0:00:00.855,0:00:04.321
Two years ago, I set off[br]from Central London on the Tube

0:00:04.345,0:00:06.643
and ended up somewhere[br]in the east of the city

0:00:06.667,0:00:08.580
walking into a self storage unit

0:00:08.604,0:00:12.199
to meet a guy that had[br]2,000 luxury polo shirts for sale.

0:00:13.180,0:00:15.105
And as I made my way down the corridor,

0:00:15.129,0:00:18.122
a broken, blinking light made it[br]just like the cliche scene

0:00:18.146,0:00:19.343
from a gangster movie.

0:00:20.462,0:00:23.415
Our man was early, and he was[br]waiting for me in front of a unit

0:00:23.439,0:00:25.463
secured with four padlocks down the side.

0:00:26.043,0:00:27.580
On our opening exchange,

0:00:27.604,0:00:29.351
it was like a verbal sparring match,

0:00:29.375,0:00:31.009
where he threw the first punches.

0:00:31.401,0:00:32.566
Who was I?

0:00:32.590,0:00:33.915
Did I have a business card?

0:00:33.939,0:00:35.406
And where was I going to sell?

0:00:35.886,0:00:38.566
And then, he just started opening up,

0:00:38.590,0:00:39.740
and it was my turn.

0:00:40.433,0:00:42.379
Where were the polo shirts coming from?

0:00:42.403,0:00:43.754
What paperwork did he have?

0:00:44.501,0:00:47.032
And when was his next[br]shipment going to arrive?

0:00:47.056,0:00:49.629
I was treading the fine between[br]asking enough questions

0:00:49.653,0:00:51.169
to get what I needed

0:00:51.193,0:00:53.740
and not enough for him[br]to become suspicious,

0:00:53.764,0:00:55.413
because what he didn't know

0:00:55.437,0:00:58.285
is that I'm a counterfeit investigator,

0:00:59.705,0:01:02.468
and after 20 minutes or so[br]of checking over the product

0:01:02.492,0:01:06.007
for the telltale signs[br]of counterfeit production,

0:01:06.031,0:01:08.357
say, badly stitched labels[br]or how the packaging

0:01:08.381,0:01:11.206
had a huge brand logo[br]stamped all over the front of it,

0:01:11.230,0:01:13.126
I was finally on my way out,

0:01:13.150,0:01:16.221
but not before he insisted[br]on walking down to the street with me

0:01:16.245,0:01:17.451
and back to the station.

0:01:19.237,0:01:21.905
And the feeling after these meetings[br]is always the same:

0:01:21.929,0:01:24.009
my heart is beating like a drum,

0:01:24.033,0:01:26.928
because you never know[br]if they've actually bought your story,

0:01:26.952,0:01:30.080
or they're going to start following you[br]to see who you really are.

0:01:30.104,0:01:32.454
Relief only comes when[br]you turn the first corner

0:01:32.478,0:01:34.842
and glance behind[br]and they're not standing there.

0:01:36.171,0:01:38.660
But what our counterfeit[br]polo shirt seller certainly didn't realize

0:01:38.684,0:01:42.629
is that everything I'd seen and heard[br]would result in a dawn raid on his house,

0:01:42.653,0:01:44.417
him being woken out of bed

0:01:44.441,0:01:47.338
by eight men on his doorstep[br]and all his product seized.

0:01:48.557,0:01:51.251
But this would reveal[br]that he was just a pawn

0:01:51.275,0:01:55.522
at the end of a counterfeiting network[br]spanning three continents,

0:01:55.546,0:01:58.664
and he was just the first loose thread[br]that I'd started to pull on

0:01:58.688,0:02:00.625
in the hope that it would all unravel.

0:02:01.697,0:02:03.434
Why go through all that trouble?

0:02:04.358,0:02:06.799
Well, maybe counterfeiting[br]is a victimless crime?

0:02:07.365,0:02:09.475
These big companies,[br]they make enough money,

0:02:09.499,0:02:10.770
so if anything,

0:02:10.794,0:02:13.530
counterfeiting is just[br]a free form of advertising, right?

0:02:14.170,0:02:16.546
And consumers believe just that,

0:02:16.570,0:02:18.293
that the buying and selling of fakes

0:02:18.317,0:02:19.467
is not that big a deal.

0:02:20.110,0:02:23.149
But I'm here to tell you[br]that that is just not true.

0:02:24.848,0:02:28.777
What the tourist on holiday doesn't see[br]about those fake handbags

0:02:28.801,0:02:31.237
is they may well[br]have been stitched together

0:02:31.261,0:02:34.750
by a child that was trafficked[br]away from her family,

0:02:34.774,0:02:37.246
and what the car repair shop[br]owner doesn't realize

0:02:37.270,0:02:39.403
about those fake brake pads

0:02:39.427,0:02:41.332
is they may well be lining the products

0:02:41.356,0:02:42.769
with an organized crime gang

0:02:42.793,0:02:44.895
involved in drugs and prostitution.

0:02:45.950,0:02:48.840
And while those two things[br]are horrible to think about,

0:02:48.864,0:02:51.172
it gets much worse,

0:02:51.196,0:02:54.068
because counterfeiting[br]is even funding terrorism.

0:02:55.043,0:02:56.511
Let that sink in for a moment.

0:02:57.567,0:03:00.396
Terrorists are selling fakes[br]to fund attacks,

0:03:00.420,0:03:02.131
attacks in our cities

0:03:02.155,0:03:04.109
that try to make victims of all of us.

0:03:05.442,0:03:07.681
You wouldn't buy a live scorpion

0:03:07.705,0:03:10.712
because there is chance that it[br]would sting you on the way home,

0:03:10.736,0:03:12.760
but would you still buy a fake handbag

0:03:12.784,0:03:14.204
if you knew the profits

0:03:14.228,0:03:16.283
would enable someone to buy bullets

0:03:16.307,0:03:19.672
that would kill you and other[br]innocent people six months later?

0:03:20.594,0:03:21.744
Maybe not.

0:03:22.552,0:03:24.314
OK, time to come clean.

0:03:24.668,0:03:25.819
In my youth, yeah,

0:03:25.843,0:03:28.696
I might look like I'm still[br]clinging on to it a bit,

0:03:28.720,0:03:31.888
I bought fake watches while on holiday[br]in the Canary Islands.

0:03:32.395,0:03:33.767
But why do I tell you this?

0:03:34.229,0:03:36.681
Well, we've all done it,

0:03:36.705,0:03:38.380
or we know someone that's done it,

0:03:38.404,0:03:42.047
and until this very moment, maybe[br]you didn't think twice about it,

0:03:42.071,0:03:43.447
and nor did I,

0:03:43.471,0:03:46.098
until I answered a 20-word cryptic advert

0:03:46.122,0:03:48.407
to become an intellectual[br]property investigator.

0:03:50.086,0:03:53.128
It said, "full training given[br]and some international travel."

0:03:53.152,0:03:56.900
Within a week, I was creating[br]my first of many aliases,

0:03:56.924,0:03:59.964
and in the 10 years since,[br]I've investigated fake car parts,

0:03:59.988,0:04:03.241
??. fake tech grooming tools,

0:04:03.265,0:04:04.956
fake bicycle parts,

0:04:04.980,0:04:07.107
and, of course,[br]the counterfeiter's favorite,

0:04:07.131,0:04:10.241
fake luxury leather goods,[br]clothing and shoes.

0:04:11.027,0:04:13.901
And what I've learned in the 10 years[br]of investigating fakes

0:04:13.925,0:04:16.366
is that once you start[br]to scratch the surface,

0:04:16.390,0:04:18.552
you find that they are rotten to the core,

0:04:18.576,0:04:21.297
as are the people and organizations

0:04:21.321,0:04:23.314
that are making money from them,

0:04:23.338,0:04:26.805
because they are profiting[br]on a massive, massive scale.

0:04:27.499,0:04:29.928
You can only make around[br]a hundred to 200 percent

0:04:29.952,0:04:31.466
selling drugs on the street.

0:04:31.807,0:04:35.650
You can make 2,000 percent[br]selling fakes online

0:04:35.674,0:04:37.895
with little of the same[br]risks or penalties.

0:04:38.856,0:04:41.232
And this quick, easy money[br]then goes on to fund

0:04:41.256,0:04:42.809
the more serious types of crime,

0:04:42.833,0:04:45.397
and it pays the way to making[br]these organizations,

0:04:45.421,0:04:47.832
these criminal organizations,[br]look more legitimate.

0:04:48.863,0:04:50.894
So let me bring you in on a live case.

0:04:51.620,0:04:53.819
Earlier this year, a series[br]of raids took place

0:04:53.843,0:04:56.164
in one of my longest-running[br]investigations.

0:04:56.470,0:04:59.523
Five warehouses were raided in Turkey,

0:04:59.547,0:05:03.360
and over two million finished[br]counterfeit clothing products were seized,

0:05:03.384,0:05:06.375
and it took 16 trucks[br]to take that all away.

0:05:07.288,0:05:08.718
But this gang had been clever.

0:05:08.742,0:05:12.029
They had gone through the lengths[br]of creating their own fashion brands

0:05:12.053,0:05:14.035
complete with registered trademarks

0:05:14.059,0:05:16.560
and even having photoshoots[br]on yachts in Italy.

0:05:19.124,0:05:21.435
And they would use these[br]completely unheard-of

0:05:21.459,0:05:24.537
and unsuspicious brand names[br]as a way of shipping container loads

0:05:24.561,0:05:27.750
of fakes to shell companies[br]that they'd set up across Europe.

0:05:28.974,0:05:32.368
And documents found during those raids[br]found that they'd been falsifying

0:05:32.392,0:05:34.244
shipping documents

0:05:34.268,0:05:37.014
so the customs officials[br]would literally have no idea

0:05:37.038,0:05:39.228
who had sent the products[br]in the first place.

0:05:39.944,0:05:42.301
When police got access[br]to just one bank account,

0:05:42.325,0:05:44.139
they found nearly three million euros

0:05:44.163,0:05:47.608
had been laundered out of Spain[br]in less than two years,

0:05:47.632,0:05:49.711
and just two days after those raids,

0:05:49.735,0:05:51.978
that gang were trying to bribe a law firm

0:05:52.002,0:05:53.200
to get their stock back.

0:05:54.782,0:05:57.846
Even now, we have no idea[br]where all that money went,

0:05:57.870,0:05:59.747
to who it went to, but you can bet

0:05:59.771,0:06:02.234
it's never going to benefit[br]the likes of you or me.

0:06:03.970,0:06:06.272
But these aren't just[br]low-level street thugs.

0:06:06.739,0:06:09.876
They're business professionals,[br]and they fly first class.

0:06:09.900,0:06:13.615
They trick legitimate businesses[br]with convincing fake invoices

0:06:13.639,0:06:14.790
and paperwork,

0:06:14.814,0:06:16.440
so everything just seems real,

0:06:16.464,0:06:19.060
and then they set up eBay[br]and Amazon accounts

0:06:19.084,0:06:22.027
just to compete with the people[br]they've already sold fakes to.

0:06:23.813,0:06:25.622
But this isn't just happening online.

0:06:26.117,0:06:28.307
For a few years, I also used to attend

0:06:28.331,0:06:30.594
automotive trade shows

0:06:30.618,0:06:33.301
taking place in huge exhibition spaces,

0:06:33.325,0:06:36.517
but away from the Ferraris[br]and the Bentleys and the flashing lights,

0:06:36.541,0:06:38.475
there'd be companies selling fakes,

0:06:38.499,0:06:41.190
companies with a brochure on the counter

0:06:41.214,0:06:44.516
and another one underneath[br]if you ask them the right questions.

0:06:44.540,0:06:47.351
And they would sell me fake car parts,[br]faulty fake car parts

0:06:47.375,0:06:51.892
that have been estimated to cause[br]over 36,000 fatalities,

0:06:51.916,0:06:53.787
deaths on our roads each year.

0:06:55.182,0:07:01.071
Counterfeiting is set to become[br]a 2.3 trillion dollar underground economy,

0:07:01.095,0:07:04.150
and the damage that can be done[br]with that kind of money,

0:07:04.174,0:07:05.324
it's really frightening,

0:07:06.587,0:07:09.905
because fakes fund terror.

0:07:09.929,0:07:12.350
Fake trainers on the streets of Paris,

0:07:12.374,0:07:14.817
fake cigarettes in West Africa,

0:07:14.841,0:07:17.056
and pirate music CDs in the USA

0:07:17.080,0:07:20.334
have all gone on to fund[br]terrorist training camps,

0:07:20.358,0:07:23.484
bought weapons and ammunition,[br]or the ingredients for explosives.

0:07:24.421,0:07:27.620
In June 2014, the French security services

0:07:27.644,0:07:33.620
stopped monitoring the communications[br]of Said and Cherif Kouachi,

0:07:33.644,0:07:35.740
the two brothers who had[br]been on a watchlist,

0:07:35.764,0:07:37.524
a terror watchlist, for three years.

0:07:37.548,0:07:40.772
But that summer, they were only[br]picking up that Cherif was buying

0:07:40.796,0:07:42.855
fake trainers from China,

0:07:42.879,0:07:45.514
so it signaled a shift away from extremism

0:07:45.538,0:07:48.442
into what was considered[br]a low level, petty crime.

0:07:49.752,0:07:51.045
The threat had gone away.

0:07:52.049,0:07:54.860
Seven months later, the two brothers[br]walked into the offices

0:07:54.884,0:07:57.515
of Charlie Hebdo magazine[br]and killed 12 people,

0:07:57.539,0:07:59.218
wounded 11 more,

0:07:59.242,0:08:01.908
with guns from[br]the proceeds of those fakes.

0:08:02.603,0:08:06.235
So whatever you think, this isn't[br]a faraway problem happening in China.

0:08:06.259,0:08:07.551
It's happening right here.

0:08:09.528,0:08:10.885
And Paris is not unique.

0:08:11.642,0:08:15.754
Ten years earlier, in 2004,[br]191 people lost their lives

0:08:15.778,0:08:17.721
when a Madrid commuter train was bombed.

0:08:18.307,0:08:22.561
The attack had been partly funded[br]by the sale of pirate music CDs in the US.

0:08:22.880,0:08:25.721
Two years prior to that,[br]an al Qaeda training manual

0:08:25.745,0:08:27.507
recommended explicitly

0:08:27.531,0:08:30.991
selling fakes as a good way[br]of supporting terror cells.

0:08:32.574,0:08:37.709
But despite this, despite the evidence[br]connecting terrorism and counterfeiting,

0:08:37.733,0:08:40.503
we do go on buying them,[br]increasing the demand

0:08:40.527,0:08:42.416
to the point where there's even a store

0:08:42.440,0:08:45.304
in Turkey called "I Love Genuine Fakes."

0:08:46.688,0:08:49.887
And you have tourists posing[br]with photographs on TripAdvisor

0:08:49.911,0:08:51.648
giving it five star reviews.

0:08:52.301,0:08:55.421
But would those same tourists[br]have gone into a store called

0:08:55.445,0:08:58.072
"I Love Genuine Fake Viagra Pills"

0:08:58.096,0:09:00.500
or "I Genuinely Love Funding Terrorism"?

0:09:01.282,0:09:02.432
I doubt it.

0:09:03.564,0:09:04.802
Many of us think

0:09:04.826,0:09:08.620
that we're completely helpless[br]against organized crime and terrorism,

0:09:08.644,0:09:11.550
that we can do nothing[br]about the next attack,

0:09:11.574,0:09:12.986
but I believe you can.

0:09:13.755,0:09:16.359
You can by becoming investigators too.

0:09:17.875,0:09:20.756
The way we cripple these networks[br]is to cut their funding,

0:09:20.780,0:09:23.455
and that means cutting the demand[br]and changing this idea

0:09:23.479,0:09:24.875
that it's a victimless crime.

0:09:25.197,0:09:27.658
Let's all identify counterfeiters

0:09:27.682,0:09:29.181
and don't give them our money.

0:09:29.736,0:09:32.396
So here's a few tips[br]from one investigator to another

0:09:32.420,0:09:33.704
to get you started.

0:09:34.633,0:09:35.910
Number one:

0:09:35.934,0:09:38.609
here's a typical online[br]counterfeiter's website.

0:09:39.263,0:09:40.413
Note the URL.

0:09:40.923,0:09:43.884
If you're shopping for sunglasses[br]or camera lenses, say,

0:09:43.908,0:09:47.414
and you come across a website[br]like medical-insurance-bankruptcy.com,

0:09:47.438,0:09:49.003
start to get very suspicious.

0:09:49.027,0:09:50.553
(Laughter)

0:09:50.577,0:09:53.370
But counterfeiters register[br]expired domain names as a way

0:09:53.394,0:09:55.956
of keeping up the old website's[br]Google page ranking.

0:09:57.401,0:10:00.172
Number two: is the website[br]screaming at you that everything

0:10:00.196,0:10:01.797
is 100 percent genuine,

0:10:01.821,0:10:05.028
but still giving you 75 percent[br]off the latest collection?

0:10:06.003,0:10:08.431
Look for words like "master copy,"

0:10:08.455,0:10:10.455
"overruns," "straight from the factory."

0:10:11.201,0:10:14.320
They could write this all in comic sans,[br]it's that much of a joke.

0:10:15.978,0:10:18.884
Number three: if you get[br]as far as the checkout page,

0:10:18.908,0:10:24.399
and you don't see "https"[br]or a padlock symbol next to the URL,

0:10:24.423,0:10:27.035
you should really start thinking[br]about closing the tab,

0:10:27.059,0:10:29.337
because these indicate[br]active security measures

0:10:29.361,0:10:32.466
that will keep your personal[br]and credit card information safe.

0:10:32.490,0:10:34.583
OK, last one:

0:10:34.607,0:10:36.811
go hunting for the "Contact Us" page.

0:10:36.835,0:10:39.664
If you can only find a generic webform,

0:10:39.688,0:10:43.613
no company name, telephone number,[br]email address, postal address,

0:10:43.637,0:10:45.697
that's it, case closed.

0:10:45.721,0:10:47.013
You found a counterfeiter.

0:10:47.992,0:10:50.263
Sadly, you're going to have[br]to go back to Google

0:10:50.287,0:10:52.431
and start your shopping[br]search all over again,

0:10:52.455,0:10:55.365
but you didn't get ripped off,[br]so that's only a good thing.

0:10:56.601,0:11:00.173
As the world's most famous[br]fictional detective would say,

0:11:00.197,0:11:02.275
"Watson, the game is afoot."

0:11:03.027,0:11:05.558
Only this time, my investigator friends,

0:11:05.582,0:11:07.162
the game is painfully real.

0:11:07.973,0:11:10.075
So the next time you're shopping online,

0:11:10.099,0:11:11.996
or perhaps wherever it is,

0:11:12.020,0:11:15.409
look closer, question a little bit deeper,

0:11:15.433,0:11:17.813
and ask yourself, before[br]you hand over the cash

0:11:17.837,0:11:19.147
or click "Buy,"

0:11:19.171,0:11:20.449
am I sure this is real?

0:11:21.208,0:11:24.658
Tell your friend that used[br]to buy counterfeit watches

0:11:24.682,0:11:27.656
that you may just have brought[br]the next attack one day closer.

0:11:28.335,0:11:30.810
And, if you see an Instagram[br]advert for fakes,

0:11:30.834,0:11:32.224
don't keep scrolling past,

0:11:32.248,0:11:34.461
report it to the platform as a scam.

0:11:35.375,0:11:38.437
Let's shine a light on[br]the dark forces of counterfeiting

0:11:38.461,0:11:39.946
that are hiding in plain sight.

0:11:40.460,0:11:42.525
So please, spread the word

0:11:42.549,0:11:43.970
and don't stop investigating.

0:11:44.385,0:11:45.536
Thank you.

0:11:45.560,0:11:49.730
(Applause)