Spotting Fakes
From drugs to gadgets, the share of counterfeits in global trade, according to an OECD estimate, stands at 7-10%. The implications worsen with currency counterfeiting. However, fighting fakes has never been easy; the technology behind the spurious has often caught up with, and sometimes even outpaced, that of the authentic. But with non-cloneable identification (nCID), the trend may yet reverse. A Pune-based company, Bilcare, has developed nano-microparticles-enabled authentication that could nail even the best fakes—minuscule amounts of such particles of metal are embedded on an nCID chip on the packaging of a product. Under a magneto-optic sensor, the nCID chip generates a non-reproducible, digitised image unique to the packed unit—‘non-reproducible’ meaning that even the manufacturer of the chip can’t make a copy. The image can then be transmitted through mobile or internet gateways, and the manufacturing site, date and other particulars of the packed unit can be verified. Thus, even the closest lookalike would fail the magneto-optic test.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/spotting-fakes/1233281?rhheader
Police arrests three from petro-product smuggling gang
Police on Thursday claimed to have busted a petroleum-product smuggling gang, operating from the Mathura refinery by arresting three of its members. “While three member of the gang have been arrested, fourth one, Fateh Chandra managed to dodge the police. Five hundred and twenty-five litres of petrol and diesel have been seized from them along with containers,” Ajai Pal Sharma, police circle officer, said. Arrested members of the gang Charan Singh Yadav, Upendra Chauhan, and Balram have confessed that they were purchasing petroleum-products at throw-away rates from tanker-owners and then selling it in the open market at higher prices, police said.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/police-arrests-three-from-petroproduct-smuggling-gang/457721-3-242.html
Lear MoreCounterfeit health and beauty products arrests on Long Island
Authorities say they have taken down a major counterfeiting operation in five locations across Nassau County. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said $2 million worth of fake health and beauty products were seized Thursday. The products are facsimiles of major international brands owned by Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.
Two brothers from Franklin Square and Plainview, Pardeep Malik and Hamant Mullick, are accused of running the sophisticated operation in facilities in Franklin Square, Oceanside, Freeport and a showroom in Valley Stream. Prosecutors say they sold the products to distributors who sold to smaller independent stores. Investigators are running lab tests to ascertain whether any of the counterfeit goods have any health risks. The operation came to light after a fire in April. When fire officials went back to investigate, they discovered the alleged ring. The fake products include Vicks Vaporub, baby oil, Vaseline, Chapstick and inhalers. “These products have been found to turn up in retail locations in New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida,” said Rice.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/long_island&id=9458184
Lear MoreIndia: Is your medicine a fake? Government report warns counterfeit drugs are flooding India
There is a high chance that the medicines prescribed routinely may not be helping people as they are just duds. Drugs as common as paracetamol and certain antibiotics, readily available at chemist shops, may be fake and not of standard quality, a government report has warned.
In January 2014, at least 32 medicines sold in hospitals and chemist shops across India, including the national Capital, have failed government tests and have been declared ‘not of standard quality’ by the Health Ministry’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
The ministry has recently put several medicines that are commonly sold in the market on high alert. Paracetamol tablet IP 500 mg, which is a widely used over-the-counter pain reliever and antipyretic (used to control fever), is one of them. The drug commonly used for headaches and other minor pains, which is manufactured by a Chennai-based company, has failed the government test. Similarly, Needin SR 20, which is used to control blood pressure, and RONFLOX, an antibiotic manufactured by a company in Himachal Pradesh, have been found lacking.
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Egyptian startup Asly fights counterfeit vaccines to save lives and money
When Tamer Ahmed was a child, his three year-old sister died because she had been given a counterfeit vaccine. Years later, still reeling from the loss, he and his partners Mohamed Hal and Mohamed Al Mughni, launched Asly from Egypt in an attempt to ameliorate this region-wide problem. The startup Asly wants to “offer a radical solution to the problem of fake products, and make the MENA region the [safest] shopping place in the world.” This goal, without any doubt, is very ambitious, especially given the statistics. Ahmed tells me that around 50% of pharmaceuticals in the Arab world are fake; 40% in Saudi Arabia, more than 50% in Egypt, and between 20 and 25% in the UAE. These frauds not only lead to needless deaths, especially in the case of fake malaria pharmaceuticals, but they also cause financial losses for pharmaceutical companies
http://www.wamda.com/2014/03/could-a-mobile-service-offer-a-solution-to-counterfeit
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Counterfeit mobiles ‘cost $6 billion a year’
Black market sales of counterfeit and substandard mobile phones are a US$6 billion a year problem, says a new report into the global counterfeit phone market. Research from the Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF) says around 148 million counterfeit or substandard mobile phones were sold worldwide in 2013, mostly in developing countries. “They were sold through visible retail sites, unofficial retail outlets, online auction websites and in local black markets,” said MMF secretary general Michael Milligan. “With the average knock-off phone selling for around US$45, our conservative estimate of US$6 billion in illegal sales represents a massive financial loss for governments and the mobile phone industry. “Governments can combat the growing counterfeit phone problem with new technology which can identify substandard devices on the mobile network and permanently block users who don’t change to a genuine product.”
Lear MoreUN’s new counterfeit campaign
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) ‘Counterfeit: Don’t buy into organised crime’ initiative will boost awareness but is again taking the opportunity to urge organisations to review brand protection and authentication strategies and, if necessary, redouble their efforts to stem ‘the massive worldwide problem’ of counterfeit goods. The UNODC’s campaign highlights the link between organised crime and the trade in counterfeit goods, which it says amounts to US$250 billion a year. Fraudulent goods also present a serious health risk to consumers. Criminal activity in this area is big business: the sale of fraudulent medicines, for example, from East Asia and the Pacific to South-East Asia and Africa alone amounts to some US$5 billion per year. Counterfeiting touches virtually everyone in one way or another, posing a serious risk to health and safety – but the figure reported by the UNODC could be just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, the true cost could be even higher, because it’s difficult to put a price on a global problem and account for the damage caused by counterfeiting to corporate reputations and the loss of market share.
http://www.thedrinksreport.com/guest-columns/2014/71-un-s-new-counterfeit-campaign.html
Lear MoreTata Motors intensifies campaign against counterfeit spares
Tata Motors has commenced a systematic multi-pronged campaign against the sale of spurious spare parts to protect its customers from the threat of counterfeit spares being sold under the brand name of Tata Genuine Parts.The company launched raids across the country to disclose the blooming business of spurious parts in India. Around 125 raids have been conducted across the nation and in Mumbai and nearby places only, 33 successful raids have been conducted.Tata Motors’ TGP team along with IPR enforcement, copyrights protection agencies and legal team, have been working together to recognize the manufacturing units and selling outlets in various major cities in In
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NOW, FARM EQUIPMENT SPARES WITH SECURITY FEATURES
Farm equipment manufacturer new Holland fiat (India) is planning to sell components with security features similar to those found in currency notes. The move is intended to deter sales of counterfeit spare parts. To begin with, the company intends to ship every single product with a hologram that can be identified under ultra violet (UV) light. Further, it will put as many as eight different identification marks on each one of its nearly 8,000 components sold through dealer networks.
“These features will be introduced this month, starting with 3,000 fast moving parts such as filters. The UV lights to authenticate the parts are not expensive, they come at 50,” new Holland fiat managing director Rakesh Malhotra told business line in an interview. “We will provide the UV pens to our dealers, while we will also educate our dealers, stockists, mechanics and even customers about these features,” Malhotra said.
Grey market
While this will go a long way in helping customers buy genuine products, the company will incur an “incremental” additional cost, which will not be passed on, he added. For the industry, fake spares is a serious issue as it tarnishes the manufacturer’s goodwill, affects the economy , results in jobs losses and compromises the safety of the vehicle. The most duplicated products include clutch parts, filters (air, oil and fuel), belts, liners and brake pads, gaskets and gear parts among others.
The auto component industry loses 29.6 per cent of its sales to the grey market, according to a FICCI–CASCADE study, ‘invisible enemy’, in 2012. This amounts to about 9,198 crore of the total estimated industry size of 31,046 crore.
New Holland fiat (india), which in 2013 got about 4-5 per cent of its total turnover from the sale of spare parts, has also been battling the grey market issue for some time. In 2012, it sold 32,000 tractors, 92 balers and 25 sugarcane harvesters in India.
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1.5 million Counterfeit products seized
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has confiscated over 1.5 million pieces of counterfeit electrical equipment, including mobile phone chargers which were in violation of local specifications.
The counterfeit items were seized following a raid on a villa in central Riyadh, which had been converted into a warehouse by a commercial establishment. These products, which are hazardous to consumers, have been confiscated and the villa sealed, a statement by the ministry said.
The ministry said it received a complaint from a citizen saying he suspected the villa was being used as a warehouse for counterfeit electrical equipment, which were being supplied to commercial stores in Riyadh.
http://www.arabnews.com/news/534026
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