M14 Forum

Quigley_Sharps

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.

Attached Images

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	counterfeit-warning2.jpg (23.1 KB, 373 views)
	counterfeit-warning3.jpg (20.5 KB, 372 views)

RightHand

Thanks for the heads up Quig.

M1AallTheWay

This is a good thing to keep highlighting. See the second sticky at the top of this forum.

madokie

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 it for them. and for their purpose it will work,

M14sRock

The only two places I'll buy Aimpoints from are LaRue Tactical and Aimpoint direct. I don't trust anyone else.

JMGlasgow

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.

duke54

I wonder if the poor guy thinks he has one of them crazy horse rifles also?

Bill Ricca

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.

CAVman

+ 100 % On That, Bill !!!

CAVman in WYoming

duke54

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.
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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.
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JMGlasgow

He did claim it as a crazy horse rifle. Springfield receiver though so I don't think it is real. If he said a crazy horse reproduction or copy, I would be okay with that.

Sarge110

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.

jameslawson71

They're all from China, I mean Japan, same difference. Buy Nightforce and buy American....

7.62bthp

Don't even go there...There is a WORLD of difference between the Japanese and Chinese starting with Communisim and working down. The chinese are flooding the globe with counterfeit everything...

But......This thread is about fake Leupolds, and it will not become Poly Sci debate.

RET DEP 04

Is there a list of internet sites selling these bogus items available? Forewarned is forearmed.