Recently, we have seen an uptick in fraudulent websites and social media ads attempting to scam Outdoor Research customers with “too good to be true” discounts and counterfeit products. These sites use tools to scrape the authentic Outdoor Research website, pulling legitimate logos and product images from the OR site and uploading them to fraudulent storefronts that use a URL similar to the genuine Outdoor Research URL, i.e., www.outdoorresearchstore.com. These fake OR sites will take payment via credit card, PayPal, or other digital payment and then ship incorrect, counterfeit, or even worse, no products at all. Customer service teams are then unresponsive when attempting to contact to resolve. 

We have written this article to help our customers identify counterfeit and fraudulent websites and social media ads, resolve disputes with their credit card companies, and protect themselves from scammers posing as legitimate OR dealers. 

How do I know if a site selling Outdoor Research product is legitimate? 

Outdoor Research works with hundreds of authorized global retailers to provide access to our large assortment of apparel and accessories. These retailers are valued OR partners and a vital part of our business. Fraudulent Outdoor Research resellers do a good job of making their business appear legitimate, and it can be tricky to differentiate a legitimate business from a counterfeit one.

The tips below offer a quick checklist to tick off when attempting to distinguish between the two.

Is the seller an authorized OR dealer? 

One quick way to verify if a retailer is an authorized Outdoor Research partner is to look them up on our website using our dealer locator tool. Follow the steps below:

  • Identify the address of the retailer in question by searching for the info in the footer of their website or their contact information.
  • Open a new tab in your browser and open OR’s dealer locator tool by copying and pasting the URL below or clicking on this link.
  • If the retailer appears in your search, they are an authorized OR dealer. If they do not appear in your search, we suggest locating the OR items you would like to purchase from a different authorized dealer that is listed on our dealer locator.
  • Please note that not every authorized OR retailer is listed on our dealer locator list. If you have any doubt about the legitimacy of the site you want to purchase from, we recommend contacting the host of the site before making your purchase.

Are you on the official Outdoor Research website? 

There is only one authentic Outdoor Research e-commerce website. Many fraudulent websites will add words, letters, or numbers to our URL to mimic our site and deceive our customers. Examples of this are:

www.outdoorresearchstore.com, www.outdoorresearchseattle.com, www.outdoorresearchpnw.com, etc...

The genuine Outdoor Research URL will not contain any additional letters or numbers before the domain (.com). It will always and only be listed as www.outdoorresearch.com. If you are on one of our authentic product or category pages, other characters will be listed in the URL, but only following a forward slash, i.e., www.outdoorresearch.com/collections/womens-rain-jackets.

Other things to look out for. 

Too good to be true discounts.

  • If the discount seems too good to be true, it likely is, especially on new season products. Our retailers are allowed to sell OR products at deep discounts, but these products are always from prior seasons. You will never see new or current products on sale at 70-80% off. Outdoor Research does have an outlet collection listed on our website with deeply discounted items, but again, these items are from past seasons and can be recognized as authentic by identifying the legitimate URL before the forward slash, www.outdoorresearch.com/collections/outlet.

Spelling errors or poorly written product copy and policy statements.

  • Many fraudulent sites are based internationally. After carefully scanning their website information, particularly their return and shipping policies, the use of inconsistent and broken English becomes apparent. If simple words and grammar are misspelled or used incorrectly, take this as a red flag: the website is likely fraudulent and find the OR product you would like to purchase elsewhere.

The product is not sorted into logical categories.

  • Outdoor Research and most of our authorized retailers will sort products into categories, i.e., gloves, outerwear, insulation layers, etc... If you are browsing on a site and see a pair of gloves listed next to a down jacket next to a sun hoodie, this can be an indicator of a counterfeit site. This is not always the case, as some of our retailer’s websites will filter products by brand and show all a brand’s assortment on the same page. Please refer to the instructions above to determine whether a retailer is an authorized OR reseller.

Links pointing to contact info email with @gmail, @msn, and @yahoo email domains for example, or no customer service contact at all.

  • Official email contact information will almost certainly be listed using the company name or an abbreviation of the company name in the email domain. For example, all official email contact information at Outdoor Research ends with the email domain @outdoorresearch.com. Our authorized retailers use the same structure in their contact information, i.e., help@christysports.com, braintrust@eriksbikeshop.com, etc...
  • Many times, fraudulent sellers will have no customer service contact information listed at all. This is an evident and immediate red flag.
  • We have encountered fraudulent sites that list our official contact information. If you are on any other site besides www.outdoorresearch.com or www.outdoorresearch.com/en-ca and are directed to contact our team using official OR customer service info, take this as an immediate red flag and do not purchase through that site.

Fraudulent ads on social media.

There are fraudulent ads on social media and email offering fake discounts on Outdoor Research products. Do not click or buy from these ads or share them with others via your social media account. Outdoor Research does place paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, but they always point the user directly at our official website, www.outdoorresearch.com in the US or www.outdoorresearch.com/en-ca in Canada. If you are redirected to another website to complete your purchase, please follow the steps outlined above to verify the seller’s authenticity. We are aware of fake and misleading social media ads and are doing everything we can to shut them down. Please report fake or deceptive ads as scams to Meta (Facebook/Instagram) or TikTok; they have the tools to take them down. We are actively reporting information to Meta to remove scam ads.

I was shipped incorrect or counterfeit Outdoor Research products, or nothing at all.

If you have mistakenly purchased counterfeit products, were shipped the wrong product, or nothing at all from a fraudulent seller and cannot get in touch with the seller’s customer service department, there are recourse actions you can take. A simple phone call to your bank or credit card company is often all that is required to resolve fraudulent charges. Most credit card companies will immediately credit your account and launch an investigation to resolve the disputed charge, but it may be helpful to have a few items on hand to support your claim. Those items include:

  • The receipt or purchase acknowledgment from the fraudulent site.
  • The URL of the site/business name where the counterfeit products were purchased.
  • A copy or transcript of your communication with official Outdoor Research customer service representatives regarding the fraudulent purchase.
  • If shipped a counterfeit or incorrect item, a photo of the item.

PayPal and other electronic payment systems have their own protocol that must be followed to resolve fraudulent or counterfeit product disputes. Please refer to the website of the service you used to make your purchase for detailed instructions on how to proceed.

You can also file complaints directly with the FTC (www.reportfraud.ftc.gov) and Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Where can I find legitimate OR products?

With hundreds of authorized retailers selling Outdoor Research products, there are plenty of online places to purchase legitimate OR goods. In fact, you are much more likely to purchase authentic OR products than counterfeit products. Still, it is always good to double-check the legitimacy of the seller before you make a purchase. The steps outlined earlier in this article are a great way to verify seller and product legitimacy, but if you have any doubt about the seller’s authenticity, please purchase directly from our official company ecommerce site.

  • Our official company e-commerce website URL: www.outdoorresearch.com (US) and www.outdoorresearch.com/en-ca (Canada).
  • Our authorized retailer search tool: https://www.outdoorresearch.com/pages/find-a-local-shop

What is OR doing about this?

OR has recently partnered with Red Points, an industry leader in fraudulent and counterfeit website takedown. We are working closely with Red Points to actively investigate and report fraudulent OR sites and retailers to remove them from the internet.

What can I do if I find a fraudulent site?

If you suspect you have found a fraudulent site, please let us know by submitting a message to our Customer Service team HERE. Please include the site url and how you found it (i.e. google search, facebook, instagram, etc.).