According to representatives of John Cavendish Ltd, the company's latest invention is made of fibers that were immersed in plant DNA. With such garment, producers will be able to prove the product's authenticity and avoid counterfeiting.
The botanical DNA, used in the garment, functions similarly to our fingerprints."Plants have a unique code, a genetic fingerprint that can be applied to cloth to stand for 'woven in Yorkshire'," said James Michelsberg, the person who created the revolutionary suit.
Well, the fight against counterfeiting is getting stronger and stronger, with international Police working together trying to stop the spread of fake products all around the world. The amount of business is outrageous. Unfortunately the "fake" products on the market are not only branded bags such as Louis Vuitton or Gucci, brand shoes (the biggest market) and clothes in general, but even medicines, toothpaste, baby products, electrical items, cat and dog furs sold as "rabbit" or "wolf". And it is clear to understand how DANGEROUS that can be. These are some simple but effective steps (some from Wiki-How) to take in order to avoid buying potentially harmful and counterfeited stuff:
1) Look out for deals that are too good to be true. Not all fakes sell at lower prices than their genuine counterparts, but an unreal bargain is one of the surest signs of an unreal product. Ask yourself how someone can sell, for example, a brand new Rolex which at retail shops costs ten thousand dollars, for 100 dollars or less on an Internet site. (Be careful about retail stores too as MANY sell fakes too, go on the brand site to check the official retail shops) . These incredible deals are impossible! Chances are that you are buying a cheap fake. 2) Pay attention to the products you buy. Odds are you purchase many of the same products or brands over and over again. Pay at least a little attention to them and you'll be much better at spotting a counterfeit because you'll have something to compare it to. If you're purchasing a brand that is new to you or a product that you don't frequently buy, compare it to the same product at other stores. You can also compare brands against other brands. For example, if you're not sure about a certain extension cord, compare it to others that are for sale in the same aisle. All brands of extension cord will have a lot of the same information and symbols printed on them or on their packaging, so if one particular brand doesn't, it may be a fake. For bags and clothing: look for the hologram that some Italian brands, for example, are putting inside the clothes or bags but be careful as in Asia they are counterfeiting holograms too or removing tags from real clothes to stitch them to the fake one. 3) Beware products that seem flimsy or are obviously poorly made. This seems obvious. But sometimes we like the price and we overlook the quality, believing the brand or the place we buy from. Quality control is often absent in counterfeiting operations, so you may be able to spot a counterfeit simply based on its workmanship.For branded bags for example, look for the stitches, they have to be symmetrical and straight, usually it is easy to spot genuine cowhide as it is almost pink and tends to darken with time.4) Inspect the packaging carefully. Reputable businesses typically take great care in packaging their products. Beware flimsy packaging, packaging with substandard printing or running colors, or packages that appear to have been opened. In addition, take a moment to actually read the package.Spelling or grammatical errors are common on the packaging for counterfeit goods. For example, boxes of counterfeit toothpaste that showed up in U.S. stores in June 2007 had several obvious typos, including "SOUTH AFRLCA" and "Assoxiation."Does the packaging exactly match the product? Some careless counterfeiters will try putting a fake drill, for example, in a box for a saw. It's rarely this obvious--check model numbers on the packaging against the model number of the equipment, and carefully examine tags on clothing.Look out for very plain boxes. Most product labels and boxes these days have a whole host of information printed on them, from bar codes to trademark and patent information to recycling symbols. 5) Look for manufacturer contact information. Most reputable companies will provide a phone number or at least an address at which consumers can call them. 6) Look for a safety certification label. Just about any electrical product, and many other products that could pose some sort of safety risk, will have one or more safety certifications on its label if it's made by a legitimate manufacturer. The UL (Underwriters Laboratory) label is the most common, particularly in the U.S. (the competing ETL mark is also a major certification in the U.S.). In Europe, the CE marking is required on electrical products, and in Canada the CSA (Canadian Standards Association) mark is common. Look for at least one of these marks on electrical products--there are often several, as well as other minor certifications. Bear in mind, however, that counterfeiters will often include fake marks on their products, so you need to look at them closely. Low quality products that don't claim to be brand-name may also simply use a counterfeit certification mark.Familiarize yourself with how these marks look. Look at products in your house and in stores. The marks for a given certification are not always the same size, but they always carry the same font and design, and they will include a control number for the specific product. Faked marks are usually, but not always, easy to spot. UL requires hologram marks for most products from China and for some products regardless of country of origin; see their website for details.If the certification mark is present only on the packaging, but not on the product itself, there's a good chance the product is fake.Some of these organizations also have online product registries where you can look up a particular product or control number to verify the certification. 7) Make sure everything that should be there is there. Counterfeit products often don't include supplementary materials such an owner's manual or a product registration card. Sometimes they don't even include all the parts that should come with the product, or some parts will be from a different manufacturer.Check the manufacturer's website. Many large companies now have information on their websites to alert customers to possible counterfeit products and to help them detect fakes.Be reasonable. Are the dangers of counterfeit products exaggerated? While there's no doubt that counterfeit goods can be dangerous--they've resulted in injuries and deaths throughout the world--it's important to keep in mind that the legitimate manufacturers of products, and the trade groups that represent them, have an incentive to exaggerate the risks in order to prompt government intervention and to frighten people who knowingly buy knockoffs of brand-name goods.Nowadays in most countries (I speak for Italy) the police will fine who buys counterfeited items on the streets or on the beaches. The first fine was emitted few days ago on a beach in the Tuscan Riviera, where a German lady has been fined 2000 euros for having bought a fake branded bag from an African seller. China is the source of most counterfeited products.Some Chinese workers around the world are employed by the local mafia to produce counterfeited products (watch the movie Gomorra about it). Of course many, many legitimately produced products are also made in China, but a "Made in China" sticker on an already suspicious product is a red flag. You should also be suspicious if no country of origin is listed on either the packaging or the product itself. Counterfeiting rings will sometimes remove a "Made in China" sticker when importing fake products, and producers of counterfeits will sometimes simply leave off the country of origin designation.
Last but not least, NEVER BUY FURS that have weird labels such as : wild wolf, Pomeranian rabbit, and so on. If you are buying what is OBVIOUSLY a FAKE fur made of synthetic material it is fine. Those are cheap and keep you warm too. BUT if the FUR appears to be REAL and it bears some of these strange labels, it will probably be a CAT or a DOG, skinned alive and tortured in China or in Eastern Europe. The furs costs only 1 or 2 dollars and these jackets, hats, gloves etc. travel all around the world, distributed by legitimated CHAINS and MALLS. Only in Italy a few years ago they had to withdraw from the market (a big and popular chain was selling those items too) thousands of items suspected to be made with dog and cat fur. Simply Horrible.
No comments:
Post a Comment