This year was the seventh year of the Martha Brook Stationery Advent Calendar, and it’s been unexpected for reasons we never could have imagined. Back in September, the Martha Brook Stationery Advent Calendar sold out in record time (thank you!) and we were blown away by your response, we couldn’t wait for you to start opening them and enjoying them.

But then, things took a horrible turn. Just days after it sold out, members of our community started contacting us sharing ads across Facebook and Instagram running using videos stolen from us. These ads directed people to websites we knew were fraudulent because no one else had our Stationery Advent Calendar to sell other than us! And we hadn’t even started shipping them yet.

One ad turned into hundreds and weeks later we’d identified shockingly around 2000 fake listings worldwide selling our Stationery Advent Calendar. Thanks to our amazing community we managed to take action, get hundreds of listings removed and spread awareness high and low. We even had an article published in the Sunday Times and Martha appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour.

Heartbreakingly we then discovered that the scammers had unbelievably created Martha Brook Stationery Advent Calendar counterfeits, and we’ve had hundreds of messages from customers who have ordered this version. So, we wanted to share with you exactly what a counterfeit looks like, how to tell the difference between an authentic calendar and a fake, what to look out for, what we’ve done so far to fight this and how you can help.

Where have the stationery advent calendar counterfeits been sold?

The authentic Martha Brook Stationery Advent Calendar was only available to buy on our website before it sold out on September 28^th.

Any bought from any other website except the Martha Brook website are Stationery Advent Calendar counterfeits that have been manufactured in China by copying our photos and videos.

Examples of fraudulent websites selling stationery advent calendar counterfeits

We are aware of over 2,000 listings of Martha Brook Stationery Advent Calendar counterfeits across fraudulent websites and popular marketplaces, like Amazon, eBay and Shein, as well as hundreds of Instagram and Facebook adverts directing people to these listings.

Fraudulent adverts using our content as promoted across Meta platforms

What does a counterfeit advent calendar look like?

At a distance, it is incredible what the Chinese company have been able to do just from our photos. If this was your first time purchasing what you thought was a true Martha Brook advent calendar, you might not know what you have received is a counterfeit, so we’re going to give some pointers for what a counterfeit looks like and how you can tell the difference.

How to tell if you have one of the Martha Brook stationery advent calendar counterfeits

Personalisation

An authentic Martha Brook advent calendar was ordered personalised with any name you like, and three of the contents were personalised with your initials too.

The biggest difference between a counterfeit and our authentic product is you wouldn’t have entered any personalisation details and all the Stationery Advent Calendar counterfeits we’ve seen have the name ‘Francesca’ on the lid, as that’s what we have in the product photos!

To top that off, you’ll likely have received the inside contents personalised with BBW or BlueBearWood, which is a YouTuber who did a lovely unpacking video. We didn’t show the personalised inside contents in our photos as we wanted them to be a surprise for people.

The contents and quality

The contents do not match what we have put inside a real Martha Brook advent calendar, nor does the quality of the item as a whole.

The real contents are of a high quality and design, are made in the UK and feature no plastic packaging. A lot of the counterfeits have items packed into little plastic pockets and in a lot of them the inside boxes are in the wrong numbered order.

Our advent calendar takes us over six months to design, produce, assemble and hand-finish, and the difference in quality is immediately apparent.

The price

An authentic Martha Brook Advent Calendar is sold at £109 (excluding shipping). If you paid anything less or anything more than £109 for the stationery advent calendar, this is another sign what you have received is a counterfeit. Below is our website listing and the price of an authentic advent calendar.

The thank you note

In every advent calendar order, we include a Martha Brook thank you note which we do not photograph. This has not been included with any counterfeits so the absence of a Martha Brook thank you note is indicative of a fraudulent copy.

The invoice

The Martha Brook advent calendar can only be purchased from our website (www.marthabrook.com) and only ever dispatched from our London studio (Martha Brook, Q West, 1110 Great West Road, London, TW8 0GP). You might have noticed that we sell on Not On The High Street and Etsy, however, this year we have only sold the advent calendar through our direct website. It cannot be purchased anywhere else. If you have purchased a counterfeit, you will notice the invoice will state it is dispatched from either a Chinese address, or from a dispatch hub in either the West Midlands, London or the US.

The email communication

We spend A LOT of time on our emails, making sure they are lovely to receive and sadly, if you have ordered a counterfeit, you would not receive a Martha Brook dispatch notification. We are aware you still would have received email communications from the fraudulent website, but this would not be from us. If your dispatch notifications come from any other email address that isn’t hello@marthabrook.com, this confirms what you have ordered, and what you will receive, is unfortunately a counterfeit. 

If you’re not sure that what you have ordered or will receive is a counterfeit, please reach out to our team at hello@marthabrook.com who will be able to confirm if you have an authentic product or a counterfeit.

Want to see what the stationery advent calendar counterfeits look like?

We managed to get a segment on ITV This Morning where Alice Beer shows a real Martha Brook advent calendar versus a fake, and explains the scale of the scam.

You can also see our founder Martha unboxing one here.

What you can do to help 

As we continue to fight this, any help you can give is greatly appreciated by reporting any adverts or listings you see as fraudulent. You can do this via Google’s safe browsing or direct through Meta where you can report the adverts you’re seeing as scam or fraudulent.

What to do if you have been scammed

Firstly, we’re so sorry. We hate that lots of you are receiving something with our branding and logo on, which we have not created.

Please do contact your bank, credit card company or PayPal if you’ve placed the transaction as you may be able to get your money back. Or contact the scam company and say you have received a fake product not as advertised and ask for a refund.

The other thing you can do is report the scam for us. We have a case open with the police via the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. You can help us by reporting it to http://www.actionfraud.police.uk using the reference code NFRC241006958957.

P.S. We wanted to finish with a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us, reported any adverts or listings you’ve seen or messaged us with information. This has been so tough to deal with, but we are so grateful every single bit of help we have received. We will continue to fight to raise awareness, not just for us but for every small business affected by scammers and will keep you posted.