Episode 2 Fake Britain

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

Welcome to Fake Britain.

Police! Move!

-Get down! Get down!

-On the floor now!

Put your hands behind your back now!

Here at the Fake Britain house,

we'll reveal the fakes that are flooding the market,

conning people like you and me, and making money for the criminals.

We'll investigate the fraudsters who are selling us

something that isn't real and could be dangerous.

And we'll help you avoid falling for a fake.

Today on Fake Britain, the faux fur that's actually real animal fur

and the high-street chains that have been selling it.

It's definitely not false fur.

So somebody who's buying this hoping to avoid fur products,

I'm afraid they've been misled.

The faker who conned job-seekers out of thousands

and then implicated one of his own victims in the crime.

I heard a knock on the door. And all I heard was, "Police, police!"

And they may look cute on the outside but inside,

these fake night-lights are seriously ugly.

So there is no doubt in my mind that a fault on the electronics,

in certain circumstances, the product could actually catch fire.

Could you tell the difference between real fur and faux fur?

Wearing imitation fur is a choice made by lots of people

who think real fur is cruel and unnecessary.

Unsurprisingly, the fakers have been keen to get their grubby paws

on the fur market but unbelievably, they're not selling fake fur

and pretending it's real, it's the other way round.

All of this is real fur that was sold as synthetic fur.

It's fake faux fur.

And it's deceiving people who might be horrified to find

they're wearing the real thing.

It's making a lot of money for the fakers.

Faux fur is the perfect way to have the look and feel

of real fur without any animals being harmed.

And it's become so popular that in the last two years alone,

the number of new synthetic fur products for sale in the UK

has more than doubled.

I think in this day of garment technology,

there is no need for real fur to be used at all.

Totally against real fur and I would expect that

most things available to us would be faux fur anyway.

But fakers are getting in on the fur action

and selling fake faux fur, which means that horrifyingly,

some of the synthetic fur on your high street is not synthetic at all.

It's real.

Boudicca Lee is an animal rights blogger

from Croydon in south London.

She's noticed real fur for sale on her local high street

and believes fakers are trying to pass it off as faux fur.

Here we have a hat.

A little hat, very, very sweet.

But if you have a look at the label, the label is 64% acrylic, 36% wool.

So, no fur mentioned there at all.

I believe that this is real fur rather than fake fur

because it's on a lining of skin.

Fake fur is on a bed of fabric

and real fur is on a lining of skin or leather.

She also bought a coat costing £30 and a cardigan costing £10.

And just like the hat, both items have a fur trim

but neither has a label saying what it's made of.

And that is illegal.

Sylvia Rook is a trading standards officer.

If you've got fur trim on a garment, the law says that

it needs to say that it contains products of animal origin,

so that you know that there is something from an animal

on the garment.

If the label makes no mention of any fur,

the natural conclusion is that the garment doesn't contain any.

So, real fur, not labelled, could easily be mistaken

for good-quality faux fur.

Fake Britain wanted to find out what the garments Boudicca bought

are really made from.

So, we took them to Dr Phil Greaves at Microtex near Leeds.

With 40 years' experience of studying different fibres,

he can tell just from a quick glance through a microscope

what type of animal the fur comes from.

This is definitely an animal fibre.

The first one he tests is the cardigan.

This is very, very closely resembling mink.

Next, Dr Greaves looks at the hat.

Then I would say that these are most like weasel.

It's definitely not false fur, so if somebody was buying this

hoping to avoid fur products, I'm afraid they've been misled.

The fur on the third item, the coat,

comes from an animal you may not be familiar with,

the raccoon dog.

It's a type of wild dog commonly found in Asia.

They're known as raccoon dogs because of their distinct markings.

Come up, up, up.

Ventura Wildlife keeps raccoon dogs at its conservation centre

in north London.

Ashley Palmier is the director.

So, this is Mango. She's one of our adult raccoon dogs.

Raccoon dogs are fascinating creatures,

they have this wonderful coat, it grows extra long

and that is what is so beautiful to touch.

But this lovely fluffy coat is unfortunately what makes them

perfect for the fur trade.

And there's another reason too.

They have massive litters and those big litters,

of anything up to 19 have been recorded, would be perfect

if you were farming them for fur.

But the fur farms are notorious for the horrendous way

in which animals are treated.

It's an issue that especially concerns Claire Bass

from the Humane Society.

Every year, hundreds of millions of animals

are killed in the fur industry.

Many of these animals will have led pitiful existences

in tiny wire cages barely bigger than themselves.

Because of the intensive way animals like the raccoon dogs are farmed,

their fur can be produced surprisingly cheaply.

What we've got here is raccoon dog fur trimming for hoods.

The pricing is really shockingly low.

200 pieces, the batches come in, and they work out between

one and three dollars per piece.

So you're looking at a 70cm strip of animal fur

for as little as basically about a pound.

For many people, it can come as a surprise to learn that

real fur can be quite so cheap.

It is in fact fake...faux fur.

I don't think I have the money to buy real fur.

Looking at the price, probably the price could tell you that

it's not real fur because it's only £8.99 whereas probably

the products with the real fur would be much more expensive than that.

Traditionally, perhaps there's a perception that real fur is

a sort of great luxury and very expensive.

And that an item that's maybe £10-£20

couldn't possibly be real fur.

But consumers who think that need to think again

because real fur nowadays can be purchased for far less

than quality faux fur prices.

So, by not labelling the fur as they should

and by selling it cheaply, fakers are tricking consumers

into buying a product they really don't want.

But some have gone a step further.

They're actually selling real fur clearly labelled as faux fur.

And it's happening in well-known high street stalls.

Our researchers spent some time looking at a lot of UK websites

to look at their items labelled as faux fur,

and they identified a few which they thought could be real fur.

We then purchased a small number of these

and in a number of cases, this turned out to be the case.

One of the garments they bought was a coat

from the leading department store House Of Fraser.

It's described on the website as having a faux fur trim on the hood.

When we come to examine it, we find that it's actually real animal fur.

There's a couple of ways to...

to spot fake faux from real fur.

The first thing I'm looking at is the tapering of the hairs.

So with real fur, the end of the hairs goes to a very thin fine point

and that doesn't tend to happen with faux fur.

The other thing I'm looking at is the base of the fur.

Then you see quite clearly the hairs are attached to a skin.

But it wasn't just the coat.

Researchers also found a pair of gloves with a fur trim,

sold by popular high street retailer TK Maxx.

On their website, the trim is clearly described as faux fur.

When they arrived,

we were able to see that in fact they are real animal fur.

Probably in this case most likely rabbit fur,

although we'll have to get that tested to confirm it.

Claire's suspicion was confirmed

when we took the gloves to fibres expert Dr Greaves.

These have been dyed.

And they have classic rabbit structures.

So, these are rabbit fur.

Dr Greaves also examined the House Of Fraser coat.

And these fibres have the appearance of fox.

I'm surprised that if it's claimed to be false fur,

that it is actually an animal fibre.

So, that's five different types of real animal fur -

weasel, mink, raccoon dog, rabbit and fox,

that Fake Britain found on the high street.

And two of them were sold labelled as faux fur

by well-known high street chains.

If I bought these to find out that these were actually real

instead of fake, I'd be furious, absolutely furious.

I would feel that I was massively mis-sold a product that I would...

That goes against everything that I believe in.

I'd be really annoyed at that, really annoyed. That's...

Actually, I don't even want to hold it any more.

But if people are buying fur without realising,

they're contributing to an industry

they didn't want anything to do with.

And that's giving a false impression of the demand for real fur.

What we found here with this short investigation,

this snapshot of the market,

is that potentially a significant number of these animals

are actually being mis-sold as faux fur,

which is artificially inflating the market for real fur.

TK Maxx told us it has had a long-standing no fur policy

since 2003 and doesn't knowingly purchase items

that contain real fur.

Despite having been informed of this policy, one of its vendors

mistakenly supplied gloves that contained real fur.

TK Maxx regrets that its internal teams didn't catch this error

and ensure that these products weren't sold.

It's refreshing its practices to avoid a similar error in the future.

House Of Fraser also told us it has a strict no fur policy

and ensures all of its brands and suppliers are aware of this.

It says it was told by the brand that supplied the coat

that it was made of 100% polyester and nylon.

House Of Fraser says it would never knowingly mislead its customers

and is very disappointed by the behaviour of this particular brand.

As a result, it's terminated its relationship with the brand

and no longer stocks any of its products.

The high street stores weren't the only ones surprised

by Fake Britain's revelations.

Until this was brought to our attention by Fake Britain,

we weren't aware that there were so many garments that were

potentially being mis-described in this way.

And I certainly feel this matter warrants further

investigation by Trading Standards.

Here on Fake Britain,

we're no strangers to the stories of people who thought

they'd landed a great new job, only to find out it's a fake.

It can be a very distressing experience

and result in the loss of a lot of time, effort, confidence and money.

But we've discovered it can be even worse than that.

Because supplying personal details to a fraudster for a job application

can also lead to very unpleasant surprises.

It's reckoned that in 2013, almost 12 million people used the internet

to look for work or apply for jobs.

And one of them was product design graduate Anamul Haque.

When he needed a job, he went online.

Before I graduated, there was a lot of jobs available.

Once I actually graduated, the recession kicked in.

So, I had a lot of stress in my head, thinking, "I need a job."

Anamul uploaded his CV to the local classifieds website Gumtree

and started applying for work.

Soon he received an e-mail,

saying he'd been offered a customer service position

paying £23,000 a year.

A lot of companies, they need customer service.

As I'd never had that before, I thought, you know,

this is a new field for me to get into.

To confirm the role, Anamul needed to supply a copy of his passport

and National Insurance number

and undergo a Criminal Records Bureau or CRB check, costing £50.

This would have to be paid for in advance

by an unusual means of payment.

It was all like, "Go to the nearest PayPower shop

"and get a Ukash voucher."

So, I didn't know what a Ukash voucher was.

Ukash is a system that allows consumers to use cash to pay online.

They hand over their money and in return, get a voucher

containing a code which is entered into the website they want to pay.

The recipient uses the code to draw the payment

into their own online account.

Anamul went to his local shop a Ukash voucher for £50,

as required by the e-mail.

I scanned a copy of my passport,

I also scanned a copy of my National Insurance card and I also gave them

the Ukash voucher and they said,

"OK, we'll let you know within 24 hours."

But days went by and Anamul heard nothing.

On the fourth day, checked my e-mail and I thought, "OK, you know,

"the date's coming close and no response,"

and I actually realised, "OK, it was a scam."

It turned out the job was a fake.

Anamul kicked himself that he'd fallen for the faker's tricks.

I mean, I really want to swear but I'm not going to swear!

HE LAUGHS

But...I was thinking, "OK, someone's actually scammed me."

I felt little.

What upset Anamul most was that he'd given his personal details

to the fakers.

£50 is not really a big issue.

But I've actually sent off my passport

and my National Insurance card

and that's the big thing for me

as that information can be used to do anything.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire and the Humber Trading Standards

Scambuster's team had received dozens of complaints

about the fake e-mail and had begun investigating.

John Field led the enquiry.

Around about 50 complaints had been received by Action Fraud

and by Trading Standards

from individuals who had been misled.

And then what we have to do, is like most of these complaints,

is trace the money to see where the money supply has gone.

And the team traced the Ukash payments

to three online bank accounts.

Whoever had opened these accounts was clearly involved in the fakery.

When they had the details of the three account holders,

Trading Standards got a warrant to raid and search their homes.

The idea of the execution of the warrants was initially to see

if we could identify the three individuals whose names

appeared on the accounts because we believed that they perpetrated,

committed or could have committed a fraud.

And one of the accounts was in the name of Anamul Haque.

I heard a knock on the door. And all I heard was, "Police! Police!"

So, I came downstairs.

Then I see there's a lot of police officers

and they actually started grabbing me.

And they arrested me and before they were putting the handcuffs off me,

they're telling me, "This is the reason why we're arresting you,

"because you've been scamming people."

I was a bit baffled. "What's going on? People raiding into my house."

I was like, "I haven't done anything."

Because his name was on one of the accounts used for receiving

Ukash payments, Trading Standards believed Anamul

was one of the fakers.

Everyone was crying around me.

My wife was crying around me, my mum was crying and everyone's panicking.

And at the background, there's officers just coming into the house.

Because it was like a raid.

They seized his phones and computer

and took him down to the police station for questioning.

But when they asked him about the £50 Ukash vouchers,

the experience he'd had six months previously all came flooding back.

It hit me, I was like, "Hold on, hold on. Six months ago...

"..I was actually a victim of a scam."

Not only had the fakers stolen £50 from Anamul for a fake CRB check

for a fake job, they'd also used his personal details to set up

an online bank account and used that to take payments

from other victims.

When Trading Standards looked into his computer,

they quickly found he was telling the truth.

Because he'd supplied so many details,

the fraudsters themselves had been able to set up

an account in his name, which indicated that he was the person

committing the offence, when in fact he was an innocent victim.

Anamul was released without charge.

I'm very sorry about the upset that will have been caused to Mr Haque

and to his family.

But there was absolutely no alternative

in terms of our actions.

It appeared that he was the perpetrator of the fraud.

So, who was this faker who had stolen Anamul Haque's identity

and used it to extract money from other victims?

His name was Alexandru Hincu and he lived in North London

at one of the other addresses raided by Trading Standards

and police that same morning.

Hincu was arrested.

Mr Hincu admitted to receiving over £3,000 in terms of payment.

We're not sure whether that is the full scale of his operation

because cash payments were also going to accounts

that had been set up outside the United Kingdom

that we were unable to trace.

Hincu was making thousands from Ukash payments

for fake criminal records checks for fake jobs.

And he's not the only one.

Action Fraud has reported several other examples

of advanced fee scams targeting job-seekers.

What the targets don't realise

is that being asked for a criminal record check up-front

is clear indication of fakery.

You will never be asked for a criminal record check for

working in a call centre, working in a shop,

customer service roles, travel and retail.

Adrienne Kelbie is Chief Executive

of the Disclosure and Barring Service

which administers the UK's criminal record checks.

The criminal record check is required when people

wish to work in jobs with the vulnerable,

whether that's children or elderly or vulnerable adults.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with checking out criminal records

for people in general jobs.

Job-seekers who do require a genuine check

will rarely pay for it themselves and never in advance.

A reputable employer will only ask them

for those checks post-interview.

They should never be asked to either pay up front for fill in a form

before they've been offered a job after a thorough interview process.

So, what can you do

if you're applying for jobs online

and don't want to be caught out by the fakers?

I'd urge people to be very careful in terms of supplying

personal information on the internet.

And to be very careful about sending money to individuals

that they've had no contact with at all.

It's probably very wise if you're getting something

that appears to be from a legitimate company

just to google that company online

and to try and contact them themselves

before you send them any money.

The faker Alexandru Hincu pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court

and received a six-month suspended prison sentence

and 180 hours community service.

He was also ordered to pay compensation to his targets.

Ukash had no knowledge of or involvement in the crime.

Anamul now has a job working as a photographer

but he's still angry about what happened.

I didn't get the job, my £50 went,

my personal information is out there.

I got arrested, I got dragged down to the police station.

It's upsetting to me, it was upsetting.

One of the most callous types of fakery we see here on Fake Britain

is when the criminals get involved with products for children.

And we have yet another example right here.

This happy little reptile is called a Twilight Turtle.

But while this is the real deal,

all his little friends here are turtle fakes.

Far from being a fun, comforting and educational night-light for a child,

they are in fact potentially dangerous.

A Twilight Turtle is a soft toy and night-light rolled into one.

It's made by American manufacturer Cloud b.

The name and the shape of the toy are protected by trademark.

Geoff Weller is a lawyer who fights the fakers on behalf of the company.

The Twilight Turtle is a night-light designed to help young children

of any age, really, sleep.

As well as being soothing, the turtle is also educational.

The design represents real constellations,

so parents can teach their children about the night sky.

There are various constellations set out on the shell, so when the LEDs

shine through, they project onto the ceiling and around the room.

A real Twilight Turtle will set you back about £30.

But you can buy an impostor online at a lower price.

And like any impostor, these phoney turtles are not to be trusted.

As Karen Surette found out when she went to buy presents

for her great-niece and nephew's birthdays.

One is one in November and other is one in December.

So I was looking for something special, something different

that could have been a combined Christmas

and birthday present for them.

Karen searched online for gift ideas and discovered the Twilight Turtles.

Karen bought two turtles online, costing £19.99 each.

The boxes were smashed. And they didn't look very professional.

What was inside was even worse.

Immediately, out pops a plug.

There's no safety standards on it and it's all in Chinese.

Before we take the turtle out, there is a screwdriver.

I dread to think that if I had given these toys to my niece

and nephew to open themselves, what would have happened

with that screwdriver, the injury they could have given themselves.

And then the turtle, which is not very well-made.

And this plastic is very sharp on the edges.

The buttons are very wobbly.

The fabric is coming away underneath.

I mean, it's very cheaply glued.

So not happy at all.

The turtles were fake.

There was no way Karen could give them to the children.

I could have cried.

Because I was so looking forward, I was so excited to get the turtles

that when I realised that we had bought fakes,

it was anger and sadness.

Yeah.

In his pursuit of the fakers, trademark attorney Geoff Weller

has amassed an army of fake turtles

that's like an invasive species

threatening the survival of the originals.

At first glance, the fake turtles seem to be quite convincing copies.

It's when you look closer that the cracks begin to appear.

On this fake, this came in the box like this with the crack

through the shell, which certainly would stop it working well

as well as being a danger with the snapped plastic.

Additionally, the quality of the turtle underneath the shell

in the fakes is variable, to say the least.

This came in the box with the fluff already falling out.

And if you try to teach your children about the night sky

using a fake turtle, they could end up rather confused.

On the original, you have the constellations here

with the crescent moon on my right.

And on the fakes, the constellations are the wrong way round,

the crescent's on the other side.

The poor quality of the fakes can also be seen when you turn them on.

If we take...the original away.

You see, that's the...constellation

with the crescent moon up on the left.

Got the original there.

And then take the counterfeit away.

You see a much clearer star pattern, much more detailed.

The crescent moon's up on the right.

And also, very clearly different impact as a lamp in the room.

If you shell out for a fake, you're clearly getting ripped off.

But that's not the worst thing that could happen.

There could be a risk that the electrics would go wrong,

maybe resulting in fire.

We don't know what would happen if a child chewed, swallowed,

played too vigorously with this toy, whether it would break.

We don't know what the chemicals or materials,

what effects they would have.

Because we just don't know the quality or the standards

these have been produced to, if any.

To find out how unsafe the fake turtles really are,

we took a couple to toy testing specialist

Dr David Elks at Intertek.

So, we've got two turtles here. One is real, one is fake.

Dr Elks tests the durability of the toy using a 7kg weight

to mimic children's rough play.

Ready?

Or not.

That is not what's supposed to happen!

We've torn the whole side off the toy.

Which again, where we've got stuffing exposed at the base,

we've now got it all round the sides as well.

When the genuine turtle is put through the same test,

it passes with flying colours.

There you go.

No ill effect.

The fake turtle has already failed to meet toy safety standards

and shouldn't be allowed on sale.

But Fake Britain wanted to see what might happen

if a fault with the turtle's wiring were to cause a spark.

Electrics testing expert Ray Jeffries does a very simple test

to see what might happen if the toy were to catch fire.

Plastic used to make children's toys should be fire retardant.

This plastic material should self-extinguish in 30 seconds.

We've got flaming droplets coming off.

It's just burning.

There's no flame retardant in the plastic whatsoever.

So there is no doubt in my mind that a fault on the electronics,

in certain circumstances,

the product could actually catch fire and cause a very serious fire.

And I should imagine as well, toxic fumes.

The fake turtle has well and truly failed the safety tests.

Karen's experience has left her disappointed

and wary of buying anything on the internet.

It's very sad that there are people out there

selling these products to unsuspecting members of the public.

With no regard to safety.

Items that could harm their child.

That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.