Many ways to make fake stamps and barcodes

The house without a nameplate, signboard and always with a locked door at the end of a small alley in the residential area of Gieng hamlet, Yen Xa village (Thanh Tri district, Hanoi city) is a warehouse containing thousands of cosmetic products that the shop owner often advertises on social networks. At the time we were there, the shop owner was urgently transferring the goods from cardboard boxes to small cosmetic boxes to deliver to customers. Just like that, hundreds, thousands of fake cosmetic products were spread everywhere, placed on the makeup shelves of many people without them knowing that they were fake products.

The secret to getting rich quickly of cosmetics shop owners

After many days of becoming a "trader" persistently importing wholesale cosmetics to sell online on social networking platforms such as Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram... using many persuasive methods, we were able to access the warehouse and learn about the secret to getting rich quickly of online cosmetics store owners.

Receiving and advising us as regular customers, the seller named Huong did not hesitate to confirm that all of these "high-end" cosmetics were actually fake goods, originating from China.

"Many people come here to buy goods to sell. There are many wholesale customers like you, from Phu Tho, Yen Bai to Ho Chi Minh City. You bring fake and real goods together, no one knows," said the shop owner named Huong.

Through observation, in addition to mineral sprays and skin whitening creams, the store sells many types of cosmetics for women's beauty care such as whitening shower gel, melasma treatment cream, Lanolin sheep placenta, collagen supplements, and teeth whitening products.

Most of the items on sale are from Thailand, Korea, France, Japan... The common feature is that there is no information about the importer, responsible for inspection, quality declaration, or instructions for use in Vietnamese.

A cosmetics warehouse with many counterfeit products of various brands was discovered by the PV team after many days of investigation. Photo: PV team

In particular, there are products labeled as imported but the packaging does not have information about the foreign manufacturer. For example, the Innisfree brand skin whitening cream is labeled as being made in Korea with a price of 90,000 VND/tube, the outside of the box is wrapped in a thin layer of plastic. Although the product is genuine, the store owner said, "we can supply as many stores as we need."

Holding a bottle of cosmetics to treat melasma and freckles, the shop owner named Huong also gave us tips on how to distinguish between real and fake products.

These are all fake cosmetics of famous brands. Photo: PV Group

The real product has brown barcodes, while the fake product has blue barcodes. There are two types of fake products: one is imported directly from China, the other is manufactured in Vietnam, but the manufactured products are poor. Chinese products are expensive but have better designs and are more eye-catching.

The owner of this cosmetics warehouse generously gave us the product to "test" because it "wasn't worth much money".

Counterfeit stamps are indispensable.

Although selling fake and counterfeit cosmetics, the store owner said that in addition to doing business on social networks, this warehouse also regularly distributes on e-commerce platforms. And to increase the price of counterfeit cosmetic products, fake stamps are an indispensable "accessory".

Quickly bringing a stack of barcodes with hundreds of products for us to "see", Ms. Huong said: "Here are all the labels, either you take them home to stick them, or I will stick them in advance, whichever way you choose. If the customer is far away, I will ship the labels over, don't worry."

Barcodes and labels are prepared in advance. If you buy goods, they will be affixed to each product. Photo: PV Group

Thanks to a series of sophisticatedly disguised "accessories" along with "genuine barcodes" that the store owner claims when selling, wholesalers can confidently let cosmetics buyers "check" the barcodes comfortably without detecting any abnormalities.

When we asked if the product had a certificate, the store owner confirmed "no"; but if you want one, just go to e-commerce sites like Shopee to download it, which has full names of similar products to get a certificate to send to customers.

"Checking the production date is also very simple, because the barcode has been pre-programmed, when customers check, the production year will be 2023. You can check the code freely, you can also check on Zalo", said Ms. Huong.

Besides the source of counterfeit goods smuggled from China, cosmetics processed in warehouses in Vietnam are one of the main sources of supply for many manufacturing and business units.

*Character names have been changed

Trading in fake cosmetics can be fined up to 140 million VND

To prevent the trading and production of counterfeit cosmetics, the Government issued Decree No. 98/2020/ND-CP stipulating administrative sanctions for violations in commercial activities, production, and trading of counterfeit and banned goods and protecting consumer rights, effective from October 15, 2020. Accordingly, trading in counterfeit goods in terms of use value and function will be fined from 50 to 70 million VND if the counterfeit goods are worth 30 million VND or more or illegally profit from 50 million VND or more without being prosecuted for criminal liability.

Also according to the law, if it is cosmetics, medical equipment, detergents, chemicals, insecticides, disinfectants used in household and medical fields, cement, construction steel, helmets, the fine will be doubled. Thus, sellers of fake cosmetics can be fined up to 100 - 140 million VND.

In addition, violators will have their exhibits confiscated, their licenses and practice certificates revoked for 1-3 months, and must return any illegal profits they have made from the violation. In particular, counterfeit cosmetics with fake labels or packaging are goods with labels or packaging that forge the name or address of the organization or individual that produces or imports the cosmetics; counterfeit origin of the goods or the place of production, packaging, or assembly of the goods, etc.

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