Its always buyer beware, when you are purchasing from public, There are many fake goods out there, also including guitar strings, Like Robert said buy from a reputable dealer problem solved.
The Chinese are counterfeiting almost everything. Cliff jack sockets, Braun electric razors, Hako soldering stations, guitar strings, even down to guitar plectrums. The list is almost endless. It amazes me (& pisses me off) that the rest of the world just accepts China doing this. Cheers
Shure microphones are another popular item counterfeited by the Chinese. Guitar Center was selling them, and did not know. When buying in bulk, if not dealing directly with the factory, you use a distributor, and hope their word is good. I can see why Rickenbacker is as demanding with Customs as they are. Friends of mine in Germany have Chinese copies of the Rick 4004LK Lemmy bass. They are beautiful, but only useful as wall art. You can get them on any of the import sites for dirt cheap, but they'll never make it to your house if you buy one. One of those sites offered a "John Cipollina Tribute SG." The photos on their website were Javamagic's photos he posted on ETSG. He and several people including myself emailed the seller pointing out their deceit. Java had a lawyer send a cease and desist letter.
They are only being made to deceive the public. Don't care if they are better or worse, that's not the issue. Even if the original purchaser knows it's fake, what about each subsequent resale? When does it become a "Custom Shop" guitar, and no longer a fake? At some point, someone will lose some money, and be left holding nothing of true value.
When I first started building my own guitars as a hobby, I learned a lot from some builders at a few other sites. Some of those guys were making copies of '58 - '60 Bursts that could fool an expert. Everything from old growth lumber to the correct aniline dyes in the lacquer. One did. It was sold to someone as a "replica." After trading hands a couple of times it made it to someone who was a bit unscrupulous, and sold it as an original. It fooled the buyer and someone who checked it out. Both were long time players in the Burst game, who thought they were getting an uncirculated guitar. The buyer shelled out about $150K for a $2500 guitar. I don't think that any of you would want to be that buyer, regardless of the product being purchased.
As much as I try to make accurate replicas of guitars I can never afford, I do add little touches to make them mine. And, put my own name on them. A counterfeit is a counterfeit, and the counterfeiter should take a huge financial loss for doing so.