North Texas

Fake Fingerlings Are Popping Up at Online Stores

You can't find Fingerlings online or in stores around North Texas, but parents are still desperate to find the hot new interactive toy monkey that sits on your child's finger.

Reesa Peck knew her son and niece would fall in love with Fingerlings.

"I'm not going to get caught not getting the hot Christmas item this year. So, I went online to see who had them. A lot of places said they had them but didn't have them in stock in the store, so I went on the Walmart website," Peck said.

She found and ordered four Fingerlings, paying just over $100. The first one was great, but the next had a problem.

"The second one that I receive came in not as a Fingerling but as a Happy Monkey. Not the color, not looking like it, not the brand, nothing like that," Peck said.

The same thing happened to a NBC producer, also ordering from Walmart.com and getting a fake.

They look like the real thing, and the packaging is nearly identical to the Fingerlings.

It's not until you compare it to authentic Fingerlings that you see the major difference: the name "Fingerlings" is missing on the packaging, replaced with things like Happy Monkey or Finger Monkey.

There are also safety concerns, as fakes don't go through federal safety inspections.

"The two concerns with counterfeit products are, one, they could provide a choking hazard, particularly if there are small parts. The second concern is that there are unhealthy toxins in the product," said Emily Rusch, of the California Public Interest Research Group.

Phylissia Clark, with the Better Business Bureau of North Central Texas, says they've gotten complaints from Texans who ordered Fingerlings and got fakes or never got anything at all.

She says sometimes crooks set up fake websites just to steal your credit card information.

Even though both Reesa and the NBC producer bought from Walmart.com, the site includes items sold by third parties — not just Walmart.

Walmart booted some sellers from its site, saying it has "zero tolerance" for people selling fake goods.

They also gave Reesa and the producer a refund.

Fingerlings are made by Wow Wee, whose company name should be on the packaging for any real Fingerling you buy.

As for finding one, many retailers — including Walmart — have ways to sign up for alerts when a product comes back in stock.

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