By Sean O'Keefe - CISAA Field Operations Manager

I had been attending a large motorcycle showin Quebec on behalf of a client and I was accompanied by a female operative, R.H. My findings at the show had been satisfactory – these exhibitions are a great place to gather intelligence. Purchases of counterfeit goods had been made; the evidence and receipts sealed, and notes were taken. I would type out a report, take digital photographs and send them in an email directly to the company's in house legal counsel that night for quick action from the comfort and warmth of my hotel room. The actual purchases would be shipped by courier the next day.
 
During the motorcycle show, R.H. had been experiencing the usual symptoms this time of year of a cold, itchy eyes, sniffling and sore throat.  We decided on the drive back to the hotel to stop at a drug store to purchase something to treat her cold symptoms. We made the medicine selection together and headed towards the cash register to pay for our purchases.  On the way to the cash register, I observed a large display of printer ink cartridges by a famous maker.  The drug store belongs to a chain of store in Canada and the USA, in other words, both the manufacturer of the ink cartridges and the Drug Store chain are very well known, respected and honest in their dealings.
 
The ink cartridge manufacturer had a security identification feature that I am privy to and that I had learned at a conference.  I told R.H. that I would show her how to spot counterfeit ink cartridges expecting to prove to her that these cartridges on view in the pharmacy were authentic. When showing her how it is done, I discovered that some of the ink cartridges were counterfeit but these were mixed in with authentic product.  I often use one of two expressions when I find counterfeits, BINGO when I expect to find counterfeit and another expression if I am surprised.  I used the latter expression.
 
I have as clients about 60 international and very well known brand owners to whom reports and evidence are sent to their legal counsel and/or directly to that company.  In this case, I knew the lawyers for the ink brand and we decided to make a case out of this. I made a purchase of the counterfeit ink cartridge and obtained a receipt. The lawyer contacted the national brand integrity manager by telephone that night and actions were immediately started.  As instructed, I checked other stores in the chain in Quebec city and later other cities as well as other very large retailers.  More counterfeit ink cartridges were found - a lot more. 

Since it was unlikely the retailer chain were knowingly involved in selling counterfeits, we decided to make direct inquiries with them. After a few limited background inquiries and weighing up the evidence more direct inquiries were made, this time with the supplier. We found they'd purchased the cartridges from a Hong Kong company, earlier that year.

We contacted CISAA in China who discovered the Hong Kong Company was what we call a "ghost" in other words it didn't really exist. The telephone number provided did however begin with a China country code. Was this going to be thrown into the "too hard basket"? Not so. Careful analysis of the HK sales details brought new company names and contacts in Guangzhou, China and finally the real supplier and their factory was discovered. Further purchases were made and we were lucky enough to identify an adjacent warehouse, which was finally raided by Guangzhou PSB. CISAA and police seized over $700,000 worth of product including toner cartridges, fake labels and fake packaging.

This initial and seemingly trivial discovery in Quebec, Canada was correctly and quickly investigated and a follow through was made. The anti-counterfeit measures on the packaging were proven to be effective on examination. Was luck involved? Yes, but so was diligence and product knowledge.
Would I have found the ink cartridges in the pharmacy if R.H. had not had a cold? I'd like to think that I might have. Would I have identified the ink cartridges as counterfeit had I not been instructed on how to use the security features? I think that probably not, at least, not in that way.

The need for speed and direct action on the Canada side saved possibly hundreds of hours of unnecessary investigation work by weighing up the pros and cons and going directly to the sellers. The case progressed much further than I thought it would but effective intelligence gathered by our team in China made it much easier than I'd thought possible.

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