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Counterfeit Goods: The Ultimate Fashion Crime


The Counterfeit Industry Is More Harmful Than You Think

The counterfeit industry is a money-laundering front for larger criminal organizations. Most people think buying a fake item isn’t a big deal. However, they couldn’t be more wrong. Every time you knowingly buy a counterfeit item, someone is being directly hurt in the process. The people making these bags and profiting from it are known to be involved in some horrific crimes such as sex trafficking, drug trafficking, slavery, and child labor…just to name a few. Did you know that there are reports of children getting their legs broken and chained to tables to make these counterfeit bags? On top of that, these bags are not suitable for the environment as they end up in landfills and they are chock full of plastics that are polluting the environment. No matter how you slice it, there is no benefit to saving a few bucks on a fake item; save your money for the real thing. It will have much more value and meaning in the long run.

Why You Should Save For The Real Deal

As a tourist, buying fake goods on the side of the streets from illegal vendors hurts the greater good. Instead, save up your money to buy authentic. There are so many different options to buy the bags and other luxury items at a fraction of the cost. When you purchase items secondhand, you can find bags that look brand new. Save up your money for the real deal; that way, you aren’t supporting the evils people support to make money in a non-ethical way. Plus, those counterfeit bags are going to fall apart after a few wears. When you buy the real deal, it will last longer and you can know you are supporting a real business of craftsmen and women who do this for the beauty and brand of a real product. If you try and repair a counterfeit bag, it can and will get taken away from you and/or refuse service. It’s good to authenticate your bag, especially if you bought it secondhand or it was a gift. If you already have a fake bag, know you can always buy the real thing at a later time. And keep it OUT of the selling world and the landfill.

How Entrupy Is Changing The Counterfeit Industry

Entrupy is changing the game of counterfeit items. They provide the only technology-based, powered by AI, authentication solution on the market to provide trust to buyers and sellers of luxury handbags. The device is an iPod Touch that they configure with the Entrupy application. The app will prompt you to take pictures of different regions of the bag. The information then gets fed to the system and the algorithms start running. When you hit submit, the app already knows the authenticity of the bag within 60 seconds. People will find out the hard way that the bags they received for their birthdays or gifts are actually inauthentic and it can be totally disappointing and embarrassing. Once the person finds out that it’s fake, it can generally be a sticky conversation and it can be confiscated in some cases.

Some Counterfeit Items Are Still High-Quality 

Some counterfeit items are such good fakes as the blind eye can miss important detailing. If you are looking for high-quality counterfeit goods, they are out there and might even be partly authentic. For example, you can find good quality leather pretty much anywhere. A counterfeit bag might be made of that high-quality leather, but it has low-quality hardware. Sometimes people will realize that all parts of their handbag are authentic; however, it was sewed together from different bags or the stitching is crooked or poorly constructed. Thus, making it inauthentic. If you have experience with luxury goods and consignment, you might already have some knowledge about counterfeit goods. Unfortunately, people who have this background still get tricked to this day. SUPER high-quality counterfeits are extremely difficult to detect with the naked eye. Are you going to trust your opinion or data? Always trust the data.

Always Get Your Handbag Authenticated 


Consignment stores will often authenticate items when people bring in their items. That’s the beauty of consignment; it can always be given back to the seller. If you’re at a buy, sell, trade store, the transaction takes place upfront. Therefore, it belongs to the company outright once you sell it, Some buy, sell, trades don’t specialize in luxury and won’t authenticate, making it easy for them to buy a fake. When you’re shopping, make sure that you find out if they are using the Entrupy device or another method to guarantee a real product. Stores that use Entrupy have a 99.9% success rate. On the off chance that they are wrong, there is a financial guarantee. Plus, they release an annual State of the Fake Report. You can check out the 2020 report here. In 2020, they collected fifteen million authentic and counterfeit images from various global sources. We can’t recommend their work enough!