INDIANA – Indiana State Police and the Better Business Bureau are warning people about the dangers of purchasing fake or substandard car seats. These items can be purchased online and at a significantly lower price than the authentic product.
“The promise of a great sale or price reduction is probably the number one hook for unsuspecting victims looking for a bargain. With car seats, the problem is that saving a few dollars could turn out to be dangerous for the child,” says Tim Maniscalo, BBB Central Indiana’s President and CEO.
During a recent child car seat check-up event in the tri-state area, a high-end brand of car seat was discovered as a fake.
“Fake or knock-off child safety seats may look safe, but they are not crash tested and may be missing vital safety features,” says Sergeant Todd Ringle, Indiana State Police.
Although the difference in price can be appealing to consumers, ISP and BBB advise local area parents looking to buy a car seat to:
- Shop from a reputable retailer. If this is a new e-shop and you don’t know their inventory, policies, or reliability, check bbb.org for the company’s rating, reviews, and potential complaints. Make sure the URL starts with “https”, where “s” stands for “secure” or look for the small lock icon.
- Use NHTSA’s guidelines for car seat safety and check their database for reliable manufacturers.
- Report scams to BBB Scam Tracker and also to local authorities as soon as possible.
About BBB Serving Central Indiana
For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. In 2020, people turned to BBB more than 220 million times for BBB Business Profiles on more than 6.2 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at BBB.org. There are local, independent BBBs across the United States, Canada and Mexico, including BBB serving Central Indiana, which was founded in 1916 and serves 46 counties.
