But Is It Genuine?
WHAT one man can make, another can fake. What you see offered may seem to be exactly what you want, but is it genuine? At times, drastic remedies have been used to curb counterfeiting. One German innkeeper in the 14th century was hanged for selling inferior wine as genuine Rüdesheimer. In Britain, during 140 years prior to 1832, over 300 people were hanged for forgery. In 1597 two goldsmiths were nailed by the ears to the pillory for falsely marking inferior gold plate.
“The collecting mania created a paradise for dishonest dealers,” says Mark Jones, who worked with the British Museum’s exhibition Fake? The Art of Deception. Even the best-informed people have become victims. The “fossil” Piltdown man was fabricated and fooled the scientific establishment for years. The Hitler “diaries” give eloquent testimony to the ability of counterfeiters to deceive even those who should know better.
“The great growth area for faking today,” says Mark Jones, “is . . . the massive counterfeiting of brand-named goods.” It was estimated, for example, that from 10,000 to 15,000 counterfeit Apple computers were sold each month in the United States in 1987. A $33 million fraud in fake Waterford crystal was recently exposed. “Replicas of the world’s most famous crystal were being produced at a factory in a remote French village,” said The Sunday Times in Britain.
This generation covets luxury goods. “Today,” says Vincent Carratu, a veteran in the war against counterfeiters, the commercial counterfeiter “will produce false Chanel perfumes, tomorrow he will switch to counterfeit Fila sports shirts, then later he will import fake Dunlop tennis rackets.” Whatever the consumer wants, the counterfeiter makes. But, warns Britain’s Anti-Counterfeiting Group, “all too often . . . the ‘bargain’ designer watch sold for £50 is actually only worth £5.”
Life-Threatening Fakes
Anti-Counterfeiting News also points out another problem, the danger of inferior goods: “Dangerous and substandard products present a real threat to consumers’ safety.” How serious a threat is this? Trademark World gives these examples: “Fourteen aeroplane crashes and at least two deaths have been traced to counterfeit aviation parts.” The National Consumer Council in Britain exposed how thousands of below-standard electrical plugs and fake automobile brake cylinders with inferior rubber seals made their way to the market. “All these,” it said, “could present a hazard to the consumer.”
Particularly callous are those who produce fake drugs. “Up to 70% of all drugs sold in parts of Africa are counterfeit,” says The Anti-Counterfeiting Group in Britain. Eye drops found in Nigeria, for example, had no active ingredient and were made with contaminated water. They could have caused blindness. “If people have to rely on ‘antibiotics’ that contain no antibiotics,” said the World Health Organization in 1987, “there are bound to be deaths and so counterfeiting is mass murder.”
Even the bank notes you handle may be counterfeit. Recently, in one year alone, $110 million in counterfeit dollar notes were confiscated worldwide. Forged $100 notes circulating in Ireland were of such high quality “that 155 [were] passed in all the major banks,” says The Irish Times.
What can you do to protect yourself from fakes? One consumer-affairs expert says that “the best protection against fraud is an informed consumer.” She adds: “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.”
[Picture on page 20]
The Piltdown “fossil” was a fake that fooled scientists for years