‘Fake co.uk Sites’ Trick Consumers

Trading standards officers say that consumers are being tricked into buying fake goods on the internet by companies pretending to be based in the UK.

The websites are often based in China, but use "co.uk" as part of their domain name, giving shoppers a false sense of security, they say.

It is thought that there could be as many as 480,000 websites which carry "co.uk", but which are not UK based.

The sites sell a range of goods from trainers to hair straighteners.