Recently I took a walk through New York's Chinatown to see just how easy it was to buy counterfeit goods. As I walked down the street, I passed many storefronts filled with cheap products by no-name or made-up brands. To find brands such as Gucci, Prada, Cartier or Louis Vuitton, though, I was going to have to dig a little deeper.
Eventually, I was approached by a man who claimed to have "really good" fakes several blocks away. I followed him through the crowds for a few blocks until we entered a small store that sold postcards and tourist knickknacks. Then we walked to the very back of the shop and through a secret door. Once we were inside, the door was shut behind us, and we were locked in with hundreds of counterfeit handbags and wallets -- and a handful of shoppers.
In this room, at least, the knockoffs were selling like hotcakes. A counterfeit Gucci bag went for $80; a real one can cost $750. A counterfeit Louis Vuitton wallet was $60; the real deal goes for $535.
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It felt creepy to be locked in a small room with frantic women bargaining for bags, but it didn't seem to bother the shoppers. "There's always a danger" when people go into back rooms to buy goods, said Andrew Oberfeldt, the president of Abacus Security. "People take incredible risks for very little value."
A big industry
It's not just fake Prada and Gucci bags on the black market these days. Counterfeits include medicines, shampoos, laundry detergents, semiconductors, computer equipment and even airplane parts.
Seizures of counterfeit products in the U.S. that pose potential safety or security risks surged 124% in fiscal 2008 to a value of $62.5 million, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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In summer 2007, counterfeit Colgate toothpaste was found on discount-store shelves in four states and Canada, as well as in hospitals and prisons. The counterfeit toothpaste lacked fluoride, an ingredient found in real Colgate toothpaste, and some of the toothpaste contained micro-organisms such as bacillus spores, which can cause anthrax, and diethylene glycol, which is typically used in antifreeze.
Phony pharmaceuticals have become a huge problem as well, "partially as a result of the Internet," said Andrea Sharrin, a deputy chief in the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice.
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"More people are using the Internet as a global marketplace -- because of that, there is more access to counterfeit goods," she said. "If you get your pharmaceuticals online, you might not know what you're getting."
There are also more bogus semiconductors on the market these days, with the biggest issue being the re-marking of products, in which packages are labelled with counterfeit brands, phony speeds or different part numbers, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Guici, prada sounds like several crappy episodes of sex in the city. They have all that is coming to them with their over priced bags. I dont think it's a good idea to put someone's elses name on it though. That is a copyright no no. Toothpaste with bad chemicals ya even normal higher priced ones are no no's to start with ask my rotten out teeth Thanks colgate and crest you did me wonders didnt ya. By the age of 30 if not before I will have no real teeth thanks to supposedly ok ingredients.
This is a crock. You know what's wrong with the global economy? Some ego-inflated drama queen who spends maybe $20 (because no matter what they think of themselves, no one's design time is worth thousands of dollars) to produce a bag, then sells it for hundreds or thousands of dollars. People are desperate to appear sophisticated, and once again, money funnels from the poor, or at least the worst off, to the mega-rich. Far from our country's laws supporting this kind of theivery, (by outlawing fakes) we should have laws on the maximum amount of retail markup (and therefore profit) allowed. You can tell this whole article is propaganda to make people scared of buying knock-offs, so that the mega-rich can protect their unnecessary profits.
That part where she says sometimes the knock-offs are made in the same factories, by the same crew, as the originals? And yet they can afford to sell them for hundreds of dollars less, and still make a profit? That proves right there that anyone who buys a REAL designer bag is the idiot--they're just putting all that extra money into the pocket of some designer who's already filthy rich and thinks he's the Second Coming.