The fake news that’s all too real – massive haul of counterfeit Rolex watches seized
Time+TideUS Customs and Border Protection officers in Indianapolis have revealed they seized two big shipments of fake Rolex watches at the end of April. The custom officials seized 460 counterfeit Rolex watches that were arriving from Hong Kong and heading to Brooklyn, New York.
Based on intelligence gathering and a past history of fraudulent shipments from the vendor, custom officials detained and inspected the shipments. Inside officers discovered 300 counterfeit Rolex watches in the first shipment and 160 counterfeit Rolex watches in the second.
If punters had been sufficiently duped to pay the full price for the fake watches, officials have estimated their “street value” at $10.1 million USD. That valuation seems decidedly optimistic given the likelihood of the watches actually selling for the recommended retail price. But the prices of “superclones” can be more expensive than you might think, with websites selling high-end fake Daytonas or Yacht-Masters for over $1000 USD.
“No one buys a luxury brand watch expecting it to fail or fall apart,” said LaFonda Sutton-Burke, Chicago Director of Field Operations following the seizure. “As consumers increasingly purchase from online or third party vendors, our officers are at the frontline to guard against defrauders expecting to make money selling fake merchandise.”
The rapid growth of e-commerce is helping consumers to buy online. But this easy access also gives counterfeit and pirated goods more entry paths to the consumers. Last month, cusoms and border protection officers had another big haul seizing 1,034 items of counterfeit watches and jewellery including fake Rolex, Hublot, Breitling, Tag Heuer and Omega timepieces.
The seizure of the fake Rolex watches perhaps isn’t surprising in the wake of a study from UK-based consumer credit products company Money. In order to determine the most heavily forged brands, Money reviewed various counterfeit-specific TikTok hashtags associated with 40 of the most popular luxury brands, searching for things like #fake[brandname]. #[brandname]fake, #faux[brandname] and #counterfeit[brandname].
While Gucci was the brand that generated the biggest number of counterfeit items, Rolex, took the number two spot in terms of the most counterfeit-specific TikTok hashtags.