Beware of Counterfeit

Buyer Beware! Even in the maple world! Make sure you are receiving the premium equipment you are expecting!

Many scams claim to be selling our brand name products (Smoky Lake Maple or Badgerland Mapleworks). In some cases, the fraudsters really do ship a knock-off product. In other cases, they ship nothing.

How to Purchase Genuine Smoky Lake Merchandise

1. Purchase only from SmokyLakeMaple.com, Badgerlandmapleworks.com OR from your trusted, local dealer.
2. Bottom line, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If it’s an unknown online retailer who is advertising a brand new $400 Smoky Lake pan for only $57, that should be a red flag.

What Can You Do If You Are A Victim of This Type of Fraud

1. Contact your credit card company immediately.
2. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
3. File a complaint with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.
4. A more extensive list of resources is available at StopFakes.gov

What Is Smoky Lake Doing To Fight Fraud/Counterfeits?

We are doing our best to educate consumers through videos, social media and articles such as this.

We do work with an attorney to serve cease and desist letters to any company who steals our assets such as photography or other copyrighted/trademarked materials. We do also work with our local FBI Field Office, FTC and IC3 to file complaints and get known scammers into their databases.

The sad reality is that the process is very slow and cumbersome. Often, there is no easy way to completely stop/remove a fraudulent company from the internet. Often these offenders are overseas, making it even more difficult or impossible to apprehend them.

The best way to stop fraud is for consumers to research a seller before doing business with them. Buy factory direct or buy from a trusted local source. Just because an online company is using Smoky Lake photography/literature does NOT mean that they have our permission to do so and does NOT make them a legitimate business. Con artists often steal our digital assets to make themselves look real.

If you are a victim, please follow the steps above in the section titled “What Can You Do If You Are A Victim”?

Known Fraudsters

STAY AWAY FROM THE BELOW LISTED COMPANIES! These companies have been known to fraud our consumers. They are NOT legit.

Please understand that new fraudsters can appear at any time and this is NOT meant to be a complete or exhaustive list. Below are the criminals most commonly reported to us.

1. CDL — This Quebec manufacturer is guilty of routinely violating trade dress. In other words, they have been attempting to produce cheap knock-offs of Smoky Lake’s unique designs and pass them off as their own. Our competitor, Leader Evaporator has also fallen victim to CDL for the same type of mimicry and shenanigans.
2. VEVOR — When this company first appeared, they were claiming to sell our Badgerland brand pans. NOT TRUE! They had stolen our photography and our texts. Their ads were primarily found on EBAY. This is a Chinese company who doesn’t know anything about making maple syrup. This company’s knock off pans are referenced in our video at the top of this article.
3. Buckramce.com — This company is posing as a Smoky Lake dealer and is advertising on Google. Stay away! They have stolen our photography and text, but they are NOT legit. Google has NOT been cooperative in removing these false ads. Check out this 3rd party article titled “Buckramce: 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Shop Here”
4. Foliosika.com — Scam site! They are NOT selling Smoky Lake products!