How to spot counterfeit car seats
BOSTON -- It may look like your standard car seat, but Barbara DiGirolamo, a Child Passenger Safety Instructor at Boston Children's Hospital, said it's a deadly accident waiting to happen.
Here is an example:
"You would never really know anything is wrong with it and it was completely unsafe," the mom who purchased it told WBZ-TV.
The mom, who did not want to be identified, purchased the car seat on OnBuy.com thinking she scored a great sale price. But Digirolamo said that a low price point is actually the first sign that something is wrong.
"One of the car seats that we often see a knockoff of is a $400 car seat and you can usually get it for $75 or $100," DiGirolamo explained.
DiGirolamo said knockoff car seats are also being sold through third-party sellers on popular sites like Amazon and Walmart, but there are things you can do to protect your purchase.
"Make sure you're buying directly from the website and not from somebody who is selling off that website, like a third-party seller. Make sure in the description that you're buying from Amazon.com or from Walmart.com," DiGirolamo told WBZ.
DiGirolamo and Boston Children's Hospital provided the mom with a new car seat, but she said it's still upsetting to think about what could have happened.
"It's almost like a mockery, you know what I mean? Being made fun of at a time when you just wanna get from point A to point B safely. I'm grateful nothing happened to us but what if, right?"
DiGirolamo shared with WBZ her top four tips for spotting a counterfeit car seat:
- Tip #1: Registration Card & Manual
"If you open up that box and there's no registration card attached to that harness and two manuals in both English and Spanish, that is the first huge red flag that this car seat is not safe."
- Tip #2: Informational Safety Sticker
"Every car seat is required to have federally mandated stickers that not only tell you the minimum and maximum height and weight required for that child to be in it but is required to have the manufactures address and phone number."
- Tip #3: Five-Point Restraint System
"It is required in the U.S. to have a five-point restraint system. This knockoff car seat has two straps at the shoulder, no hip strap or chest clip which is completely illegal."
- Tip #4: Model Number & Expiration Date
"Every car seat is required to have a model number and expiration on it, which you will not find on most knockoff car seats because generally, they're just fake numbers that they put together."
DiGirolamo said the safest way to buy a car seat is in person, from a brick-and-mortar store, and if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.