The Royal British Legion has warned Millwall fans to beware counterfeit poppy merchandise after its football poppy pins appeared on websites for inflated prices.
A range of badges showing the crests of football clubs alongside a red poppy, including Millwall FC, has been recently launched in time for the official Poppy Appeal start later this week.
But after going out of stock on official channels, the Lions pins have begun to appear for sale on third-party websites, with no guarantee that all profits will go the Royal British Legion’s charity work.
In examples found by the News and shared with the Legion, the pins appeared for resale for up to £9.99 on EBay – treble their original £2.99 price.
One such example, which said it was selling an ‘official’ poppy limited Millwall badge, the seller said that a donation would be made to a charity of their choice – but did not specify which charity or amount of profit donated.
READ MORE: Millwall poppy pins back for 2019 ahead of Royal British Legion’s poppy appeal
In contrast, all profits from the pins bought through official channels will go towards helping members of the Armed Forces community.
Other examples included a “limited edition” ‘Lest We Forget’ Millwall enamel badge for £9.99, and a poppy badge with a Millwall lion on it for £3.99.
Only the Legion’s corporate partners are authorised to sell poppy merchandise. The pages highlighted by the News to the Legion now appear to have been removed.
“We are aware of reports of people attempting to sell items from The Royal British Legion’s football club poppy pin collection on online auction sites,” a spokeswoman for the charity told the paper.
“We are working with these sites on the removal of the auctions and will continue to monitor this going forward.”
It added that its top tip for fans to “avoid buying fake poppy merchandise” and “help beat the fraudsters” was to buy from the official Royal British Legion site, or its dedicated Amazon and EBay pages.
This means “you will be sure of the authenticity,” added the spokeswoman.