- The demand for face masks and other preventive products have reached a fever pitch due to the coronavirus outbreak, and many are turning to e-commerce sites to make purchases.
- So many people are turning to Etsy that "face masks for germs" became one of the top searches, and more than 200 postings for face masks have sprung up in the past two days.
- Even as sites like Facebook and Amazon have added links and resources for learning more about COVID-19, Etsy has stayed quiet on any precautionary or educational measures.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Hundreds of postings for counterfeit face masks have popped up on Etsy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, but the e-commerce site is doing little to monitor the results.
Although Etsy is most commonly known as a marketplace for crafts and handmade items, the site has emerged as one of the online stores where people are turning for supplies to help them adequalely prep for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. On Wednesday, results for "germ masks" and "protective masks" promising to best fight the spread of viruses could be seen across Etsy.
With more than 80,000 coronavirus cases reported worldwide, the demand for face masks has hit a peak. It's led to not only a widespread shortage in masks, but also a proliferation of counterfeit masks not approved by the Center of Disease Control that are being sold on Amazon, Facebook, and Craigslist.
In response to rising coronavirus fears, many e-commerce sites and social media platforms have put educational resources and links at the top of pages for search result pages such as "coronavirus" and "COVID-19."
However, Etsy's website is devoid of such content, even though "face masks for germs" was the second-most popular search query on Wednesday afternoon. The trending search in question disappeared from the list very soon after Business Insider reached out to Etsy for comment.
"We take the safety of our marketplace very seriously, and our team actively works to review and remove items that don't comply with our policies," Etsy said in a statement to Business Insider. "While face masks are allowed on Etsy, we prohibit any items that make medical claims. Our team is prioritizing taking down any listings that claim to protect against coronavirus."
As face masks sold on Amazon are spiking in price in response to the demand, sellers are putting an array of face masks on Etsy in essentially unmonitored listings. Business Insider found that more than 300 listings for face masks have appeared on the website within the last two days.
While there may not be listings explicitly stating their use for coronavirus prevention, sellers are making strong claims to clamor for the attention of eager customers. One listing advertised an "antiviral mask" with silver "woven" into the fabric, because silver is "known to be an anti bacterial, antimicrobial anti fungal agent."
Although there have been findings to back the claims of silver's antibacterial abilities, there is only one model of face mask - the N95 respirator - that the CDC has approved as effective against coronavirus. A number of masks explicity listed as not approved, as seen as the CDC website, are similar in look to those found sold on Etsy.