Question: How can I find more reliable products and avoid counterfeit items when shopping online?

For a good way to spot authentic products and steer clear of fakes when you're shopping online, Fakespot is a great option. This e-commerce security tool employs artificial intelligence technology to spot scams, fake reviews and counterfeit products on e-commerce sites like Amazon, eBay, Walmart and BestBuy. It also has tools to spot fake reviews, protect you from bad sellers and find the best price. It's available as a Chrome extension, Firefox add-on and mobile app. Fakespot can help you make better purchases and save time and money.

Another interesting option is Digimarc, which builds digital IDs into products and links them to the cloud for more detailed information. Digimarc uses digital watermarks, QR codes, RFID tags and other technologies to identify and authenticate physical and digital products. The technology can help with product tracking and monitoring in real time, but it also can help with high-speed, high-accuracy authentication that dramatically reduces the likelihood you'll buy a counterfeit.

Also worth a look is LegitScript, a certification and monitoring service that can help businesses protect transactions and build trust by assessing and managing third-party risk. With tools like merchant monitoring, marketplace monitoring and compliance tools, LegitScript offers targeted information and resources to help you assess risk and improve compliance.

If you buy a lot on Amazon and want a better look at product reviews, Wisely is a useful Chrome extension. It analyzes product pages in real time to show a graph of ratings, the top pros and cons and other product details. The tool can help you evaluate products better by spotting possible problems and highlighting what's different about a product.