Episode 2 Fake Britain

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

Welcome to Fake Britain.

SHOUTING

SHOUTING

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 movie has won the hearts of children across the world

but the fake merchandise has left one little girl scarred for life.

The blood was absolutely flowing out of her face.

The fake hi-tech coat that could have chilling consequences.

If a consumer was counting on a jacket for their survival

and they bought a counterfeit jacket,

that could result in a life-and-death situation.

Fake hair extensions that led to the worst bad hair day ever.

It was a shock, like, "Oh, my God.

"Have you seriously ripped half my hair out getting them out?"

And the fraudsters trying to steal millions

from taxpayers and charities.

It makes you intensely angry that somebody could come

and take money away from hard-working people.

Even if you don't have young children,

you can't have escaped the phenomenon that is the Disney blockbuster,

Frozen.

It quickly became the highest-grossing animated film

of all time and demand for the merchandise has been huge -

with toys, dolls, games and much more flying off the shelves.

They just can't make it fast enough.

Little wonder then that the fakers have grabbed their slice

of the Frozen pie.

But the consequences for some kids have been truly shocking.

Frozen tells the story of Princess Elsa

who turns everything she touches to ice and snow,

-and her little sister, Anna...

-Really?

-..who sets out to save her.

That's my sister.

Kids who adored the film went even crazier for the merchandise,

with dresses, dolls and soft toys all selling out at Christmas time.

Parents who couldn't get their hands on the toys in the shops

quickly turned to the internet, where the fakers were only too happy

to fill the demand.

But give these fakes to a child and their smiles may turn to tears.

One dad with a Frozen-mad daughter is Stuart Broll,

from Stockton-on-Tees.

My daughter Lydia is pretty much obsessed with Frozen,

like most girls are these days.

She loves it.

Like any loving dad,

Stuart wanted to make his daughter's dreams come true.

So, he bought her some Frozen toys.

I'd been looking online one night, looked on eBay

and they've got a massive selection of Frozen products.

Stuart chose a watch with a bendy metal strap

that would wrap around his daughter's slim wrist.

Known as slap or snap bands,

these accessories come in a wide range of designs

and are popular with children,

who enjoy slapping them round their wrists.

Lydia is quite small and I did have trouble, obviously,

getting a watch to fit her.

So, I thought with it being a snap band,

it would be the best alternative.

It would actually fit round her hand neat and tidy

and it wouldn't fall off.

Stuart also bought a stuffed toy in the shape of Sven the reindeer,

one of the characters from Frozen.

But when the toys arrived, Stuart made an appalling discovery.

On inspection, I found that the metal legs inside

was actually sticking through the outer covering of the animal.

I couldn't even think about the damage that

could have done.

I mean, it's horrific.

You know, it's a metal rod that's sticking through.

The amount of damage that could have caused,

it's not even worth thinking about to be quite honest.

The slap watch was equally deadly.

Sadly, on inspection and cutting it open,

I found a metal tape measure to be used inside.

Shockingly, the wristband was simply made

from a standard builder's measuring tape

that had been cut to the right shape and covered with cheap plastic.

It is absolutely razor-sharp down the sides

and also at the corners where it's actually been cut down.

Thankfully, Stuart managed to spot the danger

and remove the toys before Lydia was hurt.

I'm absolutely disgusted that people are actually selling these products

in the first place.

That could potentially harm or even kill a child.

But one father who wasn't so lucky is Nathan Stodden from Cornwall.

Nathan's dad to three girls - Chelsea, Bethany and Madison.

Like other girls their age, they too are fanatical about Frozen.

-Who is your favourite character?

-Elsa.

Elsa's your favourite character?

Why do you like Elsa?

I like Elsa because she's got magic powers.

When six-year-old Bethany and three-year-old Madison

were invited to a friend's Frozen-themed birthday party

one Saturday afternoon, they were delighted.

After the event, both girls were given a party bag

containing a Frozen slap wristband.

They absolutely loved them.

As soon as Bethany had the wristband, yeah,

it was on and she's slapping away and playing with it. Weren't you?

Bethany loved the wristband so much she didn't take it off

and was still wearing it the next morning.

Then I was in the kitchen doing the dishes.

The kids were upstairs playing and bouncing around.

And I heard a massive scream from upstairs.

Nathan was about to be confronted with a shocking sight.

Bethany had come walking into the kitchen with footprints of blood.

Blood dripping down her face with a massive open wound,

which was very, very deep and wide.

It was like something out of a horror movie.

Literally, it was just a trail of disaster.

Poor little Bethany had caught her face on the edge

of the fake wristband, causing an inch-long cut in her cheek.

Bethany was in hysterics when she came in to me

and I was in a massive state of shock from looking at it.

You know, my beautiful daughter had a massive gash on her face,

which frightened me.

When Nathan examined the wristband,

he discovered that just like Stuart's,

it contained a cut up tape measure.

This is the one that actually did the damage itself.

This is absolutely razor-sharp.

It actually entered Bethany's face

to just below where my thumb is now.

That's how deep it actually went into her face,

which is nearly 10mm.

Bethany was rushed to hospital, where the doctors were able

to stop the bleeding and close the wound.

But she may be scarred for life.

It really hurted.

And how do you feel now?

-Scared.

-It's sad, isn't it?

You don't like seeing the scar on your face, do you?

Even after what has happened, Nathan still believes

they've been very lucky.

If it had slashed her wrist or caught an artery

or anything like that, the doctors would have really struggled.

And certainly within the time it took me

to take her to my local hospital,

she would have lost a serious amount of blood.

But it's not just the occasional slap band or stuffed toy

slipping through.

Faking Frozen products is a boom industry.

Huge container-loads of fake Disney merchandise

have been secretly arriving at British ports

and no-one knows how much of it has found its way into people's homes.

It's Trading Standards' job to try and stop the deluge.

And in Nottinghamshire, one team has successfully intercepted a huge haul

of fake Frozen merchandise, which was being sold from a shop in their area.

It was just everywhere and all tat.

Paul Gretton and Robert Martinez were part of the team

that seized the toys.

We first came across this as a result of a tip-off

from a member of the public.

We were rather surprised to find this huge quantity

but I think that reflects the popularity of the film

and how much demand there is for this stuff.

They're an obvious fake because on the back...

..you've got the impression of buttons but no actual buttons.

And there's no screw for the battery compartment as well.

So, the batteries would be accessible to little kids.

Delightful little thing(!)

What's really surprised me -

and I've been in Trading Standards a long time -

is the really poor quality of some of this.

Ooh, the leg's come off.

This is some of the worst fake stuff I've seen in 30 years.

It's not robust enough to be given to children.

It's really, really shockingly poor stuff.

In total, they've seized over 700 items, including umbrellas,

wallets, bags, alarm clocks and much more.

-The story on the back makes no sense.

-No.

"Anna's sister cold snow queen to her under a curse."

And so it goes on. It doesn't make any sense at all.

-They're at least £20.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Goodness.

What is a little bit unusual is fake product normally sells for less

than the market value.

But the demand is so high for this particular product

that it's actually selling at market value,

what the real stuff is selling for.

As well as being poor quality,

many of the toys are potentially dangerous.

These dresses could be highly flammable.

Nasty material it's made out of.

There's just no thought given to the actual safety of the product.

It could go up in a ball of flames, or it could melt onto the child.

Also of serious concern are hooded coats

with chords that could strangle.

They're really nasty.

You know, I thought we'd seen the back of this sort of thing,

I really did.

The problem with that is, if that gets caught -

and the classic one is when they're coming down a slide

in a playground - and pulls, it actually forms a noose.

And there were deaths.

Two to three deaths a year before the law was changed on that

some years ago.

So, that's the real worry with those.

Children's coats with drawstrings that pull all the way through

are now banned in the UK.

Coats for children under seven

aren't even allowed to have decorative chords.

I don't think I'm exaggerating by saying that

the worst that could happen with some of this product

is there could be a fatality.

And Nottinghamshire County Council's Trading Standards aren't alone.

Enforcement agencies have been seizing goods

up and down the country.

At the port of Dover, a lorry-load of fake toys,

including nearly 500 fake Frozen dolls,

was impounded in the run-up to Christmas 2014.

Meanwhile, at Stansted Airport, dolls and accessories worth over £8,000

were confiscated from shipments arriving from Malaysia and China.

Paul finds the whole thing very frustrating.

They've not given a care to the safety of the product.

They just want to make the money while the film is at the height

of its popularity and then they'll walk away from it.

But, unfortunately, I don't think they should be able to walk away

from potentially killing a child.

For the Stodden family,

their encounter with a fake Frozen toy

is an experience they're never going to be able to forget.

I think the difficult thing for ourselves is the childhood years of,

certainly school photos, are going to be haunted by

such a horrible scar on such a beautiful girl's face.

It's...

It's quite...it's quite emotional, isn't it? Hm?

When you buy a coat to keep you warm, well, you want it to keep you warm.

A parka filled with goose down is amongst the very warmest there is -

as this one should be.

But it's a fake.

Buy a real down coat and you'll be toasty.

Buy a fake, you'll be left out in the cold.

Down-filled parkas were designed for those working

in the very coldest conditions.

But they're now a regular sight on our high streets during winter.

One brand of down-filled coat is called Canada Goose.

Kevin Spreekmeester is Chief Marketing Officer.

Canada Goose is a nearly 60-year-old company

that manufactures some of the world's best down outerwear.

The company makes coats for anyone who wants to stay warm -

from shoppers out and about on a frosty day,

to rugged outdoor workers in the coldest places on earth.

We make warm jackets for the city.

We make warm jackets for athletes and dog mushers

and researchers in Antarctica.

For these people, it's a tool of their trade.

It's equipment. It's necessary. It's a survival piece.

Of course, you don't have to be an Arctic researcher to wear one

of these coats.

In fact, they're now regularly worn as winter outerwear

in towns and cities.

But the manufacturers say they're still designed to withstand

the most extreme temperatures.

We continually study jackets in cold chambers.

We continually look for improvements in fabrications and trims.

It's an ongoing process.

Of course, the fakers have spotted the chance to profit

from the company's success.

They are making coats that look like exact replicas

of their high-end designs but with none of the technical wizardry.

And for outdoor workers relying on their gear to protect them

from the elements, that could have serious consequences.

As Maya Plass found out.

-Come here.

-Maya is a marine biologist who spends her days

battling the weather around Britain's coastline.

I'm often outside so I spend a lot of time

just exploring the coastline,

whether it's doing rock pool rambles with children,

or whether it's diving as well and spending a lot of time on the water.

After a particularly cold day out on the boat,

Maya decided it was time to buy a new warm jacket.

Spotting a French website that had the coats on sale,

she jumped at the chance to grab a bargain.

And I knew friends that had had Canada Goose coats

and completely relied on them, even going on polar expeditions

and things as well.

So, I just felt that I couldn't lose the opportunity

of staying lovely and warm and dry for very cold, wet days

out on the sea.

Maya ordered a parka and a gilet, both on sale at a hefty discount.

But when the coats arrived, her hopes of staying warm and dry were dashed.

As soon as I got them out of the parcel,

the coat material just didn't feel quality.

It felt very cheap.

It felt like it wasn't going to be waterproof

and I knew that they were fakes.

The fake parka had none of the top-quality insulating features

that Maya was expecting.

You can see from some of the stitching here

that there's stitches loose.

That the material's really poor quality and isn't waterproof.

If I just get some water and just drop it on the top.

And if it's a really good waterproof coat, the water beads will stay.

But you can see already by leaving it on there,

it's completely soaked in.

There are problems with the fit too.

Not a very good hood.

SHE LAUGHS

Maya kicked herself for having been taken in by the fakers.

So, when I realised they were fake, I was genuinely really disappointed

cos I'd wasted my money.

I also felt a bit of an idiot.

I thought, "How could I have done something so stupid?"

But I realise that anyone can do it as well.

So, if you've bought one online,

how can you tell if you've been fooled?

So, what we have here is an authentic jacket.

And here we have a fake jacket.

The most obvious thing is the overall appearance

of the jackets.

This is our Arctic Tech fabric, which is a polycotton blend.

It's smart. It's covered in DWR, which is a water resistancy.

It doesn't crinkle like this one.

And, if you take a look at this, it just looks mangy.

It is worn and flimsy.

On the authentic jacket you have this, what we call our Arctic Disc.

And you can see the definition in the type.

There's not a thread out of place.

If you take a look at the fake jacket,

this is an ugly mess.

You can see the stitching on the inside of the label here.

Weird strands. The Arctic is messed up.

What's inside the fake coat is even worse.

These are two glasses filled with down

and what the counterfeiters put in their fake jackets.

So, we've had these analysed in a lab.

This one, the fake down, is 5% down.

It's 50% feathers

and the rest, who knows what.

Dust and dirt and whatever's on the factory floor.

This is down.

Down filaments are the underbelly of the bird that go under the feathers.

That's what keeps you warm.

The results of owning a fake coat like this could be serious.

If a consumer was counting on a jacket for their survival

and they bought a counterfeit jacket,

that could result in a life-and-death situation.

It's clear from looking at the fakes that the quality isn't up to scratch.

But how well do they perform in the cold?

At Loughborough University,

Professor George Havenith studies how people perform

in extreme temperatures.

What we're standing in front of here is our climatic chamber.

We have two of those.

And we can simulate most climates of the world in these chambers.

We can go from -30 to +50.

Or we can change the humidity as well

and make it very humid or very dry.

Professor Havenith tests both the real and fake coats

using a special heated mannequin.

He measures the amount of power required

to maintain the surface of the mannequin at 34 degrees,

normal skin temperature.

If the coat doesn't insulate the mannequin properly,

it'll require more energy to maintain that stable temperature.

The greater the amount of energy used,

the worse the coat is performing.

So, here we have the Canada Goose jacket

and next to it, we've put the fake jacket.

The trousers are the same.

So, you see the same colours for the trousers.

But if we look at the trunk and the arms,

you see very clearly the fake jacket has more red-type colours,

which means they have a higher heat loss.

Almost double than we have in the real jacket.

That would make a substantial difference,

if you would use this in extreme cold.

The professor also takes photos of the coats

using a thermal imaging camera to see how much heat is escaping.

If we look at both jackets here

you see that the Canada Goose jacket has a quite blue back area.

And this is the fake jacket and you see there is a lot more heat loss

along the seams, which separates the different pockets of insulation.

So, that means there is much more heat coming through,

which confirms what we saw with the mannequin.

There's no doubt that in the tests on the dummy,

the fake coat didn't insulate as well as the real one.

But what does that mean for someone wearing it in the cold?

Right, gentlemen. So, we've got the jackets.

So, to see how the coats perform on real people,

Professor Havenith is testing them on two colleagues.

Alex is wearing the fake jacket.

Simon's wearing the genuine one.

At the moment, I'm quite warm but I don't think so in a minute.

I think I'm going to be quite cold, so...

OK, let's take you guys in.

The climatic chamber is cooled to -20 degrees Celsius,

as cold as the average household freezer.

Alex and Simon will stay in there for half an hour.

Just make sure you're as warm as you can be.

My face is quite cold.

-Yeah.

-I'm not too bad.

It could be worse.

You've got the nice jacket.

So, what we're trying to do here is just to illustrate

how the jackets work on real people.

This will show us how people cool down.

And we would expect to see, with the infrared camera,

that actually Alex is losing more heat through the jacket.

So, he would feel colder and we would see more heat on the outside.

After 30 minutes at -20 degrees,

the differences between the two coats have become very clear.

I'm very, very cold now.

I've had enough.

After about 15 minutes, my nose hairs started to freeze.

Right, guys. I think you're cold enough.

But I do want to take a quick infrared picture.

Using the thermal imaging camera,

Professor Havenith takes a photo of Alex and Simon

to see how much heat is escaping from the coats.

OK, get your coats off, guys.

If you look on the left, it's the fake jacket here

and you see the bright colours showing how much heat

is coming through.

Whereas on the right-hand side, the real jacket,

you see much more darker blue colours.

So, in contrast of the two,

there's a lot less insulation in this jacket.

Professor Havenith's tests have proved

that when it comes to insulation,

the fake coat is vastly inferior to the genuine one.

The insulation of the real jacket is probably a third more

than the other one, so that's really a substantial difference.

And if you would go to the Arctic and depend on the jacket

and you would have bought the fake jacket,

I think you would be in trouble.

The existence of fakes is a major cause of concern for the company.

Most of the fakes are bought on what we call rogue websites.

So, these are counterfeiters that have taken our images,

taken our copy and created websites that look identical to ours.

So, it's very easy to get tricked.

But if you don't want to get caught out when buying online,

what can you do?

Some of the things to look out for are -

where's the phone number to customer service?

Where's the e-mail to customer service?

Sometimes you'll see on a fake site that the pricing is quite low.

Canada Goose jackets don't often go on sale.

So, it's rare that you would see that.

For Maya, it's a relief that she spotted the fake

before anything serious happened.

If I was wearing this coat on a day when it was raining,

when I'd been diving, I could have even got hypothermia

from the fact that this coat wouldn't keep me warm

and wouldn't keep me dry.

So, it's not just the case that I've lost the money,

it's the case that, actually, it could cause you harm.

These are big business. Hair extensions.

And they sell in hundreds of thousands.

Sections of hair that are attached to your own locks

to make them longer, thicker and more fashionable.

And the best are real human hair.

But, as with everything in the Fake Britain house,

these hair extensions are fake.

Use them and you might end up with something very different

to that glorious mane you were hoping for.

Having hair extensions can transform your look

and make you feel happier, healthier and more confident.

But if you accidentally buy fake hair extensions...

you may find the results are the exact opposite.

In the last five years, the UK hair extension industry has taken off.

Between 2009 and 2014,

the amount of human hair imported into this country more than doubled,

from £15 million to over £38 million worth.

So, what are we looking for today?

Bit of length, bit of volume.

Michelle Griffin has been in the hair extensions industry for 30 years

and now trains other extensionists from her award-winning salon

-in Birmingham.

-Does it feel comfortable?

-Yeah.

Today, she's doing a full set of hair extensions on client Emma.

People are wearing hair extensions

because the celebrities and the pop stars are wearing it.

So, it's coming from a very early age, a young age

where they're knowing more about extensions.

Hair extensions can come in individual strands

or larger sections and can be attached with clips, rings or glue.

Some extensions are made of synthetic fibres.

But for the most natural, long-lasting look,

the best option is to use 100% human hair.

It's very important that they have 100% human hair

purely because if you have synthetic hair put into your hair

and you don't realise and you're using a hot dryer

or any hot styling tool,

you will get a melt.

It will melt into your natural hair and it will cause major problems

in getting it out.

But with a full set of extensions from a top salon

costing up to 1,500 quid a go,

price-conscious customers are increasingly doing it themselves.

Hair extensions for home use can be bought from shops and markets

for as little as £25.

And it's one way to get the celebrity look without the hefty price tag.

But there are fake extensions out there

and using those could lead to a hair disaster.

As Chelsea Temperton from Hull discovered

when she decided to get extensions to enhance her own short cut.

Having shorter hair doesn't suit a lot of people and it didn't suit me.

So, having longer hair made me feel better about myself

and not conscious about the way I looked.

Being a trained hairdresser,

Chelsea knew how vital it is to have 100% human hair.

Well, I wanted 100% human hair because, obviously,

your straighteners, your curlers, they all heat up

to a high temperature.

So, you don't want...

..ones that are going to singe or anything like that.

Chelsea went down to her local beauty supplies shop

and purchased a set of 100% human hair extensions for £25.

When she got home, she started fitting the extensions

with help from her boyfriend.

I started to straighten them and I said,

"What's that smell?" And he went, "Oh, my God!"

And they kind of, like, sizzled up,

like, as if you'd put a flame to your own hair

and just stuck to the back of my head.

And he just had to instantly rip them out.

Which obviously pulled a lot of my hair out with it

and I had little bald patches all over the back of my head.

And, like, little bits that were shorter than the rest of my hair.

The extensions were fake.

They weren't 100% human hair at all, and the synthetic strands mixed in

had melted and fused with Chelsea's own hair.

By tugging and ripping, she managed to get them out,

but it left her scalp severely damaged.

It was really stinging because it had took bits of my skin away

where I'd ripped it...ripped it out.

A distraught Chelsea contacted her local Trading Standards,

who visited the shop where she'd bought the extensions.

Chris Wilson dealt with the case.

An inspection of the premises found 160 of these packaged

hair extensions, which we believed were all misleading.

Trading Standards seized the extensions

and sent samples off for testing.

The results revealed that far from being 100% human hair as advertised,

they were all more than 50% polyester,

with some nearly 70% synthetic.

This is one of the samples that were seized from the premises.

And as you can see, it clearly states 100% human hair.

And on the care instructions on the reverse, it states that,

"Straightening irons and curling tongs can be used on the hair."

But that is not the case.

We found that they contained polyester

and this would melt if you ever chose to actually

straighten the hair with them.

For Chelsea, it was important to know that her concerns

about the extensions had been justified.

It was like, "Yes. I knew I was right," kind of thing.

I knew that it wasn't something that I'd done

that made them melt.

The investigation revealed that the shop where Chelsea bought

the extensions had purchased them in good faith,

believing them to be real.

But the company who'd supplied the shop was taken to court.

The owner of Eve International Hair and Beauty

of Manchester pleaded guilty at Hull Magistrates Court

to trades descriptions offences

and had to pay £2,000 in fines and court costs.

Clearly, in this case, the manufacturers had mixed

human hair with synthetic fibres to really maximise their profits.

And they don't really care when they mislead consumers.

They're just after making money from the venture.

Despite her traumatic experience, Chelsea believes she got off lightly.

You've got to remember nowadays that younger people are using them,

like, 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds,

and it really could cause some serious damage to younger girls.

And it could get them in serious trouble with the skin and the hair.

Later, we'll see what happens when an extensions expert

goes in search of fake hair.

I can't run my fingers through it. It's actually rock hard.

All these letters were sent to large organisations,

like councils and hospitals,

informing them that the bank account details of one of their suppliers

had changed.

Fairly straightforward, you might think.

Thousands of letters like these turn up at organisations every year.

But all these letters are fakes, sent by criminals.

The new bank account has nothing to do with the legitimate suppliers.

That means councils, hospitals, big businesses, even charities,

can unwittingly pay huge sums directly to the fakers.

And an awful lot of that money... is ours.

Some large organisations can receive as many as 2,000 letters a year

from suppliers informing them of a change of bank details.

So, if a fake letter arrives,

you have to be pretty switched on to spot it.

Sharron Evans is finance administrator for the YMCA

in Cheltenham, which provides housing for homeless people.

When their existing building became too dated,

they knocked it down and built a brand-new one.

The percentage of homeless people was just rising

and they needed somewhere to go.

And we felt that, you know, we were in a position at that time

to be able to offer this.

After a consultation process,

the YMCA hired local construction company, Speller Metcalfe,

to build the new accommodation.

Andy Metcalfe is Chief Executive.

The value of the project to us as a construction

was approximately £3.6 million

and took about 18 months to complete.

As the project progressed, the YMCA made regular payments

to the builders for the work completed so far.

The next payment due was for £175,000.

But then Sharron received a letter.

The letter was from Speller Metcalfe

telling me that they'd changed their bank account

and that from this date forward,

to transfer any monies owed to them to this new bank account.

The letter had the correct logo and all the right details.

But something about it wasn't quite right.

I was suspicious because when I looked at the address,

there was a H missing.

Instead of Brockworth, it said "Brockwort".

I thought I needed to just check with them.

Sharron contacted the builders

to ask if they'd changed their bank details.

They then e-mailed me back and said, no, they hadn't.

The letter was a fake.

It wasn't from the builders at all.

If Sharron hadn't checked,

she would have paid £175,000 straight into a fraudster's bank account.

People have had to work and fundraise and everything

for that money.

For it just to disappear just like that, it would have been awful.

And for me to have to tell somebody that I'd lost £175,000...

Andy Metcalfe is concerned that someone was so easily able to fake

his company's identity and use it to try and steal money

from one of his clients.

It makes you intensely angry that somebody could come...

..and purport to be Speller Metcalfe.

That could look to come and take money away from hard-working people.

What Andy and Sharron experienced was a type of fakery

known as bank mandate fraud.

Will Richardson is a forensic accountant for auditors PwC.

It's something he sees regularly.

If we look at the last 12 months alone,

I've probably investigated about ten cases of mandate fraud.

The sums that have come across my desk of mandate fraud

are typically £500,000 plus.

Sometimes into the seven figures, into the millions as well.

And it's not just charities like the YMCA that are being targeted.

The fakers are after large payments from all sorts of organisations -

from private companies to schools, NHS trusts and local councils.

Like Conwy County Borough Council, in North Wales,

which recently embarked on a major redevelopment project at Colwyn Bay.

Mike Halstead is the council's head of audit.

In 2012, after a succession of storms,

the sea defence along this promenade was left severely damaged.

The project itself consisted of two major elements.

One was the sea defences and one was the building where we are now.

The whole scheme, when it's finished,

is expected to cost around about £25 million.

As the project progressed,

Conwy Council made regular payments to the building contractor.

The next sum due was £2.6 million.

Then, something unusual happened.

We were phoned by an individual who informed us that the

main contractor's bank details were changing.

This was slightly unusual, so we requested the submission of a letter

to confirm the new bank details.

But when the letter arrived, staff quickly spotted that it was a fake.

If the attempt had not been caught in time,

Conwy Council would have deposited a massive £2.6 million

of taxpayers' money into the faker's pockets.

The council would have had to recoup this money in some way,

which could have impacted on services.

For example, libraries could have been at risk.

Leisure centres could have been at risk.

Jobs could have been at risk.

And the attempt wasn't a one-off.

Conwy Council have received several fake bank change letters.

These letters are all purporting to be from different suppliers

to the council.

So, they are people we do do business with.

But they all have the same layout.

And interestingly, they all have the same signature,

which is an immediate warning for us that these are bogus.

Both the YMCA and Conwy Council were lucky.

Their eagle-eyed staff members managed to spot the fake letters

and avert disaster.

Other organisations haven't been so fortunate.

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS trust lost £24,000

after fraudsters sent a fake e-mail asking for a change of bank details.

The government of Guernsey paid out a massive £2.6 million to fakers

posing as the contractor working on the revamp of Guernsey Airport.

And another £2.6 million was lost over a 13-month period

by the owners of the Port of Felixstowe.

Again, paid out by mistake to criminals,

who faked the identity of the Port's fuel supplier.

And once the money's gone out, it's virtually impossible to get it back.

As soon as it hits a fraudster's bank account in the UK,

it's sent out of the UK.

It's quickly distributed across a number of different accounts

in different jurisdictions around the world,

which makes both the tracing of that money

and the recovery of that money almost impossible.

But in Felixstowe, they did manage to catch one of the fakers.

31-year-old Mohammed Fawzul-Rahman of Watford

was jailed for four years

after nearly half a million pounds of the Port's money

was laundered through his bank accounts.

The Port was able to recover about half the money stolen.

But around £1 million was never seen again.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, companies who have fallen victim to mandate fraud

rarely want to talk about it.

But it's a huge problem for businesses in the UK.

One of our large UK banks, it's corporate-client based,

experienced almost £40 million of attempted mandate fraud in 2014.

Of which it proactively managed to prevent almost 3/4 of that.

But what it's still suggesting to us

is that there is, in any given year,

hundreds of million pounds of attempted mandate fraud,

of which tens of million of pounds is getting through.

And to make it worse,

the faker's tactics are getting more sophisticated.

A fraudster will build up a rapport, just by contacting an organisation.

Introducing themselves as a new employee

at the supplier organisation,

develops a relationship, then makes a relatively light-touch request.

"Can I change a telephone number?"

So, when the actual request comes through to change bank details,

the contact details that the organisation has on file

is actually the fraudster's contact details.

Luckily, the attempts made on Conwy Council and the YMCA

were simple ones and by checking with the contractors,

they managed to avoid paying thousands of pounds

into a faker's bank account.

The worst-case scenario would be

that the building would not have been completed.

And that would have meant that all the people that we've helped so far

since opening, we would not have been able to help.

Earlier in the programme, we saw how Chelsea Temperton from Hull

accidentally bought fake hair extensions,

which then melted into her own locks.

They just stuck to the back of my head

and he just started to instantly rip them out,

which, obviously, pulled a lot of my hair out with it.

But how common are fake extensions?

Fake Britain went to find out.

Can you put your arms in there for me. Thank you.

Olletta Spring runs her own salon in Addingham, West Yorkshire.

She's been doing extensions for nearly five years

and has had several encounters with fake hair.

I had a girl come in with a clip-in set.

But when I was curling it with my wand, halfway through,

a section of the clip-in set actually melted to my wand.

And I had to quickly get it off

and try and detach it from her head

before it melted onto her own hair.

Hair extensions that can be clipped or glued in at home

are readily available in markets and high-street stores.

But as we've seen, some extensions that claim to be 100% human hair

can actually contain plastic-type fibres, like polyester or nylon.

And these fake extensions can cause real problems

for the unsuspecting consumer.

If plastic melts to your own hair,

there's little chance of getting it out your hair.

So, you may have to get that section removed and cut out by a hairdresser

or something, which is not a nice experience.

To find out how easy it is to buy fake extensions on the high street,

Olletta went shopping in Leeds.

After visiting three stores,

she finally found what she was looking for in the fourth.

Extensions described as 100% human hair, that she thinks might be fake.

Olletta took them back to the salon to test them.

So, this is the hair I bought in Leeds.

It's advertised as 100% human hair.

The reason why I think this is fake hair is because

it's a lot sleeker, a lot shinier.

It falls and feels differently.

It actually feels quite plastic in comparison to the human hair,

which just feels really nice and natural.

The best way to see whether the hair is real or fake

is to do what's known as a burn test.

By carefully lighting small sections of the hair,

Olletta can see how it burns and what residue it leaves behind.

OK, so, we're going to burn the human hair first

just so we know what to...what we should be expecting.

So, on human hair, the flame starts really quick

and it leaves an ash at the end that easily crumbles off.

But will the other pack of hair burn in the same way?

If it doesn't, it's fake.

So, as you can tell...with this one,

the burn at the bottom is... Well, it's actually melted plastic.

I can still mould it now it's hot.

It's... At the bottom, I can't run my fingers through it. It stops me.

It's actually rock-hard at the ends.

But how much fake hair is in the extensions?

To find out, we took them to fibres expert, Dr Phil Greaves,

at Microtex, in West Yorkshire.

By looking at samples under a powerful microscope,

he can quickly see what they're made of.

And those are polyester filaments - every one of them.

No human hair in here at all.

So, anybody who bought this thinking it was natural human hair...

..has been very strongly misled.

The extensions that claim to be 100% human hair

actually turned out to be 100% polyester instead.

I'm shocked that, you know, it's all polyester hair.

You know, from my experience and feeling it in the burn test,

I felt that it did have some synthetic hair in it,

some fake hair.

But I didn't realise that it would all be fake.

Fake Britain contacted the shop where Olletta bought the extensions

and they told us they had no knowledge of the fakes.

The brands Leopard and Top Girl Hair couldn't be found.

After her hair nightmare,

Chelsea has vowed never to risk using home extensions again.

I feel angered at the experience of what happened to me.

And I wouldn't want it to happen to anybody else.

It's dangerous and they shouldn't be used.

They shouldn't even be on the market.

That's all from Fake Britain.

Goodbye.