied, so that goods advertised as “110 percent authentic” aren’t even a guarantee. Often the only difference between a fake authenticity certificate and a real one is the quality of the paper used. Unless a consumer knows what the real thing looks and feels like, it’s easy for unscrupulous sellers to lead unwitting shoppers astray.

There is an ethical dilemma in buying a logo-covered purse when you know it’s not the status symbol it purports to be. But when consumers think they aren’t hurting anyone by buying a copy of the item they lust after, there is something far more serious than mere vanity to consider.

The International Chamber of Commerce, based in Paris, is currently working to fight counterfeiting worldwide through its Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy initiative. In 2005, the group released a report about the abuse of children employed in sweatshops that manufactured fake goods.

“Some investigators have even testified to having seen children in counterfeiting factories in China who have had their legs broken and improperly reset so that they cannot leave or go out on the streets to play,” reads the Counterfeiting Confidential report. “Children with their small hands are often prized by fake watch manufacturers for their ability to assemble tiny watch parts.”

This is a far cry from the true luxury of brands like Hermès, which employs expert workers to assemble each leather good by hand in France. Fashion writer Dana Thomas described the process in her book, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre: “The artisans in the Pantin workshop dress in aprons and white coats. Some wear earphones to listen to music on their iPods while they work. The workshop is perfectly silent except for the occasional tapping of a hammer or the short burst of stitching on a sewing machine. No one speaks. They just build bags. Even with a lot of practice, making an Hermès bag goes slowly. It takes fifteen to sixteen hours to make an average-size Birkin or Kelly.”

Buying directly from a designer’s boutique or a department store is the safest way to ensure what you’re getting is the real McCoy. For the most part, luxury brands like Louis Vuitton limit their online sales to a few annointed sites (eLuxury.com being one of them), but some companies including Chanel do not authorize online sales at all. If you see these brands advertised elsewhere online, you’d be right to have doubts.

However, if authenticity matters to you and you’re tempted by the bargain-basement price of that purse on eBay or at your neighbor’s “purse party,” be aware of a few things:

• Luxury stores and designer boutiques are not going to authenticate an item you purchased elsewhere. To do so would potentially share their manufacturing secrets and allow counterfeiters to improve the quality of their fakes. If you buy an item on eBay that you suspect to be fake and contest the purchase with Paypal, they will ask you to have it authenticated, which means you are out of luck.
• Grade AA reproductions — copies so good that it takes an expert to identify that they’re counterfeit — will come stamped with a serial number. If you Google that number and get any hits, you have a bogus item. That number is meant to be unique.
• The price is usually a clue. Unless it’s a sample sale, high-end goods simply don’t often get deeply discounted. If you’re seeing an advertised price that is 70 percent off the retail value, it is likely not the real deal.
• Even if you order from a seemingly reputable site like Bluefly.com, it’s not unheard of for an unscrupulous buyer to order an authentic item and return an identical fake one to get her money back. The copy then is sold as authentic to an unassuming buyer. If you have doubts, make sure the site has a good return policy (or don’t risk it at all).