Episode 7 Fake Britain


Episode 7

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Transcript


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Welcome to a world where nothing is as it seems.

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Welcome to Fake Britain.

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Get down! Get on the floor now!

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Put your hands behind your back now!

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Here at the Fake Britain house

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

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

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We'll investigate the fraudsters who are selling us something

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that isn't real and could be dangerous

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

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Today, on Fake Britain,

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the fake sports memorabilia that could lose you thousands.

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It's wonderful. You know, it's signed by this player,

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it's signed by that player.

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They're all fake.

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The fake debt collectors who just want your money.

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They promise to recover your debt. That happened in no case at all.

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The fake blenders that could cause a fire in your home.

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It's in the lap of the gods

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whether or not this thing catches fire or explodes.

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And the fakers cashing in on the latest running trend.

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I had a little bit of a panic.

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I thought, "Goodness me. I've spent over ?150 and they're fake."

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This boxing glove is signed, it appears,

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by Muhammad Ali and had a price tag of nearly ?1,000.

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Because it was on sale as having belonged

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to the former heavyweight champion of the world.

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But if I'd paid big money for this, I would have taken a big hit

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because this glove and all of this memorabilia is fake.

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The memorabilia fakers are punching above their weight

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and the problem is getting worse.

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It's daybreak.

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A major operation is underway

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to catch one of the many fakers out there

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thought to be selling vast quantities

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of fake sporting memorabilia to members of the public.

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The officers have no idea what to expect when raiding a property

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so the police are providing some heavy-duty backup.

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Trading Standards Officer Neil Martin kicked off the operation

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after buying this football shirt,

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which the seller claimed had been signed

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by a rather famous Manchester United striker.

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We did a test purchase of a signed Wayne Rooney shirt,

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which cost ?150.

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We've subsequently had the signature examined by Wayne Rooney himself,

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who said, "That's not my signature."

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So what, in effect, they've done is added ?100 value to the shirt

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by providing the signature.

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It's thought the suspected faker has raked in over ?1 million

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by selling fake memorabilia.

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When the officers arrive at the address,

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it's not the warmest of welcomes.

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Hi. My name's Neil Martin from Trading Standards in Dorset.

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Can you just leave the door open?

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Can you just leave the door open?

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On this occasion, the battering ram can stay where it is.

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The officers are quickly inside the property,

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where they find the man they believe

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is selling fake signed football merchandise.

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Do you know why we're here? OK. Right.

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The reason we've come here is we made a test purchase

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of a signed football shirt,

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which has been confirmed as being a fake signature.

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What we want to have a look at is your business records

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and stocks that you keep.

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The search gets under way

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and the officers soon discover what could be

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a major fake memorabilia operation.

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In the property itself,

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there's an office set up at the back of the house.

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In that is a computer and various cabinets

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containing blank shirts that don't bear any signatures.

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Soon the officers emerge with boxes and boxes of evidence

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that could suggest a roaring trade

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in the fake signatures of famous footballers.

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We've got bags and bags of blank shirts.

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They're genuine shirts, but unsigned shirts.

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If we hadn't taken them from him,

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I suspect what would have happened is orders would have come in,

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he would have applied the fake signatures to these shirts,

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increased their value by, you know, ?100 plus.

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Boots, as well. Again these are blanks.

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Also footballs.

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We've got probably 60 or 70 footballs,

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again, waiting to be signed.

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The officers even find a stash of pens

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that might have been used to sign the merchandise.

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Sharpie pens. These are sort of the industry standard

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for signed memorabilia.

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We recovered a fairly significant quantity of these pens.

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The officers also seize electronic evidence

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that could point to a fake memorabilia factory

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being run from this suburban home.

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Now, we've just seized a number of computer items. A tower.

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In fact there's three towers have been seized and telephones also.

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The evidence we'll actually be able to retrieve off of these computers

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will go a long way to actually securing, hopefully,

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a successfully conviction at court at a later date.

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It's a huge success for Trading Standards,

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with 26 bags of evidence,

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including over 60 blank football shirts seized.

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But this might not be the last case of fake memorabilia

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that Neil has to deal with.

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Fake memorabilia has been around

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for as long as famous people have been around.

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Particularly, sports memorabilia seems to be very popular.

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You can get a blank shirt, you can fake a signature on it

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and make significant sums of money from it.

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So it's on the increase. We're finding it more and more.

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Coming up, we meet the people

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who thought they were buying the real thing

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but who have lost thousands of pounds on fake collectors' items.

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I've spent about ?9,000.

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It's devastating really,

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because, all of a sudden,

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you've got a room full of stuff that's not worth anything.

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And the Trading Standards officer

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who brought one of the fakers to justice.

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They basically are not worth the paper they're printed on.

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What do you do if someone owes you money and refuses to pay?

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Well, you could hire a debt recovery service to get your money,

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like these guys -

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Barclay Collection Management.

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Barclay sounds good, doesn't it? Like the bank.

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I can rest assured they will get my money back in no time.

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But despite appearances, they won't.

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It's a fake company.

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And as we've discovered, they fooled a lot of people

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and swindled them out of tens of thousands of pounds.

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John Thorpe used to run a successful kitchen design and fitting business

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based in Huddersfield.

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He'd had the company for 20 years and things were going well.

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I'd run a successful business for all these years,

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with big contracts for lots and lots of different clients

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and had a good reputation.

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On one particular job,

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a customer refused to pay for work that John's company had done.

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John was owed ?11,500

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and the huge debt was causing him serious cashflow problems.

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But then, one day, a solution presented itself out of the blue.

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And we got a couple of faxes sent, over two or three days,

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saying Barclays debt collection company. Can we help?

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It seemed fantastic that somebody were going to help us

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get that money back. So I gave them a ring.

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The company, Barclay Collection Management,

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promised to be able to reclaim unpaid debts within six weeks.

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There are legitimate debt collection companies out there,

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helping people to get their money back.

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And because this one was using the names Barclay and Barclays,

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just like the bank,

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John thought he was dealing with a household name.

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I thought it was Barclays Bank.

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Never thought to check out that it wouldn't be anybody else.

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I don't expect somebody else using somebody else's name, like a bank.

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Barclay Collection Management sent a representative

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to meet John and his partner to discuss their case.

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He persuaded them to sign up to the service and pay an upfront fee.

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I think it was about ?1,500, or something, to start with.

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And you think, "Well, that's a lot of money."

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But he tried to justify it by his own costs.

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Costs for this and costs for that.

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He were asking for quite a lot of money in the beginning.

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John was told that he'd get his ?1,500 upfront fee back

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as the costs would be recovered from the other side.

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But over the course of the next few months,

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the company asked John for more and more money.

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Even though nothing ever seemed to get done.

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You could more or less say about ?1,000 a time.

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Which stretched over about eight, nine months.

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Overall, John paid out over ?7,500 to the company,

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hoping to get his debt repaid.

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He was struggling financially,

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but all of a sudden he got the news he'd been waiting for.

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The debt company called and told him the client had finally paid his debt

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and the money was ready to hand over.

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But...there was a catch.

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I had to pay the insurance cost of ?1,500

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to cover their costs

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and I was at the bank ready to pay the money in.

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Luckily, at that very moment,

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John had a phone call from a concerned family member,

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who thought John might have been targeted by fraudsters.

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I had a phone call on my mobile to say, "Don't pay this money.

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"You must not pay this money."

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John realised the very people he trusted

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were the ones he should have feared.

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But he wasn't the only person to be conned.

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Over at North West Trading Standards,

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Officer Walter Dinn was receiving other complaints

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about the debt recovery company.

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We first became aware of the allegations of fraud

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after a gentleman in Coventry

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was defrauded out of a total of, I think, ?8,000.

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It was thought the debt recovery company was fake.

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They promised to recover your debts in full

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within a period of either six or 12 weeks.

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That happened in no case at all that we managed to find.

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Walter investigated further

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and the trail led him to Samaira Sadique

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and her brother Mohammed Ali.

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It's true to say that Samaira Sadique

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was the brains of the outfit.

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And she, day to day, used to call the shots.

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Ali operated as a representative

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and Sadique would deploy Ali to the victims.

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The siblings hooked their victims

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by churning out hundreds of thousands of faxes every day,

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containing false information about their fake company.

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They had fax servers

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and those servers are capable of generating

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between 80,000 and 100,000 unsolicited fax messages a night.

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So businesses and libraries, community centres,

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pubs and clubs were being absolutely inundated by these messages.

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Walter needed hard evidence and so he turned to John for help.

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He arranged for John to set up a phone call

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with the debt recovery company

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and secretly recorded the conversation.

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PHONE RINGS

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The woman reminded John

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he just needed to make a final payment of ?1,800

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and the money he was owed would be released.

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There was no holding account. The debtor had not paid a penny.

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It was a complete pack of lies.

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John had become a target of a type of advanced fee fraud,

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which is when fraudsters persuade victims

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to make advance or upfront payments for goods and services

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that never materialise.

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It is one of the most common types of confidence tricks,

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claiming thousands of victims each year.

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In John's case, Trading Standards suspected the woman on the phone

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was ringleader Samaira Sadique.

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But she'd given herself a fake name on the phone.

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Trading Standards took the recording of the phone call

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to forensic speech consultant Dr Richard Rhodes.

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He analysed the voice of the female caller

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and compared it to a recording of Samaira Sadique

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taken during a police interview.

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Miss Sadique has a quite unusually creaky voice

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and the person's voice and speech patterns were extraordinary similar

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to those of Samaira Sadique

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and that was actually very strong evidence that it was Miss Sadique.

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The huge scale of the fraud being carried out

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by Sadique and her brother was about to unravel.

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Around 100 people had lost money to the fake debt-recovery company,

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with one victim losing over ?44,000 to the pair.

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It's difficult to estimate.

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They didn't keep any business records.

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So it could be ?250,000, ?500,000 of losses in total.

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Finally, there was enough evidence to prosecute

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both Samaira Sadique and her brother Mohammed.

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Sadique pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud

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and her brother pleaded guilty

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to defrauding one victim out of ?80,000.

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But there may be no justice for those taken in by their con.

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There is little chance of recovery of the money.

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We think it's gone overseas and it's a difficult matter to recover that.

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The victims, I'm afraid, have lost their money.

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John paid out ?7,500 to the fakers,

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on top of the ?11,500 he was already owed.

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All of which he'd expected to see come back.

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But it never came back.

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He had to close down his company.

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He had to let eight employees go.

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John's former showroom has since been taken over by another business.

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Very upset.

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And it was very hard having to shut down and tell people.

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And I think it's one of the worst things you can be in

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is a scam like that.

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FOOD BLENDER WHIRS

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This gadget might help you get healthier

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because its powerful motor is supposed to pulverise fruit and veg

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to create more wholesome drinks.

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What this one is actually doing, though, I'm not sure.

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It's a fake. This is the real thing, the Nutribullet.

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It's become the latest must-have kitchen gadget.

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And look, they're virtually identical,

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except, while this might be good for you,

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the fake here might be very bad.

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MAN: It's a UK phenomenon.

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Health conscious Brits have gone mad for blenders,

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especially ones like the Nutribullet.

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Its inventors say its powerful motor helps release more nutrients

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than a regular blender

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and one million of them have been sold in the UK alone.

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MAN: This technology cracks through the stems

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and busts open cores and seeds so it's fully broken down.

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Katrina Blake, from West Yorkshire, was hoping to lose some weight

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by using a blender to eat more healthily.

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We're doing some renovations at home, so eating a lot of fast food.

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I thought this seemed a good way

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to get my five a day

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and get some fruit and veg into myself and my husband,

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who doesn't really like eating fruit and vegetables.

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Katrina went online to find a good deal and bought one for ?75.

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When it arrived, she couldn't wait to get started.

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I was getting ready for work one morning

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and I prepared all my fruit and vegetables

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and put the Nutribullet on.

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Literally, I was 30 seconds. I ran upstairs to grab my bag.

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I came back downstairs and my husband was shouting in the kitchen.

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So Katrina rushed in to see what the problem was.

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I thought the house was on fire.

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There was such a smell of fresh smoke.

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There was smoke coming out of the bottom of the Nutribullet.

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The kitchen was filling with smoke and Katrina had to act quickly.

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I just kept thinking, "It's going to blow up.

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"It's going to set the tea towel on fire that's sat at the side of it."

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So I quickly unplugged it and took it outside.

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Katrina had narrowly escaped

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what might have been a catastrophic house fire.

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She tried to contact the seller, but got nowhere.

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So instead, she got in touch with High Street TV,

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Nutribullet's official UK distributors.

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They asked her to send in some photos of her blender

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and she was shocked when it was revealed that it was a fake.

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I thought, if I bought something,

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I thought it'd be real and legitimate.

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I couldn't believe it.

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Andrew Malcher is the boss of High Street TV.

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Katrina's fake isn't the first one he's heard about.

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Unfortunately, a number of consumers now contacted us

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with the disappointing news

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that they have indeed purchased a fake product.

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Good afternoon. You're through to High Street TV.

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How can I help you today?

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His company's call centre

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is inundated with calls from disgruntled customers

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who've bought fakes.

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And that number is increasing all the time.

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We have hundreds on a monthly basis.

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Andrew showed us the difference

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between the fake units and the genuine item.

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So here we have some examples.

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We have items here that look like original Nutribullets,

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yet, one of them is, in fact, a counterfeit.

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The telltale signs are, for example,

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if we turn the unit to the back,

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first of all, what we'll see here

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is a number of certification marks.

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Whereas the counterfeit unit doesn't have them at all.

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It's not been safety checked in any way and it's an illegal unit.

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The unit itself is actually heavier than the counterfeit unit.

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It's a lot lighter.

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So if we check that out,

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we'll find there it's around 1,950 grams.

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We then take the counterfeit item

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and you can specifically see that it's about 200 grams less in weight.

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And that's because the motor inside that is an inferior motor

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which has not passed safety standards.

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And the fakes are just as bad on the inside.

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What we see here, for example,

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this is a very, very high-quality piece of steel.

0:18:470:18:50

Whereas this unit, upon even touching it,

0:18:500:18:53

you can feel that it's an inferior quality on the counterfeit.

0:18:530:18:57

Fake Nutribullets are not just being sold online,

0:18:570:19:00

they are also for sale on the high street.

0:19:000:19:03

And back in the call centre

0:19:030:19:05

they have received information that suspected fake blenders

0:19:050:19:08

are being sold to shoppers in central London.

0:19:080:19:11

Jennifer Farry from High Street TV is going to check it out.

0:19:110:19:15

We've been tipped off

0:19:150:19:16

that there is a guy selling counterfeit Nutribullets.

0:19:160:19:19

So I am about to go and purchase one and see if they are real or not.

0:19:190:19:21

Soon Jennifer is back with her purchase.

0:19:230:19:25

Time to see if it's a fake.

0:19:250:19:27

I've just purchased the Nutribullet from the store.

0:19:280:19:31

And at first glance, you can be easily be fooled

0:19:310:19:33

into thinking it is a genuine Nutribullet.

0:19:330:19:36

But I can tell instantly from the packaging that it's not real.

0:19:360:19:39

On first looking at it, I can tell again that it's not real

0:19:410:19:44

because of the tacky plastic bottom.

0:19:440:19:47

You wouldn't get that on the genuine Nutribullet.

0:19:480:19:51

And if I actually pull the entire device out,

0:19:510:19:53

on the back you should have safety marks on here, again,

0:19:530:19:56

that you would find on a genuine Nutribullet.

0:19:560:19:58

Which, again, aren't on here.

0:19:580:20:00

And that was easily picked up, literally just at a stall

0:20:000:20:03

on a busy high street in London.

0:20:030:20:05

The fake blenders are clearly selling well.

0:20:050:20:08

While I was inside purchasing one for myself,

0:20:080:20:10

there was three other customers behind me

0:20:100:20:12

also buying one for themselves.

0:20:120:20:13

He's obviously doing great business with this.

0:20:130:20:15

However, you can't guarantee these counterfeit Nutribullets are safe.

0:20:150:20:19

There are concerns that these machines are dangerous.

0:20:200:20:23

So Fake Britain took a fake blender

0:20:230:20:25

to independent safety expert Steve Curtler,

0:20:250:20:28

from Electrical Safety First.

0:20:280:20:31

Steve will simulate a fault to put the fake to the test.

0:20:310:20:34

The test that we're going to apply to the fake Nutribullet

0:20:350:20:38

is one that's foreseeable condition,

0:20:380:20:40

where a fruit stone or something locks the motor

0:20:400:20:44

and then the motor will start to heat up.

0:20:440:20:48

When the motor overheats,

0:20:490:20:50

a built-in safety feature should shut the blender down,

0:20:500:20:54

in order to prevent any injury or fire risk.

0:20:540:20:56

BLENDER WHIRS

0:20:580:20:59

The test gets under way.

0:20:590:21:00

But the blender's not shutting down.

0:21:020:21:04

Things are obviously getting very warm, very quickly.

0:21:040:21:07

And Steve is concerned about the smoke.

0:21:070:21:09

The bit that you can't see

0:21:090:21:12

is the toxic fumes that are being released

0:21:120:21:14

from the damage being caused by the heat.

0:21:140:21:17

And it really does get to the back of your throat

0:21:170:21:19

to the point where it feels like you can't breathe.

0:21:190:21:21

If this was in your kitchen letting off those fumes,

0:21:210:21:24

it would be a serious hazard.

0:21:240:21:27

This fake has definitely failed the safety tests.

0:21:280:21:31

But it's not the worst that Steve has seen.

0:21:310:21:35

We've proved today that, out of the test samples we've got,

0:21:350:21:37

the fake Nutribullet is unsafe.

0:21:370:21:39

But we've had far more dramatic results and more hazardous results

0:21:390:21:43

in the past with testing.

0:21:430:21:44

With potentially flammable fakes like this one on sale in the high street,

0:21:460:21:49

Steve Curtler is concerned.

0:21:490:21:51

The main issue you're looking at here is something overheating

0:21:520:21:55

without the right protection.

0:21:550:21:57

It's just in the laps of the gods

0:21:570:21:58

whether or not this thing catches fire or explodes.

0:21:580:22:02

So that's the main issue with these,

0:22:020:22:04

is that it could cause a serious fire.

0:22:040:22:06

Earlier on Fake Britain, we followed police and Trading Standards

0:22:140:22:17

cracking down on a suspected memorabilia faker.

0:22:170:22:20

We've got bags and bags of blank shirts.

0:22:210:22:24

Whether it's to do with sports or pop music,

0:22:260:22:28

collectible memorabilia is now a multimillion-pound industry,

0:22:280:22:32

popular with teenage fans and adult collectors alike.

0:22:320:22:35

At this established and reputable memorabilia fair in Kensington,

0:22:360:22:40

big money changes hands for celebrity-signed merchandise.

0:22:400:22:45

But fake memorabilia of all sorts is on the rise,

0:22:450:22:48

with people across the country losing hundreds

0:22:480:22:51

and, in some cases, thousands of pounds.

0:22:510:22:53

Jane Body, from Hampshire,

0:22:570:22:59

is a lifelong Manchester United fan

0:22:590:23:01

and loves to buy anything to do with her club or her heroes.

0:23:010:23:04

My parents left me some money when they died

0:23:060:23:09

and I was debating on what to do with it.

0:23:090:23:11

I'd wanted to use it for something so it would help me remember them

0:23:110:23:14

and I thought, "What better than my passion for football?"

0:23:140:23:17

I love football. So I thought, "I'll buy as much as I can."

0:23:170:23:22

And then I found Steve.

0:23:220:23:24

That was when I started spending a lot of money.

0:23:240:23:26

The Steve in question was Steve Pearson.

0:23:270:23:29

He'd risen through the local community

0:23:290:23:32

to become a stadium announcer at Portsmouth Football Club.

0:23:320:23:36

He scored the goal!

0:23:360:23:38

Pearson opened a shop selling sporting memorabilia.

0:23:410:23:44

He was fast gaining local celebrity status and Jane was impressed.

0:23:440:23:48

Steve was a brilliant person.

0:23:490:23:51

You went in the shop, he was chatty and friendly

0:23:510:23:54

and gave you cups of tea

0:23:540:23:56

and talked very knowledgeable about, you know, football.

0:23:560:23:59

And so everything that he sold you, you'd think, "Oh, it's wonderful."

0:23:590:24:03

You know, it's signed by this player, signed by that player.

0:24:030:24:06

Jane couldn't resist.

0:24:070:24:08

She was drawn in by Pearson's seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge

0:24:080:24:12

of sporting memorabilia.

0:24:120:24:13

Before long, she was spending vast sums of money in the shop.

0:24:150:24:19

I've spent about ?9,000 plus, on, like, for instance,

0:24:190:24:25

my Bobby Moore shirt.

0:24:250:24:27

Maradona. A Messi shirt.

0:24:270:24:29

Cruyff. Cantona.

0:24:290:24:31

Programmes, as well.

0:24:310:24:33

I've got some 1968 European final programmes

0:24:330:24:37

and that's got four signatures on it, which look wonderful.

0:24:370:24:40

At first glance, everything that Jane was spending

0:24:420:24:45

thousands of pounds of her inheritance on did look wonderful.

0:24:450:24:49

Suddenly, she got a call from Trading Standards.

0:24:490:24:52

Jane was about to discover

0:24:530:24:55

that Pearson and his glossy signed sports memorabilia

0:24:550:24:58

were not all they appeared to be.

0:24:580:25:00

Somebody informed Trading Standards

0:25:020:25:04

that they thought Steve Pearson was selling fake goods.

0:25:040:25:08

I thought, you know,

0:25:090:25:11

"It is probably just somebody's got a gripe against Steve or something."

0:25:110:25:14

I was still going down the shop once or twice a week.

0:25:140:25:18

And then I suddenly realised

0:25:180:25:20

the second time he came round and warned me

0:25:200:25:23

not to go down the shop any more.

0:25:230:25:25

I realised then I was in trouble.

0:25:250:25:27

Trading Standards Service. Craig Copeland speaking.

0:25:270:25:30

The Portsmouth Trading Standards Officer who called Jane

0:25:310:25:34

was Craig Copeland.

0:25:340:25:36

Craig had been getting some very worrying phone calls

0:25:360:25:38

about Steve Pearson and the signed memorabilia that he was selling.

0:25:380:25:42

The allegations against him were that

0:25:430:25:46

they were either purchased counterfeit goods

0:25:460:25:48

that he was selling off as genuine

0:25:480:25:50

or that he was actually creating these signatures on the products.

0:25:500:25:57

Pearson was selling all sorts of memorabilia

0:25:590:26:02

out of two high street shops

0:26:020:26:03

to everyone, from collectors spending thousands

0:26:030:26:06

to teenagers spending their pocket money.

0:26:060:26:08

So, here we are at what used to be Hall Of Fame.

0:26:110:26:14

It's now a perfectly legitimate business,

0:26:140:26:17

being operated out of here,

0:26:170:26:19

but this was the place where our victims would come.

0:26:190:26:21

They would feel like part of a club.

0:26:210:26:24

They were drawn in by stories of his days at Fratton Park.

0:26:240:26:27

Allegations about Steve Pearson selling fake memorabilia

0:26:290:26:32

were now flooding in.

0:26:320:26:34

It was time for Trading Standards to draft in an expert opinion.

0:26:340:26:37

So they turned to leading autograph memorabilia specialist Gary King.

0:26:370:26:43

His knowledge of memorabilia, both real and fake,

0:26:430:26:45

has helped to bring dozens of prosecutions

0:26:450:26:48

and even put one fraudster behind bars.

0:26:480:26:51

Gary believes that fake memorabilia is rife across the country.

0:26:510:26:55

Fake memorabilia is a serious problem.

0:26:560:27:00

In particular, in the sports world.

0:27:000:27:03

Signed shirts, photographs, that sort of thing,

0:27:030:27:05

it's a massive, massive problem for anybody,

0:27:050:27:09

if you are a collector or if you are a dealer.

0:27:090:27:11

There are so many items out there that are just absolute rubbish.

0:27:110:27:16

It was up to Gary to examine Jane's football memorabilia

0:27:170:27:20

and to break some very bad news.

0:27:200:27:23

Yes. It's certainly not Peter Shilton.

0:27:230:27:25

No. And that is definitely not Bobby Charlton.

0:27:250:27:28

The signatures of footballing legends Peter Shilton,

0:27:280:27:31

Bobby Charlton, Ronaldinho...

0:27:310:27:34

I would say that that is not authentic. Look.

0:27:340:27:36

..all of them fake.

0:27:360:27:38

Gary established that Jane's rare signed programme

0:27:400:27:43

from the 1968 Euro Cup Final,

0:27:430:27:45

which should have been worth up to ?300, if genuine,

0:27:450:27:48

was not what it seemed.

0:27:480:27:50

"What a collector's item," I thought.

0:27:510:27:54

Unfortunately, this, too, is also fake.

0:27:540:27:56

And none of them are original signatures.

0:27:560:27:59

They're all fake.

0:28:000:28:02

Jane is fascinated by Bobby Moore, the England captain,

0:28:020:28:05

who famously held the World Cup aloft after England's 1966 win.

0:28:050:28:09

So her biggest purchase from Pearson

0:28:090:28:12

was a signed Bobby Moore shirt.

0:28:120:28:14

Very proud of this. It was out in my hall.

0:28:140:28:16

It's like a Holy Grail, really.

0:28:160:28:18

And then you find, no, it's not Bobby Moore.

0:28:180:28:23

?650 plus ?150 for the frame.

0:28:230:28:26

And it was a fake shirt.

0:28:280:28:30

And now I've got a house full of stuff that's...

0:28:300:28:33

that's no use to anybody now.

0:28:330:28:35

It's devastating, really.

0:28:350:28:37

Jane had unwittingly surrounded herself with fake memorabilia

0:28:390:28:43

worth far less than she paid for it.

0:28:430:28:46

But at least one good thing was to come out of this.

0:28:460:28:50

Gary King's analysis of the fakes

0:28:500:28:52

gave Craig and the team at Portsmouth Trading Standards

0:28:520:28:55

enough evidence to finally raid Steve Pearson's property.

0:28:550:28:59

They were shocked by the scale of what they found.

0:28:590:29:02

Over 100 items of fake signed memorabilia.

0:29:020:29:05

And not just football.

0:29:050:29:08

This is a glove containing the signature of Muhammad Ali.

0:29:080:29:12

It's definitely not the signature of Muhammad Ali.

0:29:120:29:16

We found one of these on sale in his shop for ?900.

0:29:160:29:20

It's a massive amount

0:29:200:29:22

and anybody who is going to part with that much money

0:29:220:29:24

to get an item like this, I mean, is going to be absolutely devastated.

0:29:240:29:28

And it turns out that Steve Pearson was also into his music.

0:29:280:29:32

So here we've got a guitar,

0:29:320:29:34

which is supposedly signed by three members of Queen.

0:29:340:29:37

So that would be John Deacon, Roger Taylor and Brian May.

0:29:370:29:41

This is definitely not a legitimate item.

0:29:410:29:44

These signatures are fake signatures.

0:29:440:29:47

Pearson's fakery even infected the certificates of authenticity

0:29:470:29:51

that came with the memorabilia

0:29:510:29:53

to fool people into thinking it was the real deal.

0:29:530:29:56

They basically outline that he's purchasing

0:29:560:29:59

only from reputable dealers,

0:29:590:30:01

that he's a member of a trade organisation.

0:30:010:30:04

And this, of course, is completely not the case.

0:30:040:30:06

He has no...no expertise in the industry,

0:30:060:30:09

He's never been a member of the trade associations

0:30:090:30:11

that he claimed to be

0:30:110:30:13

and these are not worth the paper they're printed on.

0:30:130:30:15

Pearson had fooled dozens of collectors

0:30:170:30:19

with his fake memorabilia,

0:30:190:30:21

but he wasn't just targeting super fans.

0:30:210:30:24

He was also targeting investors.

0:30:240:30:27

Jim Conway, from Portsmouth, invests in rare memorabilia.

0:30:270:30:30

He collects everything from cars to guitars.

0:30:300:30:33

In total, with Steve Pearson,

0:30:330:30:36

I approximately spent ?6,000-?7,000 over five years.

0:30:360:30:42

I will spend, not only just to build up a nice collection,

0:30:420:30:46

but later on, it would be me pension money

0:30:460:30:49

and one day I'll say,

0:30:490:30:51

"Oh, I'll sell it now and get a nice lump back."

0:30:510:30:54

Hopefully, it was going to go up in value.

0:30:540:30:57

Let's see what you've got.

0:30:570:30:58

As an expert witness in the case,

0:31:020:31:03

Gary had to examine some of the memorabilia

0:31:030:31:06

that Jim bought from Steve Pearson,

0:31:060:31:08

but he hasn't yet seen everything.

0:31:080:31:10

Today, he's visiting Jim

0:31:100:31:12

to see if he might be able to bring some good news.

0:31:120:31:15

Let's have a look. Well, that's not Tiger Woods.

0:31:160:31:19

I don't recall seeing an item signed by Tiger Woods

0:31:190:31:22

where he's also added "good luck".

0:31:220:31:24

No. That's not authentic.

0:31:240:31:26

Gary also examines this apparently rare photograph

0:31:270:31:30

signed by John Lennon.

0:31:300:31:32

Now, how much did you pay for this?

0:31:320:31:33

About 200. ?200?

0:31:330:31:36

It's printed.

0:31:360:31:38

As a print, it's probably something you could buy, you know,

0:31:380:31:41

in a shop somewhere for nothing more than ?10.

0:31:410:31:45

Wow. I'm sorry about that. Really am.

0:31:460:31:48

Because I know how much people get attached, you know,

0:31:480:31:51

to these things and then, sadly, you find out the truth...

0:31:510:31:56

Yeah. ..unfortunately, when it's too late.

0:31:560:31:58

Right.

0:31:580:32:00

But Jim hasn't only bought memorabilia

0:32:010:32:04

from Steve Pearson over the years.

0:32:040:32:05

He's been an investor for decades

0:32:050:32:07

and bought a range of signed electric guitars from other sellers

0:32:070:32:11

before he even knew about Steve Pearson.

0:32:110:32:13

During filming, Gary spots them and decides to take a closer look.

0:32:130:32:17

This one is meant to be the Rolling Stones.

0:32:180:32:22

So we've got Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood.

0:32:220:32:27

This is Charlie Watts.

0:32:270:32:29

And I honestly have no idea...

0:32:290:32:31

..who that one is meant to be at all. OK.

0:32:330:32:36

But they are not authentic.

0:32:360:32:39

That was signed in somebody's bedroom.

0:32:390:32:42

And this one here.

0:32:420:32:44

This one's pink... Yeah. ..but it's not Pink Floyd.

0:32:440:32:46

They are very difficult to get signatures from.

0:32:460:32:49

Dave Gilmour, in particular, is a very tough signature to get.

0:32:490:32:53

He doesn't like signing things like this.

0:32:530:32:55

He knows you're going to sell it.

0:32:550:32:57

Shockingly, these aren't the only unexpected fakes

0:32:570:33:00

in Jim's collection.

0:33:000:33:02

Bruce, Cliff, The Eagles, they're all fake.

0:33:020:33:05

I expected Steve Pearson's to be fake,

0:33:050:33:07

because of the nature of the investigation and the court case.

0:33:070:33:11

But obviously I didn't expect these to be fake,

0:33:110:33:13

which never even come from...

0:33:130:33:15

Unfortunately, Steve Pearson is not the only person

0:33:150:33:17

who's faking this stuff and then selling it online.

0:33:170:33:21

It's very, very easy for people to do, that's the problem.

0:33:210:33:24

It's upsetting, isn't it? Yeah.

0:33:240:33:26

Yeah. I'm not collecting no more.

0:33:260:33:27

Not interested. You shouldn't let it put you off.

0:33:270:33:30

Yes, it'll be the last ones I buy.

0:33:300:33:32

It has put me off collecting, you know?

0:33:330:33:36

Because there's so many unscrupulous people out there, and as I said,

0:33:360:33:40

I thought Steve Pearson was a friend,

0:33:400:33:42

but, obviously, he was just lining his own pockets.

0:33:420:33:45

Steve Pearson eventually pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud

0:33:450:33:49

and was ordered to pay over ?2,500 compensation to his victims.

0:33:490:33:53

He was sentenced to 14 months in prison,

0:33:550:33:57

suspended for two years and given 200 hours' community service.

0:33:570:34:02

But it will take Jim and Jane longer than that to get over their loss.

0:34:020:34:06

JANE: It's the fact he's got me,

0:34:070:34:08

it's the fact he's done everybody else.

0:34:080:34:10

Um... What are you feeling right now?

0:34:120:34:15

Upset with him. Angry with him.

0:34:160:34:18

You're just kind of shattered because, all of a sudden,

0:34:200:34:23

you've got a room full of stuff that's not worth anything.

0:34:230:34:26

The amount of money that I've lost will always be with me.

0:34:270:34:30

This looks a bit like a strange glove,

0:34:370:34:39

but it's actually a running shoe,

0:34:390:34:41

so thin that it apparently feels like running in bare feet.

0:34:410:34:45

It's called the Vibram Five Fingers.

0:34:450:34:47

The inventors of this so-called barefoot running shoe

0:34:470:34:51

think it gives runners a more natural running experience.

0:34:510:34:54

But you would do better to leave this one in your locker

0:34:540:34:58

because it's fake.

0:34:580:34:59

And as we're about to find out, running in this could cause injury.

0:34:590:35:03

Running, love it or hate it, over 10 million of us do it regularly,

0:35:070:35:11

whether it's trotting to the shops or training for a triathlon.

0:35:110:35:14

And trainers are big business,

0:35:160:35:17

forming a global industry worth over ?40 billion.

0:35:170:35:21

As we've seen on Fake Britain,

0:35:220:35:24

the fakers are after some of those profits.

0:35:240:35:27

Here at London Thamesport, in Kent,

0:35:270:35:30

officers intercepted a suspect shipment.

0:35:300:35:34

We've done some paperwork checks on two containers

0:35:340:35:37

that arrived last week.

0:35:370:35:39

The goods inside them may be counterfeit.

0:35:390:35:41

Fake trainers were thought to be inside these boxes.

0:35:420:35:45

You can see how far back it goes.

0:35:490:35:51

There'll be about 4,000 boxes in this container.

0:35:510:35:53

It was confirmed that the boxes contained high-end fake trainers.

0:35:550:35:59

Here we have a Tiger brand trainer.

0:36:000:36:02

The container's full of these, about 4,000 pairs.

0:36:030:36:07

As you can see, it's very good quality.

0:36:070:36:09

I think that's a good fake.

0:36:090:36:11

In the second container, the officers found

0:36:120:36:15

other different brands of high-end fakes.

0:36:150:36:17

These are Adidas trainers, very high quality.

0:36:170:36:20

They look like the genuine article

0:36:200:36:22

but the mark holder has confirmed

0:36:220:36:24

that they are, in fact, counterfeit goods.

0:36:240:36:26

Shoes, including trainers,

0:36:270:36:29

are one of the most faked products in the world.

0:36:290:36:31

Tiger brand again.

0:36:310:36:33

Many of the fakes enter the country through major ports like this one

0:36:340:36:38

and this huge interception was a big win for the authorities.

0:36:380:36:41

We have about 9,000 pairs of trainers here

0:36:410:36:44

that have come in from Hong Kong.

0:36:440:36:46

We're now certain that they are counterfeit goods.

0:36:460:36:49

Either Adidas or Tiger brand, both of which are very desirable brands.

0:36:490:36:53

With 9,000 pairs, that's obviously a considerable amount of money.

0:36:530:36:57

But a new type of running shoe has emerged onto the market,

0:37:000:37:03

the barefoot running shoe,

0:37:030:37:05

and so fakers are now turning their attention

0:37:050:37:08

to the billion pound barefoot running industry.

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They're focusing on shoe's like the Vibram Five Fingers,

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as Alison Beedle, from South London, discovered.

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I initially got into barefoot training shoes

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about four, five years ago.

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I got a bit hooked and I've been wearing them ever since.

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Alison has got six pairs of barefoot running shoes,

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one for every occasion, if you like.

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These are for use for kind of studio, in the gym.

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These are my latest ones.

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They're slightly thicker at the bottom.

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And then these are probably the most comfortable ones.

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They're more like my slip-on casual shoe.

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Alison teaches personal fitness and barefoot running.

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She gets through a lot of running shoes.

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When she needed a new pair, she went online to find a good deal.

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It looked a fairly decent website.

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It had lots of different types

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of brilliant colour ones that I didn't have, as well,

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so I was kind of a little bit excited.

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Alison went ahead and ordered three pairs of shoes for about ?150,

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a good saving on the full price.

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The package arrived and she couldn't wait

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to try on the new running shoes.

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But the delivery wasn't what she expected.

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I was a little confused at first,

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because they weren't the ones I ordered in the first place.

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The colours were different, the styles were different.

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On closer inspection, Alison realised

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it was more than just the colours she needed to worry about.

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I thought, "Let me put it on my feet

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"and let my feet see how they feel about it."

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They were too big, they didn't fit across the top of the foot,

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they were wide around the toes and you could see the stitching.

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They were kind of baggy, they were baggy round the ankle,

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baggy round the top of the foot and they felt absolutely terrible.

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Alison had to go back to running around in her old shoes,

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but she was annoyed at having wasted ?150 of her money.

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So she decided to send photos of them

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to the shoe's UK distributor - Primal Lifestyle.

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And within hours, they'd literally rattled off a letter

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stating that these were fake Vibrams.

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I'd also ordered some for a friend and she'd paid me, as well,

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so I thought, "Oh, I've wasted my friend's money, as well."

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So I had a little bit of a panic.

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I thought, "Goodness me, I've spent over ?150 and they're fake."

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After showing evidence of her fake purchase,

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Alison was finally able to get a refund from her bank.

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But there are thousands more fakes out there,

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leaving runners across the country

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hundreds of pounds out of pocket at a time.

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We spoke to Jerome Sicard from brand protection company MarkMonitor.

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His investigations have uncovered fakery of Vibrams on a huge scale,

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potentially affecting thousands of customers.

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The first few weeks of policing the internet for these guys,

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we closed down in excess of 120 individual websites

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that sold counterfeited Vibrams.

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We've removed 300,000 products almost.

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It doesn't take long for Jerome to hunt down the sites

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selling fake running shoes.

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So just today, we found a new website.

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The domain name is .co.uk,

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so clearly targeting the UK market.

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And when you look at the products,

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the first price that is offered to you is dollars.

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The shipping and return information,

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they probably copied that directly from Vibram's legitimate site.

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All those things together tell you that clearly a counterfeit website

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and definitely one of those that we will take down for Vibram.

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Fake Britain went online

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and bought one of the many pairs of fake Vibrams on sale.

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We showed them to the Italian inventor

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of the original barefoot running shoe, Robert Fliri.

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He compared them to the genuine article.

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If you watch the original,

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we have a really flexible sole, like a second skin,

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allows to grab the ground,

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which is the main feature of what the feet can do

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in Fivefingers shoes.

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But what does he make of the fake shoes we bought online?

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In the case of the fakes, the sole is really stiff,

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so you almost cannot bend these toes.

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This doesn't provide nothing more than a five-toed shoe.

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The whole thing, it's not balanced, nobody's spent time on making this.

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It's just to mimic as good as possible the look of the original.

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But what might the fake shoes do to your feet if you run in them?

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Matt Woolden, from the shoe's UK distributor,

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agreed to put our fake shoes through their paces.

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So this is a bit kind of loose

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so it's more difficult to get the toes in.

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If he can ever get them on, that is.

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Made a bit of a hole in that. In fact, two holes in that one,

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despite pulling it on.

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And it's quite baggy around here.

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The fakes are already disintegrating,

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but what do they feel like to run in?

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Around the toes, there was some discomfort,

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particularly around the second and third toes on both feet, actually.

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It didn't feel nearly as nice.

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I imagine it would be a very quick process

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to get blisters in multiple places from these fake shoes.

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The danger of injury to feet from fake barefoot running shoes

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is very real.

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Fake Britain was contacted by a member of the public,

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who sent us photos of his fake Vibrams.

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They were so bad they actually made his feet bleed.

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For Matt and Robert,

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fake Vibrams are an insult to the years of hard work and investment

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that have gone into producing the real thing.

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I feel bad if people are not getting what they are looking for

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because somebody's just trying to make money out of it.

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That's all from Fake Britain. Goodbye.

0:43:160:43:19

The stars are out for a glittering night of awards,

0:43:470:43:50

celebrating the inspirational heroes

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who've dedicated their lives to helping others...

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All aboard!

0:43:550:43:56

..and the National Lottery-funded projects making a difference.

0:43:560:43:59

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