M14 Forum banner

WARNING: Fake Leupold Scopes from China

65K views 87 replies 56 participants last post by  HKSteve 
#1 ·
WARNING: Fake Leupold Scopes from China





quote:
Counterfeit Leupold Riflescope Warning

Leupold® is issuing a customer alert to purchasers of products, particularly via Internet sales, in regard to bogus Leupold products that are apparently being illegally imported from the People’s Republic of China. These products bear many of the marks and trade dress of current Leupold & Stevens riflescopes making them very hard to distinguish externally from authentic Leupold products.

In recent months, counterfeited Leupold Mark 4® riflescopes have begun to arrive with increasing regularity at the firm’s Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters for service. These products are not manufactured by Leupold and are not covered by the Leupold Full Lifetime Guarantee.

Leupold employs serial number tracking for all its riflescopes, so if a customer finds a scope that is suspect, he or she can simply write down the serial number and call 1-800-LEUPOLD to confirm if it is indeed authentic.

In general, most of the scopes appear to originate from Hong Kong (People’s Republic of China), and have “Leupold Mark 4” laser engraved on the bottom of the turret in a silver etch, while the black ring on the objective is etched in white and does not include the name “Leupold.” The scopes also do not bear the Leupold medallion, a mark all Leupold scopes will always possess. An authentic Mark 4 riflescope will always be engraved black on black and have the name “Leupold” engraved on the black ring.

http://www.leupold.com/tactica...counterfeit-warning/


Hopefully this helps someone before they buy one.
 
See less See more
#4 ·
Fake optics!!

all manner of fake optics are coming in now.acogs aimpoints,leupold tactical scopes,busgnell holo,all chinese.it seems that the airsoft guys dont want to pay 500$ for real leupold, but they will pay 100$ or so for a fake one,and the chinese will make GI4it for them. and for their purpose it will work,
 
#5 ·
The only two places I'll buy Aimpoints from are LaRue Tactical and Aimpoint direct. I don't trust anyone else.
 
#6 ·
I saw a fake Leupold Mk4 today at a defensive pistol match. There was also a rifle side match and one of the participants brought a supposed "Crazy Horse" M14. It was a Springfield receiver, a stainless barrel that was cut down to 18 inches, and he had a tactical rail that replaced the handguard. He said Ron Smith did some work to it. And that the rail was only available to military contracts. Poor guy thinks he has a real Leupold scope.
 
#8 ·
A fake scope should not surprise anybody. There is a long history of makers of fake slings and M14 magazines mis-advertising the item, only to have the purchaser who got screwed decide to keep it.

Let's think of this logically. Would the purchaser would spend $9.95 or some other cheap amount on a magazine with the following description:

Our Brand of newly made magazines imported from China.

No, so the advertiser/makers sells them as: Original US GI (or Type 57) magazines, new in wrap. There is also the claim that production is "Mil-Spec" when many of the makers do not every know how the term applies to the item.

What happens next? The purchaser shows everybody what a good deal it is on these message boards, only to find out they are fake imports. The response is usually:

"Well they work so I will keep it", or "It looks OK so it will dress up my rifle and I will keep it", or some other excuse.

Instead of returning them and straightening out the false claims to the seller, they keep it. There is a long history of this with Slings for the Garand/M14 and Carbine and M14 and 1911A1 Magazines, and lots of other items. It has been going on for years.

The result is you can falsely make the claim and almost all the imported junk will stay out there. Until this group of enthusiast change their way of thinking, it will continue with everything on the market.
 
#9 ·
+ 100 % On That, Bill !!!

CAVman in WYoming
 
#10 ·
Fakes

The result is you can falsely make the claim and almost all the imported junk will stay out there. Until this group of enthusiast change their way of thinking, it will continue with everything on the market.
___
Thats the way it is with the above. its good enough,itll be okay.The group Ted refers to is more widespread than one would think.
_______________
 
#12 ·
China Fakes

Guys, if you stop and think about it, the Chinese are flooding us with fakes. Everything from name brand clothing, knives, optics about anything you can name and the trademarks are hard to detect. But then again our own Govt. has opened the doors to this and I IMO actually condone it. I try to buy American but it is getting harder everyday to find "MADE IN AMERICA"...........Just my 2 cents worth.
 
#25 ·
Guys, if you stop and think about it, the Chinese are flooding us with fakes. Everything from name brand clothing, knives, optics about anything you can name and the trademarks are hard to detect. But then again our own Govt. has opened the doors to this and I IMO actually condone it. I try to buy American but it is getting harder everyday to find "MADE IN AMERICA"...........Just my 2 cents worth.
Its too bad the people who run this nation think slavery is necessary to keep things going. Some day the world will look back on us, at this time, and shake thier heads. I hope that time is soon....
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYmph7PM6ic[/ame]
 
#20 ·
just joined the site, and just got a M-14, A Polytech and a nice Reuplod Mark 4 scope! A friend needed money and I helped him out and bought a couple of guns from him. I knew the scope was wrong a first sight, but checked it out online. the guy swears it a Leupold MK4, he got it from ebay for 600.00 bucks. He has had this scope for at least a year and never knew he was scamed.
 
#24 ·
Bought a VW Passett in 2003 thinking it was a better built car. It was the absolute worse car I've ever owned. It was back for recalls monthly and had more problems than any American built car I've owned. It was just poorly designed from the start beginning with the engine and drive train. VW ignored the problems until class action suits forced their hand.

Second to the VW was a 80's Datsun pickup. The three value engine never ran correctly and the dealer didn't have a clue how to work on it. At 14k, the head gasket blew and I dumped it. Had a Mitsubishi which while not bad had hi tech systems that few could actually fix.

As far as knock off optics, I've seen some around her buying the cheap versions simply for the look. Apparently they think the rails, lights and fakes optics actually increase their performance.
 
#27 ·
Old thread - New Scams -

It's almost hilarious the way these scopes appear......... There's at least one a week coming up on Craigslist or somewhere else. The seller becomes highly offended when I ask for the serial number. After I do a copy / paste from the Leupold website and they find they have a knockoff Leupold... they actually want to continue trying to sell it to me.....LOL..... at a discount, of course.

Maybe it's just the Holiday time or the long lasting recession but there are more scams and con artist appearing every day. Don't people make an honest living any more?
 
#34 ·
More information:

If you attend a non collector type gun show here in PA., you will see tables and tables of Chinese black rifle items. I know because when the dealers are setting up on Friday I can see the boxes are marked "Made In China".

Collapsible stocks, hand guards, barrel parts, scopes, mounts, web cases, you name it, it is there, all junk from China.

Another way you can tell real from fake (sometimes) is by price. If an authentic part sells for $800.00 and there is a website with it available for ..let's say $129.00, use your common sense.

Then there are those sellers on eBay and other auctions who will purchase the fake item, describe it in a vague way that some will read it as real GI, but no statement as such, the seller will sell it for big money.

I could go into the nonsense statement of "Mil Spec" but that is another definition for another time.
 
#35 ·
Flat Head Ford

Several years ago my hobby was buying and selling New Old Stock (NOS)
car parts. We would attend Swap Meets over the USA. At one meet, in a wood crate was what appeared to be a NOS Flathead Ford bare block. It was PRE 1948and was correct in every way including casting number. I asked the owner where he had found that jewel. He asked me "How many do you want?"

It was a Chinese knockoff. The owner said they can duplicate almost anything but they have to have in hand what they are cloning. Since then I look very close at anything I buy. Except at Walmart where almost everything is from China.
 
#41 ·
Never buy from eBay, just because you want to save a few bucks. Go to a reputable retailer; less headaches in the future. The Chicoms are getting craftier in dishing out very convincing fakes out there, specially in the airsoft market.
 
Top