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Call Kurtis Investigates: Was Groupon Deal That Caught Fire A Counterfeit?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Barbara Young bought a household item advertised on Groupon as the Hover Cover.

It is supposed to keep food from splattering all over a microwave, but for Young, she says a completely different scenario happened when the product started arcing.

"It started sparking; it scared me," said Young.

Young says she was heating up a bowl of soup using her new $10 device advertised as a Hover Cover—a savings of about $5 off the retail price.

Ten seconds into heating her soup, she says she saw sparks and then flames. Young pulled the device out of the microwave; it was blackened and melted.

"I went wow all of the plastic on the magnetic was in pieces," said Young.

She says she contacted Groupon and the seller Gustave Inc. to report the problem but says she did not hear anything.

We scanned the web for similar complaints of Hover Cover fires but did not find any.

We sent images directly to the manufacturer of the Hover Cover, which told that they suspect what Young purchased is a counterfeit product.

They may be right. After we reached out to Gustave Inc, the company admits it "mistakenly used" the "trademarked" Hover Cover name in its Groupon advertisement.

They claim they acquired a lump sum of the non-branded close-out products and "sold 56 pcs" on Groupon. The company says it does "not intent (sic) to sell any counterfeit or illegal products and destroyed the rest of their inventory.

Gustave Inc. says it is now recalling the 56 items it sold and refunding customers. They say the items came from a factory in China.

Groupon would not tell us how it vets for counterfeit products. They refunded Young all her money.

Young has reported the fire to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

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