< Return to Video

How fake handbags fund terrorism and organized crime

  • 0:01 - 0:04
    Two years ago, I set off
    from central London on the Tube
  • 0:04 - 0:07
    and ended up somewhere
    in the east of the city
  • 0:07 - 0:09
    walking into a self-storage unit
  • 0:09 - 0:12
    to meet a guy that had
    2,000 luxury polo shirts for sale.
  • 0:13 - 0:15
    And as I made my way down the corridor,
  • 0:15 - 0:18
    a broken, blinking light made it
    just like the cliche scene
  • 0:18 - 0:19
    from a gangster movie.
  • 0:20 - 0:23
    Our man was early,
    and he was waiting for me
  • 0:23 - 0:26
    in front of a unit secured
    with four padlocks down the side.
  • 0:26 - 0:28
    On our opening exchange,
  • 0:28 - 0:29
    it was like a verbal sparring match
  • 0:29 - 0:31
    where he threw the first punches.
  • 0:31 - 0:34
    Who was I?
    Did I have a business card?
  • 0:34 - 0:36
    And where was I going to sell?
  • 0:36 - 0:39
    And then, he just started opening up,
  • 0:39 - 0:40
    and it was my turn.
  • 0:40 - 0:42
    Where were the polo shirts coming from?
  • 0:42 - 0:44
    What paperwork did he have?
  • 0:45 - 0:47
    And when was his next shipment
    going to arrive?
  • 0:47 - 0:48
    I was treading the fine line
  • 0:48 - 0:51
    between asking enough questions
    to get what I needed
  • 0:51 - 0:54
    and not enough for him
    to become suspicious,
  • 0:54 - 0:58
    because what he didn't know
    is that I'm a counterfeit investigator,
  • 0:58 - 1:00
    (Laughter)
  • 1:00 - 1:02
    and after 20 minutes or so
    of checking over the product
  • 1:02 - 1:06
    for the telltale signs
    of counterfeit production --
  • 1:06 - 1:08
    say, badly stitched labels
    or how the packaging
  • 1:08 - 1:11
    had a huge brand logo
    stamped all over the front of it --
  • 1:11 - 1:13
    I was finally on my way out,
  • 1:13 - 1:16
    but not before he insisted
    on walking down to the street with me
  • 1:16 - 1:17
    and back to the station.
  • 1:19 - 1:22
    And the feeling after these meetings
    is always the same:
  • 1:22 - 1:24
    my heart is beating like a drum,
  • 1:24 - 1:27
    because you never know
    if they've actually bought your story,
  • 1:27 - 1:30
    or they're going to start following you
    to see who you really are.
  • 1:30 - 1:32
    Relief only comes
    when you turn the first corner
  • 1:32 - 1:35
    and glance behind,
    and they're not standing there.
  • 1:36 - 1:39
    But what our counterfeit
    polo shirt seller certainly didn't realize
  • 1:39 - 1:43
    is that everything I'd seen and heard
    would result in a dawn raid on his house,
  • 1:43 - 1:46
    him being woken out of bed
    by eight men on his doorstep
  • 1:46 - 1:47
    and all his product seized.
  • 1:49 - 1:52
    But this would reveal
    that he was just a pawn
  • 1:52 - 1:56
    at the end of a counterfeiting network
    spanning three continents,
  • 1:56 - 1:59
    and he was just the first loose thread
    that I'd started to pull on
  • 1:59 - 2:01
    in the hope that it would all unravel.
  • 2:02 - 2:03
    Why go through all that trouble?
  • 2:04 - 2:07
    Well, maybe counterfeiting
    is a victimless crime?
  • 2:07 - 2:09
    These big companies,
    they make enough money,
  • 2:09 - 2:11
    so if anything,
  • 2:11 - 2:14
    counterfeiting is just a free form
    of advertising, right?
  • 2:14 - 2:17
    And consumers believe just that --
  • 2:17 - 2:19
    that the buying and selling of fakes
    is not that big a deal.
  • 2:20 - 2:23
    But I'm here to tell you
    that that is just not true.
  • 2:25 - 2:29
    What the tourist on holiday doesn't see
    about those fake handbags
  • 2:29 - 2:31
    is they may well
    have been stitched together
  • 2:31 - 2:35
    by a child who was trafficked
    away from her family,
  • 2:35 - 2:37
    and what the car repair shop
    owner doesn't realize
  • 2:37 - 2:39
    about those fake brake pads
  • 2:39 - 2:43
    is they may well be lining the pockets
    of an organized crime gang
  • 2:43 - 2:45
    involved in drugs and prostitution.
  • 2:46 - 2:49
    And while those two things
    are horrible to think about,
  • 2:49 - 2:51
    it gets much worse,
  • 2:51 - 2:54
    because counterfeiting
    is even funding terrorism.
  • 2:55 - 2:57
    Let that sink in for a moment.
  • 2:58 - 3:00
    Terrorists are selling fakes
    to fund attacks,
  • 3:00 - 3:04
    attacks in our cities
    that try to make victims of all of us.
  • 3:05 - 3:08
    You wouldn't buy a live scorpion,
  • 3:08 - 3:11
    because there's a chance
    that it would sting you on the way home,
  • 3:11 - 3:13
    but would you still buy a fake handbag
  • 3:13 - 3:16
    if you knew the profits
    would enable someone to buy bullets
  • 3:16 - 3:20
    that would kill you and other
    innocent people six months later?
  • 3:21 - 3:22
    Maybe not.
  • 3:23 - 3:24
    OK, time to come clean.
  • 3:25 - 3:26
    In my youth --
  • 3:26 - 3:29
    yeah, I might look like I'm still
    clinging on to it a bit --
  • 3:29 - 3:32
    I bought fake watches
    while on holiday in the Canary Islands.
  • 3:32 - 3:34
    But why do I tell you this?
  • 3:34 - 3:37
    Well, we've all done it,
  • 3:37 - 3:38
    or we know someone that's done it.
  • 3:38 - 3:42
    And until this very moment,
    maybe you didn't think twice about it,
  • 3:42 - 3:43
    and nor did I,
  • 3:43 - 3:46
    until I answered a 20-word cryptic advert
  • 3:46 - 3:48
    to become an intellectual
    property investigator.
  • 3:50 - 3:53
    It said "Full training given
    and some international travel."
  • 3:53 - 3:57
    Within a week, I was creating
    my first of many aliases,
  • 3:57 - 4:00
    and in the 10 years since,
    I've investigated fake car parts,
  • 4:00 - 4:03
    alloy wheels, fake tech grooming tools,
  • 4:03 - 4:05
    fake bicycle parts,
  • 4:05 - 4:07
    and, of course,
    the counterfeiter's favorite,
  • 4:07 - 4:10
    fake luxury leather goods,
    clothing and shoes.
  • 4:11 - 4:14
    And what I've learned in the 10 years
    of investigating fakes
  • 4:14 - 4:16
    is that once you start
    to scratch the surface,
  • 4:16 - 4:19
    you find that they are rotten to the core,
  • 4:19 - 4:23
    as are the people and organizations
    that are making money from them,
  • 4:23 - 4:27
    because they are profiting
    on a massive, massive scale.
  • 4:27 - 4:30
    You can only make
    around a hundred to 200 percent
  • 4:30 - 4:31
    selling drugs on the street.
  • 4:32 - 4:36
    You can make 2,000 percent
    selling fakes online
  • 4:36 - 4:38
    with little of the same
    risks or penalties.
  • 4:39 - 4:40
    And this quick, easy money
  • 4:40 - 4:43
    then goes on to fund
    the more serious types of crime,
  • 4:43 - 4:45
    and it pays the way
    to making these organizations,
  • 4:45 - 4:48
    these criminal organizations,
    look more legitimate.
  • 4:49 - 4:51
    So let me bring you in on a live case.
  • 4:52 - 4:54
    Earlier this year,
    a series of raids took place
  • 4:54 - 4:56
    in one of my longest-running
    investigations.
  • 4:56 - 5:00
    Five warehouses were raided in Turkey,
  • 5:00 - 5:03
    and over two million finished
    counterfeit clothing products were seized,
  • 5:03 - 5:06
    and it took 16 trucks
    to take that all away.
  • 5:07 - 5:09
    But this gang had been clever.
  • 5:09 - 5:12
    They had gone to the lengths
    of creating their own fashion brands,
  • 5:12 - 5:14
    complete with registered trademarks,
  • 5:14 - 5:17
    and even having photo shoots
    on yachts in Italy.
  • 5:19 - 5:23
    And they would use these completely
    unheard-of and unsuspicious brand names
  • 5:23 - 5:25
    as a way of shipping
    container loads of fakes
  • 5:25 - 5:28
    to shell companies
    that they'd set up across Europe.
  • 5:29 - 5:31
    And documents found during those raids
  • 5:31 - 5:34
    found that they'd been falsifying
    shipping documents
  • 5:34 - 5:37
    so the customs officials
    would literally have no idea
  • 5:37 - 5:39
    who had sent the products
    in the first place.
  • 5:40 - 5:42
    When police got access
    to just one bank account,
  • 5:42 - 5:44
    they found nearly three million euros
  • 5:44 - 5:48
    had been laundered out of Spain
    in less than two years,
  • 5:48 - 5:50
    and just two days after those raids,
  • 5:50 - 5:53
    that gang were trying to bribe a law firm
    to get their stock back.
  • 5:55 - 5:58
    Even now, we have no idea
    where all that money went,
  • 5:58 - 5:59
    to who it went to,
  • 5:59 - 6:02
    but you can bet it's never going
    to benefit the likes of you or me.
  • 6:04 - 6:06
    But these aren't just
    low-level street thugs.
  • 6:07 - 6:10
    They're business professionals,
    and they fly first class.
  • 6:10 - 6:12
    They trick legitimate businesses
  • 6:12 - 6:15
    with convincing fake invoices
    and paperwork,
  • 6:15 - 6:16
    so everything just seems real,
  • 6:16 - 6:19
    and then they set up eBay
    and Amazon accounts
  • 6:19 - 6:22
    just to compete with the people
    they've already sold fakes to.
  • 6:24 - 6:26
    But this isn't just happening online.
  • 6:26 - 6:31
    For a few years, I also used to attend
    automotive trade shows
  • 6:31 - 6:33
    taking place in huge exhibition spaces,
  • 6:33 - 6:37
    but away from the Ferraris
    and the Bentleys and the flashing lights,
  • 6:37 - 6:38
    there'd be companies selling fakes:
  • 6:38 - 6:41
    companies with a brochure on the counter
  • 6:41 - 6:45
    and another one underneath,
    if you ask them the right questions.
  • 6:45 - 6:47
    And they would sell me fake car parts,
    faulty fake car parts
  • 6:47 - 6:52
    that have been estimated to cause
    over 36,000 fatalities,
  • 6:52 - 6:54
    deaths on our roads each year.
  • 6:55 - 7:01
    Counterfeiting is set to become
    a 2.3-trillion-dollar underground economy,
  • 7:01 - 7:04
    and the damage that can be done
    with that kind of money,
  • 7:04 - 7:05
    it's really frightening ...
  • 7:07 - 7:10
    because fakes fund terror.
  • 7:10 - 7:12
    Fake trainers on the streets of Paris,
  • 7:12 - 7:15
    fake cigarettes in West Africa,
  • 7:15 - 7:17
    and pirate music CDs in the USA
  • 7:17 - 7:20
    have all gone on to fund
    trips to training camps,
  • 7:20 - 7:23
    bought weapons and ammunition,
    or the ingredients for explosives.
  • 7:24 - 7:28
    In June 2014, the French security services
  • 7:28 - 7:34
    stopped monitoring the communications
    of Said and Cherif Kouachi,
  • 7:34 - 7:38
    the two brothers who had been
    on a terror watch list for three years.
  • 7:38 - 7:41
    But that summer, they were only
    picking up that Cherif was buying
  • 7:41 - 7:43
    fake trainers from China,
  • 7:43 - 7:46
    so it signaled a shift away from extremism
  • 7:46 - 7:48
    into what was considered
    a low-level petty crime.
  • 7:50 - 7:51
    The threat had gone away.
  • 7:52 - 7:53
    Seven months later,
  • 7:53 - 7:56
    the two brothers walked into the offices
    of Charlie Hebdo magazine
  • 7:56 - 7:59
    and killed 12 people, wounded 11 more,
  • 7:59 - 8:02
    with guns from the proceeds
    of those fakes.
  • 8:03 - 8:06
    So whatever you think, this isn't
    a faraway problem happening in China.
  • 8:06 - 8:08
    It's happening right here.
  • 8:10 - 8:11
    And Paris is not unique.
  • 8:12 - 8:16
    Ten years earlier, in 2004,
    191 people lost their lives
  • 8:16 - 8:18
    when a Madrid commuter train was bombed.
  • 8:18 - 8:23
    The attack had been partly funded
    by the sale of pirate music CDs in the US.
  • 8:23 - 8:26
    Two years prior to that,
    an Al Qaeda training manual
  • 8:26 - 8:28
    recommended explicitly selling fakes
  • 8:28 - 8:31
    as a good way of supporting terror cells.
  • 8:33 - 8:38
    But despite this, despite the evidence
    connecting terrorism and counterfeiting,
  • 8:38 - 8:41
    we do go on buying them,
    increasing the demand
  • 8:41 - 8:43
    to the point where
    there's even a store in Turkey
  • 8:43 - 8:47
    called "I Love Genuine Fakes."
  • 8:47 - 8:50
    And you have tourists posing
    with photographs on TripAdvisor,
  • 8:50 - 8:52
    giving it five-star reviews.
  • 8:52 - 8:55
    But would those same tourists
    have gone into a store
  • 8:55 - 8:58
    called "I Love Genuine Fake Viagra Pills"
  • 8:58 - 9:00
    or "I Genuinely Love Funding Terrorism"?
  • 9:01 - 9:02
    I doubt it.
  • 9:04 - 9:07
    Many of us think
    that we're completely helpless
  • 9:07 - 9:09
    against organized crime and terrorism,
  • 9:09 - 9:12
    that we can do nothing
    about the next attack,
  • 9:12 - 9:13
    but I believe you can.
  • 9:14 - 9:16
    You can by becoming investigators, too.
  • 9:18 - 9:21
    The way we cripple these networks
    is to cut their funding,
  • 9:21 - 9:22
    and that means cutting the demand
  • 9:22 - 9:25
    and changing this idea
    that it's a victimless crime.
  • 9:25 - 9:28
    Let's all identify counterfeiters,
  • 9:28 - 9:29
    and don't give them our money.
  • 9:30 - 9:32
    So here's a few tips
    from one investigator to another
  • 9:32 - 9:34
    to get you started.
  • 9:35 - 9:36
    Number one:
  • 9:36 - 9:39
    here's a typical
    online counterfeiter's website.
  • 9:39 - 9:40
    Note the URL.
  • 9:41 - 9:44
    If you're shopping for sunglasses
    or camera lenses, say,
  • 9:44 - 9:47
    and you come across a website
    like medical-insurance-bankruptcy.com,
  • 9:47 - 9:49
    start to get very suspicious.
  • 9:49 - 9:51
    (Laughter)
  • 9:51 - 9:53
    Counterfeiters register
    expired domain names
  • 9:53 - 9:56
    as a way of keeping up
    the old website's Google page ranking.
  • 9:57 - 9:59
    Number two:
  • 9:59 - 10:02
    is the website screaming at you
    that everything is 100 percent genuine,
  • 10:02 - 10:05
    but still giving you 75 percent
    off the latest collection?
  • 10:06 - 10:08
    Look for words like "master copy,"
  • 10:08 - 10:10
    "overruns," "straight from the factory."
  • 10:11 - 10:14
    They could write this all in Comic Sans,
    it's that much of a joke.
  • 10:14 - 10:16
    (Laughter)
  • 10:16 - 10:17
    Number three:
  • 10:17 - 10:19
    if you get as far as the checkout page,
  • 10:19 - 10:24
    and you don't see "https"
    or a padlock symbol next to the URL,
  • 10:24 - 10:27
    you should really start thinking
    about closing the tab,
  • 10:27 - 10:29
    because these indicate
    active security measures
  • 10:29 - 10:32
    that will keep your personal
    and credit card information safe.
  • 10:32 - 10:35
    OK, last one:
  • 10:35 - 10:37
    go hunting for the "Contact Us" page.
  • 10:37 - 10:40
    If you can only find a generic webform,
  • 10:40 - 10:44
    no company name, telephone number,
    email address, postal address --
  • 10:44 - 10:46
    that's it, case closed.
  • 10:46 - 10:48
    You found a counterfeiter.
  • 10:48 - 10:50
    Sadly, you're going to have
    to go back to Google
  • 10:50 - 10:52
    and start your shopping search
    all over again,
  • 10:52 - 10:55
    but you didn't get ripped off,
    so that's only a good thing.
  • 10:57 - 11:00
    As the world's most famous
    fictional detective would say,
  • 11:00 - 11:02
    "Watson, the game is afoot."
  • 11:03 - 11:06
    Only this time, my investigator friends,
  • 11:06 - 11:07
    the game is painfully real.
  • 11:08 - 11:10
    So the next time you're shopping online,
  • 11:10 - 11:12
    or perhaps wherever it is,
  • 11:12 - 11:16
    look closer, question a little bit
    deeper, and ask yourself --
  • 11:16 - 11:19
    before you hand over
    the cash or click "Buy,"
  • 11:19 - 11:20
    "Am I sure this is real?"
  • 11:21 - 11:25
    Tell your friend that used to buy
    counterfeit watches
  • 11:25 - 11:28
    that he may just have brought
    the next attack one day closer.
  • 11:28 - 11:31
    And, if you see
    an Instagram advert for fakes,
  • 11:31 - 11:32
    don't keep scrolling past,
  • 11:32 - 11:34
    report it to the platform as a scam.
  • 11:35 - 11:38
    Let's shine a light
    on the dark forces of counterfeiting
  • 11:38 - 11:40
    that are hiding in plain sight.
  • 11:40 - 11:43
    So please, spread the word
  • 11:43 - 11:44
    and don't stop investigating.
  • 11:44 - 11:46
    Thank you.
  • 11:46 - 11:50
    (Applause)
Title:
How fake handbags fund terrorism and organized crime
Speaker:
Alastair Gray
Description:

What's the harm in buying a knock-off purse or a fake designer watch? According to counterfeit investigator Alastair Gray, fakes like these fund terrorism and organized crime. Learn more about the trillion-dollar underground economy of counterfeiting -- from the criminal organizations that run it to the child labor they use to produce its goods -- as well as measures you can take to help stop it. "Let's shine a light on the dark forces of counterfeiting that are hiding in plain sight," Gray says.

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
12:02

English subtitles

Revisions Compare revisions