One of my friends recently had this exact thing happen to him, except with North Face - very legit looking website (first result on Google and everything), but something looked off on their payment page, so he checked, and it turns out North Face has no presence here.
Of all the brands , The North Face is most likely to be faked ..it is so popular.
And they really make some excellent fake ones.
Btw unless really good price on sale ..avoid the North Face especially if your friend is looking for serious clothing rather fashion . the North face brand is much hyped due to cool name and the way it promotes itself as that tough extreme winter clothes but at same time fashionable.
I say it leans more towards fashion. It is not completely bad but I can say they are definitely not upto the mark if bought at full price.
There are other brands that are much better in material and clothing but maybe little less on style like Rab, Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, Montane etc even Sonam and Sherpa( Nepal winter clothing) brands make good winter clothes at reasonable prices.
Most sensible thing to do...
price of the bag I had in mind is like $180...
Even my sister in the US does not love me enough to buy that for me!
Osprey is very expensive. I have actually not found good sale even in USA for ospreys even though when my family keeps going there . I bought all here because you will be surprised I found Indian pricing almost on par with USA prices on good discount sales.
Very rarely on some old stock of when they update their bags ..the old ones go for really cheap otherwise this brand is almost always fixed with little to no discount on best days .
Btw why dont you look into other brands like Lowealpine, Gregory ( since your sister is in USA) they make some excellent backpacks too in all shape and sizes.
Osprey is definitely great but some other brands are pretty solid too and much better discounts during sale.