Fingerlings being sold on eBay for £600

This year’s must-have Christmas toy has sold out across the UK - with listings on eBay charging up to 40 times as much .

The motion detecting animals, which include a monkey, a unicorn and a sloth and slip onto a finger, officially cost £14.99.

But the critters have become so popular they're hard to find in shops.

And after stocks ran dry, the toys are now being flogged for nearly £700 on eBay .

One listing, from Arkansas in the United States, is asking for a staggering £675.83 for one of its “100% authentic WowWee Fingerlings”.

While not all are being sold at such whopping prices, many are being listed at around the £100 mark.

The high demand has seen dozens of knock offs flooding the market with names like ‘finger monkey’ and 'baby monkey' to trick parents into forking out large sums of money.

More than 2,600 fakes from China were seized at Heathrow Airport last week .

Officials barred the cargo after they found there were no documents to confirm the items met safety standards and also failed to include contact details for the manufacturer.

And watchdogs around the country are already being forced to issue safety alerts over dodgy versions of the Fingerlings - with scores of parents being hoodwinked into buying copycat versions.

Norfolk Trading Standards wrote in a Facebook post: "Fingerlings are looking to be this years ‘must have toy’.

"With demand outstripping supply this will lead to copy versions appearing in shops, markets, online stores and auction sites.

"These copies could be near copies, common names appearing include ‘Baby Monkey’, ‘Happy Monkey’ and ‘Finger Monkey’ or counterfeit versions presented as Fingerlings.

"These copy and counterfeit versions could have issues with the safety of the product and its use."

Parents have been advised to look out for telltale signs that one was a fake.

They included the names of the toys spelt wrongly on the packaging as well as spelling and grammar mistakes found elsewhere.