Counterfeit and Fraud Investigations

Our client was an international fashion brand whose products were subject to a large amount of counterfeiting, thus generating a significant loss in revenue for the brand. Due to the fact that the brand was releasing only a limited number of items, its brand was sought after by collectors and resellers alike. 

The client wanted to know the scale of counterfeit activities targeting its products in multiple countries therefore we conducted a cross-jurisdictions investigation in Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.  

We performed an open-source investigation, gathering data from social media platforms, online markets, and dark web searches with the aim of generating a clear landscape of the scale of counterfeiting activities targeting our client. 

Thus, we managed to identify key indicators that differentiated between genuine second-hand sales and those of counterfeit products, to then create a database of all the sellers and products identified. In doing so, we used several “avatars” (or fake profiles) to get directly in touch with the sellers and perform test purchases to assess the degree of similarity between the original products and the counterfeited ones. All the evidence was gathered in a dedicated database and the findings were presented to the client in a comprehensive report.

Furthermore, following authorisation from the client’s side, we also deployed local assets to conduct in-person purchases from a selected number of sellers.