Worldwide Practices in Piracy: More than Movies and Music

Shadowing Karen at her English classes, I learned some cool things.

She teaches classes for executives of multinationals. We went to P&G where she had a student who was the director of couterfeit prevention at the company. He got to work with police organizations like the FBI and Interpol to track down who was making these fake products. Unlike pirated movies and music, pirated personal hygiene products (among others) can harm people. 



He showed us a video from a presentation about the different methods some gangs use to make counterfeit items. Some of the crazier things I learned included:
-   Counterfeiters making fake eggs.
The video showed the process how they use different chemicals to make the yoke and then some kinds of mold to make the egg. It was crazy, but I wonder how it looked when you cook them.
-   A news report about a gang who dug up used razors, cleaned them, and repackaged them to sell.
This is why you don't buy knockoff personal hygene products in street markets. I wanted to vomit.
-   A stat that 200 people died last year from using fake mouthwash.
Probably some nasty cheap and dangerous chemicals involved.
-   Some toothbrushes labeled as brand names are really counterfeit products from China or Africa.
The tell is that the fine print says approved by African or Asian dental associations, which probably don't exist. Bad toothbrushes have bad bristles that can mess up teeth.
- the #1 counterfeited prescription drug = Viagra.
Haha, how many frustrated men are out there?
All these products are sold in street markets for about 1/2 price of legit stores.

Since it is such a big global problem, this guy needs to travel all around the world and speaking English is a necessity.

I don't remember how many billions he told us that the counterfeit market was worth, but it was a lot. The biggest producer of them is, big fucking surprise... China. And the Chinese government is nice enough to allow the counterfeiters to make as many fake and possibly dangerous products as they want as long as the producers don't sell them in China. So they are allowed to ship to any other country, which is like a big "hey, fuck you" to every other country trying to stop the problem.

No comments:

Post a Comment