News

Here’s How to Spot the Difference Between Real and Fake Designer Bags

Can you spot the fake Birkin above with just a glance*? Natalie Wyll and Alexa Ridolfi, the sisters who run A Second Chance Resale, do that for a living, thanks to a $600 billion counterfeit industry. Along with their mother, who founded the Upper East Side store before expanding to Soho’s West Broadway, they’ve become experts at authenticating and valuing designer handbags—especially for the Big Three brands.
 

http://ny.racked.com/2015/3/10/8182935/fake-handbags

Civil Defence Arrests 7 Fake Petroleum Product Dealers In Akwa Ibom

The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested seven persons for allegedly transporting fake petroleum products to Akwa Ibom and Kano States. Mr Pedro Ideba, The Akwa Ibom State Commandant of the corps, Mr Pedro Ideba, made the disclosure while speaking with newsmen in Uyo on Tuesday. Ideba said that the suspects were picked up at Ibagwa when they were heading to Kano with the adulterated product.

Op-ed: The five consumer groups buying fake brands in China—and what to do about them

Associate Professor in Marketing Lars Bergkvist at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo and Li Wanzhen at the EDHEC Business School explain why knockoff goods remain a resilient draw for so many of China’s consumers. Fake brands are still ubiquitous in China, on sale in well-known places such as the Silk Market in Beijing and the “fake market” on West Nanjing road in Shanghai. In the streets touts try to lure punters into “secret” shops, and there are countless online outlets offering shoppers “replica” products. Fake brands cost the makers of luxury and other branded products billions of dollars every year in lost sales and, more importantly, in eroded brand equity as those who are knocked-off become less attractive to consumers.

WA cigarette smuggling could increase under Inslee tax

Nearly one-third of Washington’s potential cigarette tax revenues were lost to smuggling or tax evasion in the 2013 fiscal year, according to estimates by the state Department of Revenue. Gov. Jay Inslee is proposing to increase the state’s cigarette taxes by 50 cents per pack. Washington state has steadily raised its cigarette taxes in the last 20 years as a means to both curb smoking and raise revenue.At the same time, though, something else has gone up: The rate at which people evade the tax by buying cigarettes out of state or online.Nearly one-third of Washington’s potential cigarette tax revenues were lost to smuggling or tax evasion in the 2013 fiscal year, according to estimates by the state Department of Revenue.

Court Remands Man In Prison For Counterfeiting Alomo Bitters

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday remanded a Lagos based businessman, Akintunde Smith in prison custody for counterfeiting Alomo Bitters. The judge have the order after Akintunde was arraigned by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control ( NAFDAC) on a three count charge of manufacturing processed food without registration.

The suspect, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, was not represented by a lawyer in court.

Chinese government pledges to step up crackdown on selling fake goods online

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce has pledged to intensify the crackdown on the sales of fake products online in China.The remarks by the regulator’s head, Zhang Mao, came after a high-profile spat between the government body and the e-commerce giant Alibaba earlier this year.“Market order can only be regulated if we increase the penalties for selling fake goods, making traders who sell such goods unable to continue operations, or go bankrupt,” Zhang said during a press briefing at the National People’s Congress in Beijing today.
 

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1733376/chinese-government-pledges-step-crackdown-selling-fake-goods-online

Austrian customs officials bust int’l cigarette smuggling ring

Investigators from the Customs Office in the city of Graz on Wednesday arrested five cigarette smugglers who have smuggled about 1.3 million cigarettes from Serbia to Austria.Investigators first caught their trail when a car was pulled over during a routine inspection in Spielfeld in the state of Styria in November 2014, where over 60,000 cigarettes of foreign origin were found in custom-made cavities in the vehicle.The Customs Office stated in a press release Wednesday that the five suspects were from Hungary, Austria and Serbia, aged between 35 and 50.
 

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/910330.shtml