Experts warn about counterfeit car seats being sold online

An ABC News and Troubleshooters investigation has found counterfeit car seats are increasingly being found for sale on popular websites.

Safety officials are urging anyone who may have purchased one to dispose of it.

Troubleshooters has warned in the past about the dangers of black market goods being sold online.

In the United States car seats have to meet strict federal safety standards.

Hospitals, including the Lehigh Valley Health network, are reporting an alarming increase in unregulated car seats at safety spot checks.

At a car safety seat check, inspection technicians showed the Troubleshooters how they use a trained eye to spot any potential hazards before parents drive off.

"We're looking for lots of different things: to see if the seat was in a crash, if it's a regulated U.S. seat, or if it's a counterfeit seat," said Bill McQuiken with Lehigh Valley Health.

He said counterfeit seats look like a child safety seat, but don't meet the US standards. Instead, it was duplicated and sold online.

McQuiken said his team usually spots one to two unregulated seats each month that are either duplicates or do not meet safety standards.

He showed us how to spot a fake:

"When we see a car seat come into a check without a chest clip, that is the hugest red flag," showed McQuiken.

He also said regulated seats will also include a label with a manufacturer name and toll free number in both English and Spanish.

"So the first thing is to notice that in this listing here, I am not seeing any mention of the brand name," said Dr. Alisa Baer. "Sometimes price can be a red flag."

Our partners at ABC News purchased three car seats marketed under popular name brand names being sold on TEMU and Amazon.

Dr. Baer then inspected the three seats, and determined all three were not certified for use in the United States.

"If it's a dupe of a car seat, your baby might not survive a crash that they could have survived had they been in a car seat that was a real car seat, meaning it it met the U.S. safety standards," she said.

Both TEMU and Amazon have removed the listings after ABC News brought it to their attention.

In a statement Temu said products found non-compliant are "promptly removed."

Amazon said it has "proactive measures in place to prevent prohibited products from being listed."