New Digs

The Authentics Foundation is proud to report that it has upscaled its online home. Check us out at myauthentics.com. And while you're there, check out our new blog. We'll be posting there from now on, but will leave this site up as an archive of our online anticounterfeiting efforts.

African Agony

Africa has long been plagued by poverty, war, disease and famine. While perhaps not up to that high standard of pox, counterfeiting has also tormented the continent, causing economic loss and hardship for many. Counterfeiting persists even though the margins for counterfeit goods in Africa are quite a bit lower than in the West. This post by the blog Africans in China details counterfeiting problems endemic in Africa, including for such products as Kiwi Shoe Polish and Nice Tooth Brushes.

Fake Watches Are For Fake People

The title says it all, but the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie and the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry have started a new initiative to combat the scourge of fake watches.

Tips for Techies

From Channel Insider, five tips to avoid counterfeit IT goods. Essentially, the tips cultivate common sense. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And given that counterfeit IT goods are more likely to malfunction without recourse to the manufacturer, the best bet is always buy real.

realdanger.co.uk | The real danger of counterfeit medicines

Pfizer is sponsoring a new ad campaign to illustrate the dangers of counterfeit medication. The danger jauntily illustrated here - pills made of rat poison. Yum.

realdanger.co.uk | The real danger of counterfeit medicines

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Food for Thought

Examples of counterfeit goods abound, as readers of this blog will note. Now, counterfeiters have set their sites on another target: food. As this article by Katye Martens in the USA Today demonstrates, it is often easy for a food supplier to dilute or lie about a food's content. Examples include using farm-raised salmon as a cheaper substitute for wild salmon, dilution of olive oil with soybean oil or other kinds of oil, and using cane sugar as a substitute for honey.

It's fraud, plain and simple. Fortunately, law enforcement resources are somewhat more abundant in this area, as laws against fake "adulterated" food are enforced by the stern folks at the Food and Drug Administration. Nevertheless, adulteration of food is a serious problem. Read the whole thing.


UPDATE: Environmental Blogger Verda Vido expands on the USA Today article here. She cites the U.S. Food and Drug Administration resources to help determine whether the fish you buy is fake, which can be found here and here. She also provides other helpful links to help determine the purity of honey (very useful) as well as certified suppliers for olive oil, maple syrup and honey. And last but not least, she links to an authentic homebrew recipie for the otherwise frequently faked vanilla extract. Good stuff. Check it out if you get the chance.