Vietnamese goods faked in China, sold in Vietnam An official examines the fake and authentic Casio calculators in Ho Chi Minh City. The fake products in this photo bear the small white labels that read "Hang gia". Tuoi Tre Over the last fortnight, the chairman of Sakyo JSC, a consumer products maker based in Ho Chi Minh City, was shocked to receive complaints about its induction cooker from more than 20 consumers in different localities countrywide, who also asked for gifts from a promotional program the company has never launched. The consumers, who are from the Mekong Delta, the Central Vietnam, and the Central Highlands, requested repairs and warranty on the product and asked for free gifts they claimed the company “had promised to give customers when buying the products,” Nguyen Cong Quyen told Tuoi Tre. Quyen said the scammers not only distributed fake products but also used the company address and hotline number to dupe consumers. “They are even willing to make a fake company stamp to claim that they are selling authentic products,” he added angrily. Counterfeit products remain a bitter pill for Vietnamese manufacturers to swallow as their goods are now faked in China and illicitly brought back to the country to dupe consumers, destroying their reputation. While copycat products bear much lower prices than authentic ones, scammers usually sell them under promotional programs and boast their functionality to increase prices to two times higher than they should be. Quyen said all of the fake Sakyo induction and infrared cookers circulated on the market are made in China and smuggled into Vietnam. And it is hard to tell the fake products from the authentic ones, Quyen admitted. Sakyo has announced on mass media that it is a manufacturer rather than retailer, but more consumers have still fallen victim to the fake products. Similarly, the parents of a secondary student in District 11 have recently blamed the Binh Tay Import Export JSC, or Bitex, for making poor-quality calculators that almost caused their child to fail a math exam. The student said her newly-bought Casio calculator has an anti-fake stamp, but it produced incorrect results for her calculations and repeatedly shut down unexpectedly. After a careful check, a Bitex representative confirmed it is a fake Casio calculator. Bitex chairman cum CEO Nguyen Xuan Dung said the company has detected 52 cases and confiscated 2,500 fake calculators so far this year. “To tell the truth, we are exhausted and discouraged as the phenomenon continues despite multiple crackdowns,” he admitted. Dung said all of the fake Casio calculators on the market are manufactured in China. The scammers in Vietnam are only in charge of distributing the products to avoid detection by authorities. A Bitex representative said even the company’s chiefs cannot distinguish the copycat products from the real ones. Root of the problem unsolved Dung of Bitex said the current fight against the counterfeit products is not effective enough to completely curb the phenomenon. Manufacturers still have to join hands with market watchdogs in localities to get rid of the products, but it would be much better if the fake products were prevented from entering Vietnam at the border, he said. Dung said the company has cooperated with some customs agencies in charge of managing the seaports for strengthening checks. “But it is much more difficult to obtain the cooperation of the northern border gate customs,” he said. TUOITRENEWS