A few months ago I was duped into buying a counterfeit Apple Watch charging dock on eBay. Now, when I say duped I knew something was fishy since the price for a legitimate dock would be at least quadruple the $15.99 asking price (now it's $20.99) the seller wanted.

The same seller selling the same fake dock for five more dollars.

Since this was going to be an extra dock for my old Series 0, I was willing to give it a shot though. It arrived quickly and at first glance looked to be from Apple. But when I compared it to the dock I already had, it was clearly a fake. I was OK with this, as long as it worked, but it didn't. So not only did I get a fake dock but I got a fake dock that didn't have the decency to even function.

I got my money back thanks to eBay/PayPal's guarantee and forgot about the whole thing. Then the seller contacted me about changing my review of the transaction, since they were kind enough to refund me.

And then Best Buy had an in-store sale on Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Docks for $47.99. I bought one and dug out the fake to compare.

Can you spot the difference?

Both certainly look similar.

The fake dock is on the left. The only visual difference is the omission of the  logo.

The back of the box looks similar too. The counterfeiter didn't match the typeface correctly though - it's heavier than the light weight type Apple uses.

When you open the box the differences become noticeable.

Notice the color variation.

The two docks look different - especially right next to each other. If a legitimate dock wasn't available for comparison someone with only a passing acquaintance with Apple products and their design might get fooled - especially if the fake dock worked.

But if you look at the quality of the two you can see the difference.

Start with the packaging. The paper is decent but nowhere near approaching Apple's quality. And look at the corners of the box. The cuts and veneer pasting are very poor. There's no way Apple would ship any product in a package this shoddily made.





Now lets look at the dock itself. The top surface of the fake dock has a vinyl-like feel and appearance. And when you flip it over, not only is the typeface and text all wrong but you can see exposed wires on the underside of the flip mechanism which itself is also poorly made.





The genuine Apple dock has an alcantara-like top and the charge mechanism feels solid, like a bolt action rifle in terms of quality and feel. The metal is also not chintzy chrome plated plastic.

Check out the charging cable that came with the fake.

Here's the real thing.





The fake is a trademark of "Apple Ine" and if you need to contact them about FCC compliance write to "Cor porate Compliance."

Suffice to say the real instruction book was proofread by someone at Apple who did their job properly.

There's also a difference in the instruction pictograms.

The fake instructions. NOTE: all gray text and images.

Authentic Apple instructions. Notice the lime green arrows.

Conclusion

I know, I know. "You get what you pay for." And if I were going into a transaction with full knowledge that what I was getting wasn't made by Apple, that would be one thing. But this fake product was advertised on eBay using the Apple part number and uses packaging, instructions, and materials that are meant to fool consumers into thinking they are buying an Apple product - albeit at a steep discount.

This is fraud.

There's not much that consumers can do except be aware that this type of product fraud exists and make sure you go into transactions knowing as much as you can about what a real product looks like so you won't be duped.

When you're deal hunting on eBay or Amazon, even for something small like this dock, consider a few things: What if it caught fire? Or damaged your Watch? Who would you go after for redress?

The legit product may cost more - we've all aware of the perceived Apple Tax - but there are reasons for this besides greed. One reason is that there is an actual company that stands behind these products. If anything goes wrong or something needs to be replaced, the company is in a place to offer a fix. I know, some of their keyboards aren't really holding up but Apple is pretty good - not perfect - about fixing defective products.

When you get a bargain, you may not be getting what you think you bargained for, just be informed.