Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs

[David Jamieson]

As an aside, that arc de triumph is pretty small compared to the arc de triumph in Paris.

[GeneChing]

This beats the counterfeit banks above.

Shenzhen Goldman Sachs the latest copycat to be exposed in China



We've seen everything from fake brand condoms to fake world landmarks in China, and now, a fake Goldman Sachs can be added to the list.

Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Co. has been operating in China since 2013 but was only recently brought to our attention in a recent Bloomberg report.

The company uses the Chinese name gao sheng (高盛), the same as used by the original Goldman Sachs. Even the font used in its logo is similar to the one used by the bank headquartered in New York, the report points out.

A receptionist at the company denied any connection with the multinational corporation when speaking with reporters on the phone. Before hanging up on the interviewer, however, she did say it was first time she'd heard of this allegation, adding, "We just picked the name out, and it's not intentionally the same."

The story of Goldman Sachs is part of a wider investigation by a US gambling union into fraudulent casinos based in Macau. In a letter from the union to Chinese officials, the companies are accused of money laundering and are connected to the family of Cheung Chi-tai. According to South China Morning Post, the casino junket has been accused of laundering at least 1.6 billion HKD, as of July.

The Shenzhen Goldman Sachs website www.szgoldman.net is inaccessible at present, but a quick Google search will tell you there are a number of companies in China using the gao sheng tag, including GS Logistics. Perhaps there is some legitimacy to the receptionist's claim that the Chinese characters (高盛) have a different meaning to what the US gambling union investigation is claiming, and going on the track record of foreign trademark cases in Chinese courts, the argument may even stand up. Keep in mind the recent failure of Michael Jordan's attempts to sue Chinese company Qiaodan.

The copycats of China exist because of differences between Chinese and international trademark laws. Whereas well-known trademarks have some protection under international law, in China any trademark must be registered with the relevant administration in writing before it can be recognised by courts.

by Daniel Cunningham
Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Shanghaiist in News on Aug 28, 2015 3:30 PM

Of all the companies to copycat...

[David Jamieson]

lol, i just posted the RT article on that right after your arc post.
Anyway, yes, that is hilarious.
Goldman Sachs...

Have they got a pig in the poke for you!

[GeneChing]

lol, i just posted the RT article on that right after your arc post.
Anyway, yes, that is hilarious.
Goldman Sachs...

Have they got a pig in the poke for you!

I missed your earlier post because of the page flip.

I'm a chronic copy&paste poster when it comes to poaching news articles. This is because hyperlinks expire while the KFM Forum is forever (or at least as for as long as our members support MAM so we can keep paying the bills here ).

[GeneChing]

Fake rice made with paper found in Guangdong



Fake rice made of tiny pieces of rolled up paper were discovered earlier this week in Guangdong province after a woman noticed that her lunch was a bit harder to chew than usual.

The woman surnamed Cai told reporters that she and her family hadn't noticed anything amiss until about half way through their meal when she bit down on a piece of rice that was "unusually hard."

According to Apple Daily, Cai then took the piece out of her mouth, inspected it closely and watched in amazement as she rolled it out into a tiny strip of paper.

Cai told local police she had bought the rice from a street vendor who had assured her that the rice was grown locally out in the other countryside "without the use of any pesticides." You know, he's not a liar.



Earlier this year, reports emerged about plastic rice sold on the Chinese market making its way across Asia. This fake rice was a more edible-sounding mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes and delicious synthetic resin.

According to Oryza.com, plastic-tainted rice grains remain hard after being boiled, and the soup made by it forms a very unappetizing plastic sheath 'that burns like plastic' when heated up.

We're going to assume that rice made of tiny rolls of paper also doesn't react well to being boiled.

[Images via Apple Daily]

It amazes me that it's cheaper to make fake rice than it is to get rice.


Here's the plastic rice story.

[boxerbilly]

It amazes me that it's cheaper to make fake rice than it is to get rice.


Here's the plastic rice story.

Maybe it has nothing to do with cost but supplies ? Not enough rice ? I also cant see how paper would be cheaper than real rice.

[GeneChing]

Meanwhile, how about a counterfeit princess?

Chinese farmer pretended to be princess to commit fraud
13 hours ago

BEIJING (AP) — A farmer who pretended to be a princess descended from the Qing dynasty to swindle people out of more than 2 million yuan ($315,000) has been sentenced to 13 - 1/2 years in prison for fraud, a court said.

Wang Fengying and her co-accused Yang Janglin said she was called Princess Changping and persuaded people to lend them money to help them get back assets worth billions of dollars held by authorities, the Lianhu District Court in Shaanxi province said.

They promised high returns on the investments and the fraud lasted two years until a victim went to the police, the court said in a statement Tuesday. In the meantime, Wang had bought a sedan car and put a down payment on an apartment.

Police seized 41 gold bars, thousands of fake dollars and treasure maps that Wang offered to investors as collateral.

Co-defendant Yang was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and both were fined 500,000 yuan ($80,000) in court Monday.

A few years ago, a taiji master from China tried to convince me that she was a princess. She had a business card and was hoping I could put her on the cover. She dressed outrageously gaudy, was rather overweight, and her taiji was worse than mine (which is saying a lot as my taiji sux).

[Jimbo]

Meanwhile, how about a counterfeit princess?



A few years ago, a taiji master from China tried to convince me that she was a princess. She had a business card and was hoping I could put her on the cover. She dressed outrageously gaudy, was rather overweight, and her taiji was worse than mine (which is saying a lot as my taiji sux).

Those are usually the kind that make outrageous claims though, aren't they? They always suck. Was her gaudy clothing silky wushu pajamas or something worse? People parading around in clownish outfits are one of my pet peeves in many CMA, especially when they change into a new outfit every 15 minutes. Often their outfits become their focus instead of ability. A friend of mine said they look like walking Good n' Plenty candies.

[GeneChing]

Kunming police catch counterfeiters red-handed, seize 300,000 yuan in fake money



Earlier this week, police in a village outside of Kunming, Yunnan province arrested three individuals suspected of counterfeiting and then set about the monotonous and messy task of counting the 300,000RMB in fake cash, some of which was apparently still smudgy with red ink.



To try and curb rampant and rising cases of counterfeiting, China announced last month it would introduce brand-new 100RMB banknotes in November. The more colorful cash is designed to be more difficult to duplicate after numerous reports of high-quality counterfeit notes in recent years, of which some 97 percent ultimately traces back to a humble elderly painter in Guangdong province.




No updates on the horizon for smaller denominations of currency, so bus lines, like this one in Chongqing that reportedly took in 56 million yuan in fake dough in just one year, are still screwed.

[Images via NetEase]

Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Alex Linder in News on Sep 11, 2015 9:00 PM

Kind of nice to have a more common counterfeiting operation here for a change (pun intended).

[GeneChing]

I've heard mention of these here before.

Chinese Counterfeit Eggs Made of Plastic May Be Popping Up in Thailand
By Alex Swerdloff
October 4, 2015 / 3:00 pm

In America, an unprecedented outbreak of avian flu may have caused egg prices to rise amid mass shortages, but the people of Thailand are reckoning with an entirely different, egg-related problem: Somebody is allegedly trying to sell them fake eggs made of plastic. And those eggs are thought to be coming from China.

Thai officials are being called to investigate the possibility of counterfeit eggs made of plastic entering the market after fifty-nine-year-old Mrs. Lek Jaikla, reported buying a fake egg in her local market.

Mrs. Lek told reporters that she was shocked to find that one of the eggs she bought from a flea market in Tambon Noong E-roon started burning and emitting a plastic-like smell when cooked. The fraudulent egg was one of ten contained in a plastic bag that Mrs. Lek obtained for 35 baht, or a little under one American dollar.

Locals who learned about the discovery of the fake egg urged authorities to try to find out where it came from. Pongsak Khunsawasdi, a local grocer, disclaimed responsibility. She said she bought her eggs straight from a poultry farm and didn’t sell eggs “put in plastic bags like those sold at the flea market.”

But stories of faux oeufs have been circulating in Thailand: Mrs. Lek said that she heard about fake eggs on the television, but had never seen one before she inadvertently made the purchase.

The origin of the eggs, at least according to urban legend, is China. For years, stories of fake Chinese eggs—ones that look surprisingly like real ones—have been rampant. According to some reports, they are made of gypsum powder, calcium carbonate and wax. Rumors of fake Chinese eggs date back to the 1990s. In case you were wondering how to tell a fake egg from a real one, experts say that fake eggs have thinner yolks and whites.

Food forgery is a problem of near-epidemic proportions, particularly in China, and it’s certainly not restricted to eggs. Even the life-giving staple that is rice isn’t safe from counterfeit claims. Almost every Asian nation has had its own fake rice scare, despite little if any evidence to back up the claims.

As far as eggs go, a Fuji TV investigation that has over almost 1.5 million views on YouTube claims that the allegations of an underground criminal marketplace in fake eggs in China is 100 percent true. Others say, “claims about a well-organized and widespread fake egg market in China seem dubious.” But given China’s acknowledgement that its food safety and food fraud situation needs a serious overhaul, the fake egg stories may very well be true.

Mrs. Lek is pretty certain she bought some fake Chinese eggs—and that the problem has now spread to Thailand.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

Chinese will counterfeit anything...

Male swindler tricks man into marriage by faking pregnancy
GBTIMES 2015/11/26


The male con artist pretended to be pregnant, although the couple never had sex. (Photo is illustrative) (Photo: Thanatip S, Shutterstock)

A Chinese man tricked another man into marriage after posing as a woman and pretending to be pregnant.

The 27-year-old suspect, surnamed Fang, from Beijing pretended to be a female Air Force officer and bought a fake ID to back his story, reported the Chinese language Jinghua Times.

He met his future husband Zhang Qiang (a pseudonym) on an online dating site in August 2014, according to a statement issued by the Shijingshan District’s procuratorate office this week.

When the two became a couple three months later, Fang lied he had gotten pregnant to get Zhang to marry him. Fang explained they never actually had sex but the man didn't question the "pregnancy".

He added that Zhang didn’t seem to have any doubts about his "girlfriend’s" gender. The man only asked once why Fang had a "bulge in his pants". The suspect lied, saying it was caused by a "“tumour" and Zhang believed him.

To gain Zhang’s trust the other man even hired a pair of actors to pose as his parents and meet with his boyfriend’s family.

The victim’s parents didn’t see through the scam either and the pair held a wedding ceremony in Zhang’s hometown in March this year.

The couple was supposed to apply for a marriage certificate once they returned to Beijing but Fang lied he had lost his ID card.

After the wedding, Zhang had to leave his "wife" for work reasons. Fang used the "pregnancy" as an excuse to keep asking money from the victim.

The two had been living apart until August when Zhang’s mother and sister moved to Beijing to help Fang with the soon-to-be-born baby. The women became suspicious because Zhang’s "wife" acted like a man.

Zhang’s sister then went through Fang’s phone and found texts where he admitted he wasn’t a woman. The shocked family then called police.

Fang was arrested on suspicion of swindling earlier this week. According to police, Fang had convinced his victim to give him 150,000 yuan (USD 23,471) during their relationship.

[GeneChing]

At least it's been tested...

Chinese Viagra counterfeiters reimbursed for prostitutes, forced to test effectiveness of pills made with cornflour on themselves
Gangs in Hunan province, catering to growing demand for the pills across the mainland, were even reimbursed for hiring massage parlour prostitutes to help them refine the best mixture
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 03 December, 2015, 12:59pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 03 December, 2015, 4:22pm
Sidney Leng sidney.leng@scmp.com


Gangs in Hunan province by mixing real medication with cornflour to make fake Viagra pills. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Viagra counterfeiters in China have been making staff test the fake pills - produced by mixing cornflour with genuine medication - on themselves before offering it for sale, mainland media reports.

Counterfeit gangs, based in Hunan province, have initially been importing genuine Sildenafil – a Western medication for treating men’s erectile disfunction – from Henan province, then mixing it with cornflour to produce fake tablets, which they have then sold in bottles printed with fake labels and packaging, Sanxiang Metropolis newspaper reported on Wednesday.

To ensure the fake medication’s effectiveness and quality, some counterfeiters were told to force staff mixing in the corn flour who lived locally to test it on themselves when they were at home with their wives or girlfriends.

Migrant workers mixing the fake medication, living far from home, were reimbursed for hiring prostitutes in massage parlours to help them test out its effectiveness, the report said.


The machine they used for packaging. Photo: SCMP Pictures

“The staff were very happy to test the fake medication in the beginning, but later on they get annoyed because the pill-testing took up too much time, so they quit,” one member of a counterfeit pill-making gang, who has been caught by police, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“Therefore we changed three batches of mixers to adjust the proportion of the mixture of corn flour and Sildenafil from 1:1 to 1:1.5.

“At least we did human testing [on our drug]. We were serious.”

The report said the proportion of added cornflour makes a big difference because careless mixers could have ended up filling one pill entirely with cornflour and another entirely with Sildenafil, instead of mixing them evenly.

It would mean some men taking such pills would either experience a very strong reaction or no reaction at all.

Counterfeiting of Viagra has been on the increase on the mainland as growing sexual dysfunction – particularly among middle-aged people.

In March last year, police in the city of Shaoyang in the southwestern province of Hunan caught a counterfeiting gang that was producing more than 30 types of Viagra pills.

More than two million boxes of bottles of fake Viagra pills, which filled nine trucks, were confiscated by police.

[GeneChing]

Woman in Chongqing poses as tax collector, attempts to collect 200 million RMB from state-owned company



A company in Chongqing got a rather unpleasant surprise when a woman walked into their office demanding 200 million RMB in cash, claiming she was from the local tax collection authority.
According to NetEase, at around 10 p.m on December 3, the woman marched into the office located in the city's Fuling district and asked to see someone in the finance department.



The woman, surnamed Wang, claimed that she was from a local tax authority and would be requiring the company to pay 200 million yuan to settle an outstanding tax bill. She was described as being in her mid thirties and wearing appropriate clothing for the occasion.
After asking for some credentials to back up her story, to the accountant's surprise Wang handed over a sheet of paper on which a hand-written scrawl read: "The Communist Party Central Committee's Organization Department has decided to appoint Wang Yu as the chief director of the Tax Bureau in Fuling district, Chongqing municipality."
The accountant then asked some basic questions about the difference between local and national taxes, to which Wang gave incredibly dubious answers. "National taxes refer to collecting taxes from supermarkets while local taxes is to collect taxes from local enterprises," she said.



The police were soon called and Wang was taken into custody. A brief investigation revealed that Wang, a local resident, had a mental illness and that she herself had written the note which failed to fool the top accountants.
Wang was returned home by the police and her guardian was asked to keep a closer eye on her in the future.
By Lucy Liu
[Images via NetEase]
Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Shanghaiist in News on Dec 5, 2015 3:00 PM

Not really as brazen as it seems, given she was mentally unstable.

[GeneChing]

So ironic, so typical.

Who probes fake Chinese goods? Fake investigators
By ERIKA KINETZ The Associated Press
First Published Dec 10 2015 06:06PM • Last Updated Dec 10 2015 06:06 pm


In this Thursday, June 18, 2015 photo, Wang Hai, founder of Beijing Dahai Shangwu Consultants, checks his smartphone during an interview. Wang, whose firm is retained by Western companies to investigate counterfeiting of their products in China, said he was once barred from raiding a company that made counterfeit windows, even though he had a police escort. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Shanghai • Multinational corporations doing business in China face a losing battle when it comes to keeping copies of their products off the market:

The anti-counterfeiting industry they rely on is plagued with fraud, making it that much easier for potentially dangerous fake goods — from air bags to Christmas lights — to reach consumers, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Most Western companies subcontract anti-counterfeiting work to private investigators paid on commission. More seizures mean higher fees, creating powerful incentives to cheat in an industry with little oversight.

As a result, money spent fighting counterfeiting often doesn't make things better, and sometimes makes them worse.

The AP found instances of investigative fraud involving products that could be hazardous: counterfeit auto parts, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and electrical components.

The wrongdoing took many forms:

• Western firms paid investigators who were themselves manufacturing or selling counterfeit versions of their clients' own goods.

• Investigators doctored documents, fabricating raids that never took place.

• Investigators colluded with factories to make counterfeit goods they could "seize" and present to their Western bosses for payment.

As counterfeiting has flourished in China over decades, a lucrative, parallel industry has blossomed to fight it. Counterfeiting today is a multibillion-dollar business in China, which produces nearly nine of every 10 fake items seized at U.S. borders.

Chinese authorities have been getting better at fining counterfeiters and sending them to jail.

But the momentum of reform has yet to reach the front lines of the fight against fakes, according to previously undisclosed material from legal cases and internal corporate investigations in China reviewed by the AP, lawsuits, and interviews with 16 private investigators, lawyers and law-enforcement officials.

All described a broken system, beset by endemic and underreported fraud, made worse by Western companies that have a poor command over how to successfully fight fraud.

Shanghai's Public Security Bureau took the unusual step of warning foreign brand owners to be watchful of the investigators they hire. "We very much hope that brand owners will pay attention and devote more manpower and material resources to ensure that the fight against counterfeiting is healthy and orderly," the bureau said in written response to questions from the AP.

One of the world's largest consumer goods companies hired an investigator to track down counterfeit anti-dandruff shampoo.

But instead of finding real counterfeiters, the investigator, Wang Yunming, set up a factory to produce counterfeit shampoo himself, which he then "seized" and billed to the firm as a successful raid, according to two employees involved in the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs.

It wasn't the first such factory Wang founded. It was the fourth.

Wang was convicted of fraud and is due to be released from prison in 2023, according to a copy of a judgment from Hefei Intermediate People's Court in China's Anhui province.