Shoppers warned as £299 fake Dyson hair dryer sold on Amazon could be deadly

To exclude, to expel:

Dyson has issued a warning to shoppers after hospital secretary Virginia Black, 33, was nearly burned by one of the counterfeit products. Her husband bought it on Amazon for £299

Criminals are putting consumers at risk by selling £299 fake Dyson Turn on the ultrasonic hair dryer Amazon.

Counterfeits are near-perfect replicas of a must-have product – but can be deadly.

Sales of genuine Dyson dryers skyrocketed when reality TV star Kendall Jenner, 26, revealed she used one.

But criminal gangs are now using Amazon and other marketplace sites to fool online shoppers.

Dyson has issued a warning to shoppers after hospital secretary Virginia Black, 33, was nearly burned down by one of the counterfeits.

Her husband Steve, 35, who bought the full-price hair dryer on Amazon, said: “My wife was drying her hair and the attachment fell on her head.

“She could smell burning and immediately unplugged it. In the end, the place where the heat came out arranged a courier to pick it up, but they said it was a fake and extremely dangerous.

Engineer Steve, from Stevenage, Herts, added: “I am very concerned other people have these ticking clocks in their homes.

“When we contacted Amazon, they said it was sold by a third-party seller and that’s not their problem.”

Consumer charity Electrical Safety First has called on the Government to make online marketplaces legally responsible for stopping the sale of dangerous products. Most of the fakes are from China. Last month, seven crooks who ran a factory making fake Supersonic dryers were jailed or fined in eastern China’s Shangdong province.

A Dyson spokesman said: “We are sorry to hear that Mr and Mrs Black have been misled by unscrupulous counterfeiters who sold them a dangerous product.

“We have a team dedicated to tracking these manufacturers and keeping them.

“Consumers should be alert to the danger, and marketplaces like Amazon need to take on greater responsibility for sellers and what they sell.”

Amazon said: “The product in question has been removed, we have taken action against the seller and the customer has been given a full refund.

“We encourage customers with questions to report them to us.”