Taobao Teams Up With Apple, Gucci To Remove Counterfeit Products

First reported March 20 2011

China’s leading retail website – Taobao has joined hands with some of the world’s best known brands on a sting operation to remove the sales of counterfeit products from the e-commerce website.  A total of 89 brands including Apple, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Estee Lauder, Samsung, Panasonic and Swarovski are participating in the “Special Covert Anti-Counterfeit Operation” announced by Taobao on March 14.

With more than 10 million daily new product listings on Taobao, the sheer number made it very difficult to track counterfeit products. The introduction of a sting operation was inevitable to eradicate fake goods.

The method is simple and effective. Everyday a list of suspected products will be purchased by Taobao itself. These goods will be screened for authenticity and merchants with counterfeit products will punished according to Taobao’s guidelines. Taobao has already purchased 608 items and 586 sellers were found guilty. Taobao disciplines merchants by assessing points against them for violations of its trading policies. The seller will be shut off from Taobao when he or she reaches 48 points within a calendar year.

“This collaboration with brand owners is a further step by Taobao to fortify and escalate its commitment to eliminate counterfeit products from the site, which will advance Taobao’s goal of being a retail destination where consumers can shop with confidence,” said Justine Chao, a Taobao spokeswoman.

In addition to the sting operation, Taobao has implemented a series of safeguards designed to keep counterfeit products off the site, as reported on Alibaba Group’s news site. The safeguards include:

Automated filtering: Product listings that do not match manufacturer SKUs (indicating they are authentic) or are priced abnormally are removed by an automated filtering system. Taobao maintains databases of SKUs and standard product prices.

Manual filtering: A dedicated team monitors the site around the clock and can remove problematic goods from circulation at any time.

Reporting by users: Every product-listing page contains a button so shoppers can easily report suspicious items.

Coordination with brand owners: Taobao received complaints from more than 6,000 brand owners in 2010 and as a result removed approximately 14 million product listings. Taobao is currently in discussion with 214 brand owners on further cooperation.

Taobao officials said that all these programs result in an average of 20,000 product listings being removed from the site each day.  I particularly like how Taobao has leveraged users as gatekeepers. In its efforts to make the site increasingly authentic, Taobao is seriously doing a great job.

Content thanks: TechInAsia

For luxury authentic products & services; http://www.luxuryonlinestore.net

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Counterfeit iPad Set To Be Released With Call Capabilities

authentic Apple iPad mini

Counterfeiting Apple products is nothing new, as a company we have seen more than our fair share of fake iPhone five devices and have had the extreme pleasure in destroying every single one, whilst showing empathy to the poor 'ripped off' clients who had purchased them as genuine, from various unscrupulous fake websites and personal advertisement.

Now, a new breed of Apple iPad mini is set to flood the market if recent reports from China are to be believed. This counterfeit iPad mini is actually set for release soon and it has some additional features which they think will make it appealing for the consumers.

Fake manufacturing companies have produced this tablet and named it Mini Pad in an attempt to avoid the obvious copyright infringements. The look and feel of the tablet is almost identical to the one produced by Apple. There are a few differences though - some quite significant ones as well, we might add.

The counterfeit iPad mini might look like it's running iOS but nothing could be farther from the truth. This counterfeit is actually running the Android operating system, with a skin that looks exactly like that of iOS. As with the other fake Apple devices, were anyone to buy one of these, you will most likely find yourself having some compatitbility issues when trying to dowload apps fro the App Store or getting it to be recognised to sync with Apple iTune, for example.

Furthermore, this counterfeit iPad mini also has call capabilities. That is something the authentic iPad mini does not have, at least not yet anyway. This counterfeit iPad mini will come in two versions. One has a dual-core MT6577 and another has a quad-core MT6588. Both processing chips were created by
 One has a dual-core MT6577 and another has a quad-core MT6588. Both processing chips were created by MediaTek which supports phone calls. As with all counterfeit products you won't get anything near an authentic Apple device when not running the operating system developed and maintained by Apple.

 Delortae Agency advice as always, Do Not Buy Fake.

Counterfeit iPad Mini with call capabilities

Counterfeit iPad Mini with call capabilities

Visit Apple on-line for authentic iPad Mini.

For luxury authentic products & services visit; http://www.luxuryonlinestore.net

Content thanks: MyDrivers

Counterfeit Stores Are Not New, Remember Fake Balmain Store in Dubai!

In the midst of the recent fake Apple Store in China, we have to remember that this is not a 'one off'.

We have, over the years, been made aware of this activity going on all over the world. We remind you of the fake Balmain Store, told by INDIA-JEWEL JACKSON  back in 2009 reproduced below.


"How does the saying go? “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is…”

I should have listened.

A couple of weeks ago, I made the 13-hour journey to the United Arab Emirates, a.k.a. shopper’s paradise. Virtually everyone has set up shop in the golden city of Dubai; YSL, Manolo Blahnik, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel—the entire fashion set is present and accounted for. And with the current state of the economy, it wasn’t uncommon to see storefronts peppered with signs that read “Sale!” “25% off!” “Buy One, Get One Half Price!”

Imagine my surprise when I ran across a standalone Balmain boutique at the base of my hotel. All kinds of thoughts of fashionable grandeur ran through my mind… Rihanna, Kate Moss, exaggerated shoulders, Beyonce, Cassie, crystal studded sandals, Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, marching band ‘drum major’ vests… It was all too much to process. Balmain? In my size? On sale for 75% off?
I should have know something was fishy—who advertises a sale on neon poster-board?

Against my better judgment—lured by the thought of buying Balmain at Bebe prices—I bought two pairs of jeans and scurried upstairs to try them on with the YSL shoes I’d bought earlier that day. Since I’ve been on Weight Watchers, I’d actually unknowingly dropped a pant size, so my new fancy jeans were a bit too big. I scurried downstairs to make a quick exchange when I was told, “No. All Sales are Final.”

Slightly angry, but more confused, I decided to do a bit of investigative research. (A bit late, I might add.) First, I Goggled. No information on a Balmain store in Dubai. Then, I searched for legitimate store locations. No Balmain boutique south of Turkey. Finally, I called the flagship Balmain boutique in Paris. Definitely no Balmain store in Dubai.

I’d been duped.

Selling knockoff purses out of a warehouse in Chinatown is one thing, because if you’re shopping in Chinatown, you’re obviously looking for fakes. But setting up an entire store under the guise of a haute couture brand is another. They’d blatantly ripped off the current runway collection, the shopping bags, the price tags, even the logo was perfect. (How do these people sleep at night?)

Needless to say, I’ve returned to NYC with two pairs of fake denim that I can’t be bothered to wear, but can’t bear to get rid of. I guess I just think of them a reminder of why I hate fakes.

At the end of the day, I was the posterchild for ‘American greed.’ Ah, well. You live and you learn!" quote~India-Jewel Jackson.

This is just one of the countless stories we have had confirmed over the years, this poses a new threat for brand protection as the audacious grow bolder.

Counterfeit Apple Stores surface in China - report

Chinese counterfeiters have a long history of cloning hardware from major tech manufacturers, but now they're going a step further by cloning entire stores.

A US blogger living in Kunming in Southwest China noticed what appeared to be an Apple store pop up in her town, complete with the store's trademark spacious, airy interior, blue-shirted staff, products to play with, and upstairs seating area.

Counterfeit Apple products are nothing new but evidence suggests that counterfeit Apple Stores are cropping up in parts of China. Photographs suggest that Apple brand is being abused.


The author of the Bird Abroad blog, an anonymous 27-year-old female living in Kunming, China, claims that she walked into one of the counterfeit stores recently, just a few blocks away from where she and her husband live.


Photographs on the blog entry show what looks like, to all intents and purposes, an Apple Store. The author was apparently stopped from photographing by shop staff and security guards. One photograph bears the legend 'Apple Stoer' above some Chinese characters.

"They looked like Apple products. It looked like an Apple store. It had the classic Apple store winding staircase and weird upstairs sitting area. The employees were even wearing those blue t-shirts with the chunky Apple name tags around their necks," the author writes.

"This was a total Apple store ripoff. A beautiful ripoff – a brilliant one – the best ripoff store we had ever seen (and we see them every day). But some things were just not right: the stairs were poorly made. The walls hadn’t been painted properly.

"The name tags around the necks of the friendly salespeople didn’t actually have names on them – just an Apple logo and the anonymous designation 'Staff'. And of course, Apple’s own website will tell you that they only have a few stores in Beijing and Shanghai, opened only recently," she continues.

The author also contends that in a ten-minute walk in the surrounding area, she and her husband found two more rip-off Apple Stores.

Ironically, Apple reported yesterday that China was key to the company's quarterly revenue of $28.57bn. "I firmly believe that we're just scratching the surface right now. I think there is incredible opportunity for Apple there," Cook said.

If the report on the Bird Abroad blog is true, then it seems that the clamour for Apple-branded products in China is perhaps even greater than Cook believes.

via macworld.co.uk