Episode 12 Fake Britain

Welcome to a world where nothing is quite as it seems.

Welcome to Fake Britain.

Police!

-Get down, get down!

-On the floor, now.

Put your hands behind your back, now!

Here at the Fake Britain house, things might look familiar but

don't be taken in, because this is a house which is filled with fakes.

In this series I'll be revealing the counterfeits,

copies and cons that are flooding the market, fooling the public,

making money for the criminals and maybe even putting you in danger.

We'll be investigating those fraudsters who are cashing

in by selling us something that isn't real.

And we'll be showing you how to avoid falling for a fake.

Today on Fake Britain, the counterfeit shampoo hitting

our high streets, and the damage it can cause to those who use it.

You'd itch so vigorously it would make a certain patch bleed.

We reveal the fake scanners that have infiltrated Britain's

security industry.

This will be the difference between life and death in some cases.

The counterfeit candles burning a hole in your pocket.

They spat and they crackled. They were dangerous.

And we unearth the fake metal-detecting gadgets hitting

hobbyists across Britain.

Yeah, I felt a bit shocked that I'd been conned, really.

The UK haircare industry is big business.

We're spending nearly £1.5 billion a year looking

after our crowning glories,

but if you were spending your money on these products

that promise to hydrate, clean, make your hair glossy or

control dandruff, well, you'd be wasting it.

Every single one is a flaky fake.

And that's not all.

As well as parting with your cash for a counterfeit,

there could be worse to come.

One of Britain's biggest and bestselling shampoo brands is

Head & Shoulders. Since it hit the shelves in 1961...

'The most effective dandruff shampoo you can buy.'

..this famous anti-dandruff treatment has ranked among the UK's

top five hair products.

But now it seems the fakers want to soak up some of the action.

Leanne McLean, from Cornwall Trading Standards,

is on the trail of suspected counterfeit Head & Shoulders.

The previous day, they made spot checks on local stores,

and they may have landed some fakes.

Yesterday we carried out a seizure at two stores, one in Falmouth,

one in Liskeard. That was Devon Trading Standards.

There's another shop on their patch, which I've asked them

to go into and just make sure all the products are off sale.

The stores in question belong to one of the south-west's

largest discount chains, Trago Mills.

The previous day,

Trading Standards seized around 160 bottles of suspected

counterfeit Head & Shoulders from two stores,

including this one in picturesque Falmouth.

So today, with colleague Ben, Leanne's making spot-check

purchases at other discount shops in the area.

They're concerned that other bargain outlets could be using

the same supplier.

We had a complaint about a lady who purchased some

Head & Shoulders shampoo.

We are specifically, today, looking for any Head & Shoulders products or

any other cosmetic products that look suspect, and if we find any, then

we will seize them from the shelves and send them off for further analysis.

The person who sparked off the investigation was Sharon,

when she bought what she thought was some bargain-priced

Head & Shoulders from another discount chain, the 99p Store

in St Austell.

I've been using Head & Shoulders for four years previously,

and obviously when the 99p Stores opened...bargain.

But, instead of fighting dandruff, Sharon's

Head & Shoulders seemed to do the exact opposite.

After the third use, I kind of noticed I was getting dandruff,

and that after, you know, a day or so, it would be itchy,

and then it started to get extremely sore.

After using it again for...

I think it was about two weeks,

it still wasn't any better.

Sharon seemed to have an allergic reaction to the

Head & Shoulders brand she'd always loved and trusted.

But the symptoms that came next were a real cause for concern.

You'd itch so vigorously and then it would kind of scab,

and the next time you would itch, it would make a certain patch bleed.

I was quite angry to think that something that I'm

paying my money for is making me sore, itchy.

You feel...

..I don't know, dirty, I suppose, that you're sitting there scratching.

I kind of figured then that something wasn't right with it

and decided to e-mail the 99p Store.

I got back quite a short reply, just to say,

"Please pass along the barcode."

So I did that, and I never heard anything back at all,

nothing whatsoever.

It was at this point that Sharon turned to Trading Standards.

They collected two suspect bottles she'd bought and sent them

off for analysis.

Weeks later it was confirmed. She'd bought counterfeits.

Having a sore head and scalp was bad enough,

but to actually have a product make me bleed,

and then I was still using it,

so who knows what the chemicals were that were actually in it

that I'm putting on my head again when I've got an open...

open skin? Its...it's disgusting.

With today's spot purchases completed,

Trading Standards officers Leanne and Ben head back to base.

Here they bag up the samples they'd taken from three major

discount stores in the last two days.

They'll be sent off to the lab for chemical analysis as well, to confirm

100% as to whether they are genuine or counterfeit products.

We should get that back in about a week,

and that should confirm or deny our suspicions.

Later, Cornwall Trading Standards reveal their results.

And Fake Britain reveals exactly what's in the bottle.

What you're essentially putting onto your face and skin,

and that of your family and loved ones, is junk!

We've all seen things like these.

They're used to scan us at airports, sports events and music concerts,

checking to see we're not carrying something we shouldn't.

Safety and security is a serious business,

and that's what these scanners are designed to ensure.

So, you may be alarmed to discover that while this one is real...

-HIGH-PITCH BEEPING

-..this almost identical one is a fake.

-LOWER-PITCH BEEPING

-These are on sale right now.

And they could be putting lives at risk.

Security is big business.

The global industry for services

and devices is predicted to rise to 88 billion

by 2019.

Part of any security team's arsenal

is one of these metal-detecting wands.

The first of these was designed for the Los Angeles Olympic Games

in 1984.

And it's been used in numerous security settings ever since.

But now the fakers have got their eye on this product's success.

Sadly, because of its success, it's been copied by many,

many fake manufacturers.

Even sadder, they're doing exact copies, and when I say exact,

they're so close you really cannot tell the difference.

We can't tell the difference until we either turn them on

or look inside them.

Nigel should know.

He distributes security products for many manufacturers.

He started to investigate this when he noticed an increasing

number of these scanners being sent back to him under warranty.

It turned out they were fakes.

We've had confirmed fake ones being used in music festivals,

in warehouses, blue-chip companies, security firms.

Now, that's a potential time bomb,

because we now have lots and lots of fake items out there being used by

professionals, and they have no idea they are using fake super scanners.

It seems most of the counterfeits are being sold online.

And Nigel is going to show us how clever the fakers have been.

Here we have the fake super scanner,

and also a genuine super scanner.

And as you can see, the construction is extremely similar.

The dimensions...exactly the same.

End caps, handles, materials, plastics.

Every tiny little detail is copied.

When you look very closely, though, you can tell everything is creaking.

Groaning. It twists.

In fact, something just popped at the front.

And the whole thing is loose.

How good is the fake at detecting a metallic object that could do

some damage, like this knife?

The genuine super scanner,

HIGH-PITCH BEEPING ..you can see we are picking it up a good 40, 50cm away.

If we now take the fake unit, at 40 or 50cm,

nothing. Absolutely nothing.

It's only when you get closer...

LOW-PITCH BEEPING ..we are now just getting a signal.

Its performance is extremely poor by comparison.

You're not going to pick up this object on a lot of occasions.

Well, that's not good enough. It's got to pick it up every single time.

It's extremely worrying. All this is very well in theory.

How will our fake perform in practice?

Fake Britain decided to test this counterfeit security scanner in London,

no stranger to knife and gun crime.

In the last year there have been 11,000 knife-related offences

and just over 1,500 firearms incidents in the city.

Like many of the capital's late-night music venues,

Hootenanny takes security very seriously.

BEEPING

To help in this battle to keep their customers safe,

they use genuine security wands.

News of fakes in circulation is a real concern

for head of security Hazel.

You could be letting anything in your club.

You could be letting in any sort of weapons in your club. Guns, knives.

Really, people need to take note of what they use in their clubs.

So, to put the fake security wand to the test, we'll plant some

potentially dangerous objects on our lucky target, Matt.

Later on he'll visit Hootenanny with a group of friends.

We have a Swiss Army penknife, which is not classed as an offensive

weapon. However,

could inflict a lot of damage in a number of different ways.

First up, Nigel puts the knife in place.

That's perfect.

Next up, he has a replica gun.

It is an internationally recognised test piece for the security industry.

It's an imitation single-shot gun.

Weapons in place, next stop for our target is the venue.

Will the fake pass our security test and detect the weapons?

Or will it fail,

potentially putting the lives of everyone inside in danger?

Nigel hands over the fake security wand to the experienced door staff.

They haven't been told

whether they're using the counterfeit or the genuine product.

He sits nearby to monitor the fake's performance.

Meanwhile, Matt and his pals arrive in line,

ready to be scanned before they're allowed in.

So it'll be interesting to see how the fake super scanner gets on here.

First in line is Matt's mate, Tom.

I'm surprised at the distance, though.

He's getting very, very close to the body.

So, the fake has to be used closer to the body than normal.

I can only presume he's having to do this

because the performance is nowhere near as good as the genuine item.

Now it's time for our target, Matt, with his concealed weapons.

LOUD BEEPING

-That's his belt.

-The fake seems to be picking up large objects.

BEEPING Phone.

But not so far the knife or the gun.

BEEPING

I think he might be picking up the shoelace eyelets.

Seems like the fake's found something.

The shoelace eyelets are aluminium.

And inadvertently, it's actually led him to the fake gun.

The counterfeit scanner's uncovered Matt's replica gun.

But not the knife.

That's a serious breach of security,

and rather worrying,

the consequences of which could be quite severe.

Potentially you've got somebody walking around with

a knife in a nightclub.

Now, it doesn't take too much imagination to imagine the

consequences of that knife getting in, and mixed with a little

bit of alcohol as well.

Not very clever at all. Not good. And extremely worrying.

But before Matt can do any real damage, the real

super scanner's brought out to reveal what he's really hiding.

BEEPING

LOUD BEEPING

Here we go. Oh, straight to it.

HE LAUGHS

BEEPING Yeah, there we go.

LOUD BEEPING That was a huge, huge signal...

that you could hardly miss. He's found it, he's got it.

This could be painful for Matt.

Pull, go.

Ah!

So, the Swiss Army knife, with a three-inch blade, was

missed by the fake.

What does the head of security, Hazel, think of these results?

It shocked me to think that they've got scanners like this on the market.

And people are actually buying them and using them.

This could have caused serious damage. Someone...

Anyone could have started a fight, could have started...

Someone could have pulled that out, used it on someone.

We'd have to call the police, ambulance down here.

When if you have the real scanner on your door,

this wouldn't get inside your club.

And what does Nigel make of it all?

This could be the difference between life and death in some cases,

the difference between picking up an offensive weapon, potentially

a gun, a knife, a CS gas canister, or not picking it up at all.

And that's... The potential for that is quite serious.

Earlier we saw Cornwall Trading Standards on the trail of fake

Head & Shoulders shampoo for sale in discount chains...

..and how one corner shopper, Sharon, had suffered after using

a counterfeit that she'd bought from the 99p Store.

To actually have a product make me bleed, it's disgusting.

Trading Standards sent off samples of suspected fakes that they

seized and bought during spot checks in Cornwall.

Now they have the results back from the manufacturer.

We sent off a representative sample of 14 bottles.

Seven of those came back as being counterfeit, which is

a 50% fail rate, which I think shows the scale

of the problem that we have here with counterfeit cosmetic products.

But it's the quality of the counterfeit packaging that's

appalled Cornwall Trading Standards.

This makes it difficult for shoppers,

and the shops, to spot the fakes.

They are extremely good counterfeits.

They look almost identical to the real thing.

It's not just one small part of the

Head & Shoulders set of shampoos.

It's every different type

they are managing to counterfeit now, and counterfeit very effectively.

Samples of the 160 bottles seized from local discount chain

Trago Mills all turned out to be counterfeit.

But Trading Standards sympathise with the difficulties that

even some retailers have in spotting the fakes.

In this instance the copies were so incredibly good.

The store, in our opinion, had done everything it could to make

sure it wasn't selling counterfeits.

And as such, we have closed the investigation against the store

that sold it, by way of providing them

with advice on how to potentially spot counterfeits in the future.

Trago Mills told us they've been established for nearly 50 years

and they build relationships with reputable suppliers and top brands.

They say they purchased this product in good faith from a trusted source

and understood there were a number of wholesalers

and retailers who received it.

They say the counterfeit was so advanced,

it took rigorous testing to identify it.

They say they worked closely with the Office of Fair Trading

and that the product was removed from sale.

But because of the danger to public health,

the Cornwall Trading Standards investigation remains wide open

to find out who supplied the retailers with the counterfeit

products in the first place.

Even though these bottles look convincing on the outside,

the manufacturer, Procter & Gamble, has sent Leanne

and her team some data about what could be lurking on the inside.

With this particular counterfeit batch of Head & Shoulders shampoo,

they've told us there could be irritation to your breathing,

it could be harmful if you swallow any of the product,

it could be irritating to your skin.

They say here, "A risk of serious damage to your eyes."

They've also said it's potentially toxic to wildlife

should it make it into any river courses.

It's quite a serious issue.

This isn't just a cheap product that you're paying too much for,

this could cause you serious damage

and serious health implications for the rest of your life.

But it's not just shoppers in Cornwall

who've risked their health by using fake shampoo.

Our investigation takes us across the Irish Sea,

500 miles away to Antrim in Northern Ireland.

It was at this B&M store ten months previously

that Nicole Patterson bought a bottle of Head & Shoulders.

She used it to wash the hair of her five-year-old daughter Imogen.

The next day, after using it,

it looked like there were particles of paint in her hair.

It wasn't until the second time then that there were

instant speckles over her hair.

Afterwards, Imogen ended up with the scalp of her head

was sort of peeling away.

It wasn't like wee small bits of dandruff, it was big flakes

that would be the size of your small finger coming out of her hair.

So my worry was, "Is my daughter going to be losing her hair here?"

But it wasn't the only symptom troubling five-year-old Imogen.

I said, "Is it sore anywhere?"

She said, "Mummy, it's really itchy."

It wasn't just a wee scratch like that,

it was actually going mad into the head

and scratching like crazy.

When I had looked and pulled parts of her hair over,

you could see the big flakes coming out.

Despite receiving medication from her doctor, nearly a year on,

Nicole believes her daughter still has symptoms.

Now, in Imogen's hair, you can actually see,

like, speckles of flaky skin coming away.

It is constant, it's coming out from the scalp.

It just seems to be an ongoing problem.

Nicole's now considering taking her daughter to a dermatologist.

The bottle of Head & Shoulders she bought at B&M

was confirmed to be counterfeit.

I think whenever you go to a reputable store, you don't

expect to walk in and buy counterfeit goods. You don't.

And that does make me really angry, the fact that I went in

and I bought something that was counterfeit and actually used it.

So Nicole made a complaint to Northern Ireland Trading Standards.

And within weeks, officers had seized counterfeit shampoo

at 15 discount stores across the region.

We seized almost 2,000 bottles of the illegal product.

We suspect there was quite a lot of counterfeit shampoo

that appeared right throughout Northern Ireland that quite possibly

has been sold to consumers from these high-street retail premises.

Like the Head & Shoulders seized in Cornwall, it's the quality

of the packaging that's made it so difficult to spot the fakes.

Obviously, as Trading Standards officers,

we would be looking at the packaging.

There's usually telltale signs such as batch codes, product codes,

labelling, spelling mistakes.

All those are key identifiers in showing us that a product is fake.

In this case, there weren't anything.

This batch was seized from seven shops

belonging to the large UK discount chain Home Bargains.

But Trading Standards also made seizures from eight stores

belonging to the chain where Nicole bought her shampoo, B&M.

Again, this is more counterfeit Head & Shoulders product.

Quite a sizeable amount.

We seized almost 600 bottles from this retailer alone.

Nicole has consulted a solicitor

and is looking at taking out her own legal action.

It makes me angry that Imogen is left like this.

I don't know what the cause is, what was in the shampoo.

And that is my main concern with Imogen.

I don't know what I've put in her hair.

And it affects her ongoing.

And something needs to be done about it.

B&M Retail told us they were shocked to discover

that some counterfeit product had entered the supply chain

from one of the wholesale suppliers of this product.

They say, "As soon as we were made aware,

"the suspect stock was withdrawn from sale across all B&M stores.

"We are actively supporting the Trading Standards service

"to ensure a successful prosecution of the parties responsible

"further up the supply chain.

"This incident is the first in our 30-year history

"and we've taken steps to prevent a repeat occurrence."

Fake Britain has sent samples of a bottle

bought by Nicole at B&M in Northern Ireland

and a batch of counterfeit seized by Cornwall Trading Standards

for chemical analysis.

Over two weeks, Loughborough University's chemistry department

has been testing our fake samples

and comparing them with the genuine product.

The samples need to have nitric acid added to them

to prepare them for the series of tests.

Already, the chemists have spotted differences.

The genuine sample turns to a pale, strawy yellow,

while the fake sample remains an opaque white.

My concern is it's not chemically stable.

The fact that there is no change

when we change the pH of the counterfeit

means there probably isn't an acidity regulator in it.

If there is no acidity regulator present,

there's nothing to stop uncontrolled chemical reactions

occurring in the bottle, which could produce harmful unknown substances.

Next, they tested for the all-important zinc compound.

This is the active ingredient in the genuine Head & Shoulders

that battles dandruff.

There's practically no zinc in the sample.

What this means is if you bought this shampoo to control dandruff

or to treat dandruff on your hair,

it's actually going to do nothing.

So not only is this shampoo counterfeit,

it's also completely useless.

More alarmingly, in the fakes, Professor Thomas and his team

have uncovered a substance called lilial.

It's a cosmetic ingredient that has health effects.

It's a skin sensitiser and it can hurt you if you're allergic to it.

Under EU regulations,

a known allergen like lilial must be strictly labelled.

This substance can cause contact dermatitis.

If you picked this counterfeit up

and one of your family was sensitive to this product,

to this molecule here, it would hurt you, it would injure you.

You would need a trip to the doctor.

It's reckless and irresponsible to put potentially harmful chemicals

into products and not label it correctly.

It is terribly wrong.

But it doesn't stop there.

In the sample Nicole bought,

Loughborough have found another chemical that causes concern.

And it's also not labelled on the bottle.

What we've just found here at ten times the level

that we've seen anything else is diethyl phthalate.

These are gender-bender chemicals.

They affect reproductive health,

certainly in animal studies.

You wouldn't want them in products

that you are putting into close contact with your children.

Professor Thomas and his team also found evidence

of preservatives in the genuine product,

but not in the fakes passed on by Cornwall Trading Standards.

This means the counterfeit shampoo could start degrading

soon after manufacture.

The material in the bottle is not stable. It may not be sterile.

You may find bacteria growing in it.

It's a chemical mixture that's not preserved,

that's sitting in your bathroom and is doing what chemicals do.

They're reacting. And that's not safe.

All the retailers involved in selling counterfeits told us

they were unaware that they were selling fakes

and that they were shocked to find them in the supply chain.

None of these retail stores face prosecution.

99p Stores told us they were a victim

of this very sophisticated case of counterfeiting.

They say as soon as Trading Standards

brought the matter to their attention,

the stock was withdrawn and handed over to the brand owner.

They say they fully co-operated with the authorities at all times

to find the perpetrator of this fraud.

Home Bargains told us they've been trading for over 35 years

and have never had an incident of this nature.

These products could only be established as counterfeit

by a chemical test, not a test

that any retailer would normally undertake.

They say they had no reason to suspect that the products

were anything but genuine,

a view supported by the authorities who accepted that the company

had acted entirely responsibly.

They say as soon as the issue was brought to their attention,

an immediate product recall was put in place and customers were

advised to return the counterfeit products for a full refund.

They say it's clear that both Home Bargains and its customers

were the victims of a very sophisticated fraudulent operation.

Cornwall Trading Standards believe their recent seizures

of fake shampoo reveal a bigger picture that needs investigating.

The seizure shows a big problem, as far as we're concerned,

with the discount retailer section of the market.

And we're going to recommend a national project be put together

to look into the supply chain to them

to further protect the public from counterfeit products.

Professor Thomas is also alarmed by the fact that fake shampoo

is being sold on the high street.

When you buy shampoo, you're buying a lot of technology in that bottle.

It is a really highly specified piece of kit.

There's as much science and know-how going into modern shampoos

and personal care products as you'd expect to find

in advanced consumer electronics.

And now we have what is essentially irresponsible practice where

they're throwing in mixtures of chemicals

in an unregulated, uncontrolled, unmanaged way

and what you're essentially putting onto your face and skin

and that of your family and loved ones is junk.

Sit back, relax.

Enjoy being part of one of the fastest-growing markets in Britain.

These are luxury scented candles, and sales have rocketed.

It's an industry worth an estimated £90 million a year in the UK.

With numbers like that, it's no surprise that the fakers

can smell an opportunity to grab a piece of a very lucrative business.

When it comes to a good night in, there are a few key ingredients.

A good meal, a little bit of mood music, soft lighting.

And the best way to get that is through one of these,

a luxury scented candle.

It's an increasingly popular product which appeals to

people like new mum Suzy, from Lydham in Shropshire.

When she recently spotted some well-priced, small,

luxury scented candles online,

she thought they would make ideal presents for her friends.

The candles were advertised as being made by upmarket

British beauty label Jo Malone.

They were advertised as genuine Jo Malone candles

and the seller had quite a few of them.

And the picture looked like proper Jo Malone standards.

And they just looked absolutely beautiful.

At £17.95 each, the candles weren't cheap,

but it was still less than their usual retail price of £22.

She bought four.

But when the candles arrived, Suzy was thrown by her Jo Malone.

I opened it all up and I just felt overwhelming disappointment.

If you'd run your finger across the top of the glass,

you would have cut your finger because it was uneven.

The wax in the candle itself wasn't nice and level and even,

like you'd expect. It was bumpy. And the wick wasn't central.

It was very, very obvious that they weren't right at all.

Suzy immediately suspected she'd been sold a fake.

And her suspicions deepened when she put the candles into action.

I decided to have a romantic night in. And I decided to put these

candles out across the windowsill, with some other candles which I had,

thinking, "Well, they smell OK."

So I lit them, and the smell, it smelt like furniture polish.

What happened was they spat and they crackled.

They were dangerous.

Luckily, buying through PayPal, Susie had purchase insurance.

And she managed to get her money back and the seller barred.

But she's not the only candle-lover to be duped.

In fact, Jo Malone candles have become a key

brand for the fakers to rip off...

as Sussex Police recently found out.

They were tipped off about some suspect Jo Malone candles

being sold at a local craft fair.

Graham Miles eventually raided the house of the people running

the stall, and he was astonished by what he found.

Everything on this table are the items that were seized from the home address of one of our subjects.

Lots and lots of Canopy candles. Very much like this.

I think it's 250-odd.

These larger Jo Malone candles usually retail for £39 each.

But the fakes are considerably cheaper to produce.

Graham estimates it at around £3.50 a pop.

In here you can see reels and reels of labels, various types.

On this one you've got the arrow that tells you to

open up the label to see more information inside.

But there is nothing behind it, there's no back to that label.

That's one way you can tell it's a counterfeit.

And the candle fakers had big plans for the future.

Along with labels and the candles themselves,

police found a staggering 26 boxes of metal lids.

This is the kind of quantity we are looking at.

Metal lids, all engraved with the Jo Malone name.

Something like 5,000 of them.

This person was operating on a large scale,

and was really making some quite significant profit,

none of which, of course, they were declaring to the Inland Revenue.

And at the same time they were claiming benefits.

We believe they have been buying the various

parts for the candle at a total price of about £3.50 per candle.

So if they are then sold for £15,

that's £10 on every candle profit that they've made.

People that we've investigated have told customers

they're seconds or rejects. Jo Malone don't sell seconds or rejects.

Any items that don't meet their standard never reach any

kind of market at all.

The people Graham arrested in connection with the candles

were running a secret cottage industry.

They'd order cheap, unbranded candles from a manufacturer,

get fake labels printed and then add the specially engraved lids

and ribbons to make the candles appear like the real thing.

But it's not just financially that you could be losing out.

The candles aren't just cheap imitations, they can be dangerous.

Previous tests by Trading Standards on fake Jo Malones have

seen the glass the candle comes in explode when lit.

Graham Miles has a message for anyone faking candles,

or any other luxury goods.

These are serious offences that police

and other bodies are investigating.

They do carry serious sentences,

and the people doing it are committing money laundering offences as well, which can carry

penalties up to 14 years,

so these are serious offences.

Today, though, the law's finally caught up with

the counterfeiters that Graham's team's been investigating.

At Lewes Crown Court, in Sussex, one of them

received a 12-month sentence for conspiracy to manufacture,

and another received 270 hours of community service

for conspiracy to sell counterfeit goods.

We're sending a message, as with any kind of sentence,

to put other people off from doing it. It does affect everybody,

the breaching of trademark offences. We all buy branded goods.

If those goods are getting manufactured by others, it impacts

upon the price we pay, it impacts on the quality of the product we get.

I think it's important that people are put off from counterfeiting

those things.

Earlier, we saw these,

fake hand-held scanners that have infiltrated the security industry.

Well, now the fakers are trying to cash in on the boom in

metal detecting. Detectorists also use a type a scanner.

This one's called a pinpoint probe,

and they hope it will track down that elusive bit of treasure.

But, with this probe,

you won't be making any great historical discoveries,

because, as you may have guessed at the Fake Britain house,

it's a phoney.

Metal detecting is a popular pastime for treasure seekers up

and down the land.

See what we can find today. Could be our lucky day.

In Britain, there are around 20,000 dedicated metal detectorists.

BEEPING There you go. Pound coin. I'm rich.

HE LAUGHS

Today, Armando and his friends are out in the green fields of Bedfordshire,

hoping to find that pot of gold.

A nice hair clip.

OK, it's not exactly the Lost Ark of the Covenant, but in fact

this is par for the cause for any experienced metal detectorist.

So, any new gadget that can help put you one step ahead in finding

that elusive bit of treasure is a must-have.

BEEPING

And that's where hand-held devices like these pinpoint probes come in.

Your traditional clunky metal detector will warn you

when something's down there, but it's more difficult to find your

target without a probe like this, to pinpoint its exact location.

BEEPING

So that's showing it's right on the surface.

There you go.

There's another 5p.

Yeah, he's not ready to retire just yet.

The fakers are now targeting the untapped gold in metal detecting,

as Armando found out

when he bought his first pinpoint probe online for £77.

I got it out the packaging, it looked great.

I tested it on the kitchen table at home. Put some coins on the table.

And it just didn't work very well.

I was just getting a single tone,

and it wasn't an increasing tone as I got nearer the coin.

BEEPING

I was a bit concerned as to why it wasn't working properly.

Realising something wasn't right, Armando did some digging,

and visited a metal detecting shop.

There he unearthed the truth behind this faulty probe.

I'd shown it to the gentleman in the shop there,

and he confirmed it wasn't a genuine Pro-Pointer, it was a fake.

I didn't realise there were fakes out there.

I didn't even consider it when I purchased it, but, um,

yeah, I felt a bit shocked that I'd been conned, really.

Fortunately for Armando,

he'd paid for his pinpoint probe using PayPal.

So, he could prove his purchase was a fake

and eventually get his money back.

But the UK distributor, Regton, has unearthed many other buyers who haven't

been quite so lucky.

We're seeing a definite increase in the number of fake Pro-Pointers,

pinpoint probes, accessories,

metal detectors worldwide.

And this is a global problem. It's impacting on our own industry.

It's leading to distrust.

The prices charged by the fakers are luring people into their trap.

Confusingly, the fake Pro-Pointers are selling for a similar

price to the genuine Pro-Pointers.

And because of that, again, it's

very difficult to tell the real McCoy from the fake.

Nigel's holding two seemingly identical probes.

However, one is genuine, the other is a fake.

So how do you spot the good penny from the bad?

They're extremely cleverly copied, and very,

very difficult to tell apart. Even we struggle.

The construction is almost identical.

However, there are some subtle differences.

If I pressed the on-off button on the genuine Pro-Pointer...

BEEPING ..it turns on immediately, very easy,

whereas on the fake Pro-Pointer, I have to really push...

SOFTER BEEPING ..hard and it's extremely stiff,

and straightaway you can tell there's a difference in tone.

And it's not just the probe itself that's fake.

They're also faking the manuals, boxes and warranty paperwork.

The fake warranty form, to all intents

and purposes, is exactly the same as the genuine Garrett warranty form.

We would struggle, and we see them every day.

To truly reveal the differences between the genuine

and the fake pinpoint probes,

though, Nigel is going to test them where they belong, out in the field.

What I've got here is a George III half gold guinea.

Brave!

Nigel buries his gold guinea into a hole that he's prepared earlier.

So what happens when he tries out the genuine probe?

So we're searching around the hole for the target.

BEEPING And as we can hear, it's...

just up here,

and as we get close to the target...

BEEPING QUICKENS ..it increases in intensity, until...

CONSISTENT TONE ..you get a solid tone when you're more or less on top of the target.

And you only get that with the genuine Pro-Pointer.

How will the fake fare?

And...

..if we can switch it on...

BEEP That's got it. That's very, very stiff.

And again we go around the hole.

BEEPING

It's only when I touch the target that I am managing to get a signal.

And in fact there's no rising tone.

BEEPING It's just a bleep. Waste of time.

Sorry.

It seems this fake probe is,

as they say in the world of metal detecting, a heart-stopper,

a find that looks very exciting but later turns out to be junk.

People are spending good money on these pieces of kit,

and unfortunately they're just totally a waste of money,

a real waste of money. And you really don't want to go with these at all.

They're pathetic!

Nigel's advice for anyone wishing to buy a metal detector?

I would suggest you contact any of the manufacturers, ask them

who their distributor is for the UK, and that distributor can then put

you in touch with the local dealer, who is authorised to sell their products.

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.