Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics How to distinguish counterfeit Leupold from genuine.

What do I look for other than a ridiculously low price. Thanks.

Don't buy from Asian countries.

Get the SN and call Leupold

Here are your authorized dealers.

https://www.leupold.com/locator

A serial number that starts or ends with a letter, or two letters since 2014.

It is hard to tell, they are all made in the same plant.

The Chicoms copy and clone everything.

Sure fire way is to not buy one....

Why wouldn’t you buy best scope out there what do you think every other optic company out there is trying to do counterfeit Leupold

Which model? I noticed the 3i counterfeits (or at least one) don’t have the 45 degree shoulder at the adjustment cap area of the tube and the gold objective ring on the copies are really gold while the genuine 3i “gold” ring on the objective is bronze.

Plus the numbers on the adjustments are a little “off” looking

If it's coming from China it's fake. If they post pics of the box, look for misspelled words, the wrong reticle picture or description, and the wrong part number.

What bh444 said, call Leupold. I've done this twice and it didn't take much more than a couple of minutes each time. It seems they're set up to handle these calls fast & effectively. Gave them the number and the tech advised that's a such & such power, model, etc., it's ours.

If you go back a few pages I started a thread the middle of March, I bought a Leupold scope off ebay that was a counterfeit. be VERY careful if you buy one on ebay.
If you do buy one on ebay make sure it is factory sealed in the box. all of the counterfeit's that I have heard of are 1" models.
When I got mine there were several things that stuck out as red flags. the power ring had the numbers on the front of the ring instead of the back and the power turned in the opposite direction. the inscription on the gold ring was white instead of black, the elevation and windage dials looked like they came from a cracker jack box and the Leupold badge on the side of the scope was crooked. I called Leupold with the serial # and they verified it was counterfeit. last but not least the glass was green.
If you buy a used one not in the box, do not buy it on line buy it in person and check for the things I mentioned.

Learn what your looking at. They can be bought used online all day every day without ever buying a fake. If you can't see enough to tell, don't buy it. As said before, all you really need is the serial number as I've yet to see a fake with the letter(s) on either end which indicates year of manufacture.

https://www.leupold.com/leupold-core/core-knowledge/faqs#WhenWasMyScopeManufactured

WRONG, mine had the correct letters on the end but the number was for a different model

Well.
Guess you'll need to learn what your looking at.

Like bh444 said, call Leupold Customer Service and give them the SN. They can tell by that. I got four VX-3is off Ebay for ridiculously low prices and they were all genuine Leupold manufacture, no fakes. I only have one that I got from an auction. I got it for $265, way below retail. However, I won another auction but the scope wasn't what it was advertised as. I bid on a VX-3i 3.5-10x40 but when I got the scope it was a 37 year old Vari X III. I sent it back and got my money back. That ruined me on auctions. The other 3 I bought from stores on Ebay for very good prices.

Brilliant !!!!!!!!! you are probably one of the ebay scammers. Obviously when I opened the package I knew what I was looking at was a counterfeit, not as advertised on ebay
Not totally trashing ebay because I have bought several Leupold scopes there at good deals. the problem with the scammers is ebay lets them get away with it. they can sell a scope not as advertised but the instant a refund is issued you are not allowed to leave feedback. the scammer that sold me the counterfeit still has a 100% rating.
I agree with Filaman, buy from one of the ebay stores and you are safer than buying from an individual auction

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It’s like anything counterfeit, if you aren’t familiar enough with the item to tell the difference, use caution . They aren’t that difficult to discover if the item has lots of pictures. Unless it’s a reputable seller, I’d stay away from listings with stock photos also.

hotsoup,

Unfortunately, as you can probably tell from the mixed information on this thread, there is no one surefire way to spot a counterfeit. The folks making these fake scopes aren't stupid and are always changing their tactics. We have seen serial numbers lifted from real products, serial numbers that look real but are not, and serial numbers that are totally incorrect.

Just looking for the right serial number format would have been a pretty good strategy five years ago when almost every counterfeit we saw were laughably bad Mark 4s, but those days are gone. We are seeing almost-passable looking VX-3is, VX-2s, DeltaPoint Pros, LCOs, among others.

If you are looking at a used item and want to be sure, shoot us an email with a description and some pictures to ProductSpecialistLeupold.com. We especially want to see images of the windage and elevation dials and the power selector.