Make money selling replicas

pjfooty

pjfooty

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Hi,

I was thinking about starting a web page selling replicas. I know a web page that sells replicas that are so good I know I can make a lot of money out of them.

I am not going into business stating these products are authentic, customer will know these are replicas but also know the quality of them are almost as good as the real thing.

Since I work at one of the largest clothes companies in the world myself I know a operation like this is in the grey zone.

My questions are:

- What penalties could I be facing getting caught doing this? (Obviously depends on the country)
- Are there any known loop holes in this kind of operation? Could I claim I only accept donations through my web site and the products will be shipped for free? Could that work or just get me more trouble?

Any advice are highly appreciated
 
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Its not a grey zone its illegal and you can get real prison time with large restitution fines.
 
I wouldn't actually start a web shop, more like a web shop where I'm showing my products.

Only money I would accept are "donations" and the products the customers are receiving are "free gifts".

Could it cause troubles even though? As I said I'm looking for loop holes to avoid getting caught and eventually punished for crimes of selling repicas.
 
My mom's co-worker got busted doing this. She works in very reptable firm. She had millions of dollars of illegal replicas in her house. She was one of the ring leaders, and she was making bank before she was busted. (Keep in mind this was while she was working at said reputable firm.)

The only reason she didn't go to jail was bc she ratted out everyone else. She wound up having to pay over a million dollars in fines/restitution/whatever.

She still works at the firm, but her life is shit. She can't get a promotion bc of what she did. She gets minimal raises - just enough to say she got one. She can't go anywhere else bc she ruined her own reputation. This happened years ago, but if you G her, that incident is going to pop up in the top 3 results.

I live in the US. This case is rather extreme, but I always think I don't want to be the one they make an example out of.
 
Reaver said:
My mom's co-worker got busted doing this. She works in very reptable firm. She had millions of dollars of illegal replicas in her house. She was one of the ring leaders, and she was making bank before she was busted. (Keep in mind this was while she was working at said reputable firm.)

The only reason she didn't go to jail was bc she ratted out everyone else. She wound up having to pay over a million dollars in fines/restitution/whatever.

She still works at the firm, but her life is shit. She can't get a promotion bc of what she did. She gets minimal raises - just enough to say she got one. She can't go anywhere else bc she ruined her own reputation. This happened years ago, but if you G her, that incident is going to pop up in the top 3 results.

I live in the US. This case is rather extreme, but I always think I don't want to be the one they make an example out of.
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Wow, thanks for sharing this story.

I wasn't really looking for making this big of a business out of it. Just like a small side hustle so to say.

The punishments in the US are most definitely harder than the ones in my country but to be honest I'm not looking for to start an illegal business but rather to makes something illegal into a legitimate side income (at least one I really can't be punished for).
 
pjfooty said:
Wow, thanks for sharing this story.

I wasn't really looking for making this big of a business out of it. Just like a small side hustle so to say.

The punishments in the US are most definitely harder than the ones in my country but to be honest I'm not looking for to start an illegal business but rather to makes something illegal into a legitimate side income (at least one I really can't be punished for).
Click to expand...

That's like saying you want to legally sell cocaine. You give it away for free and people make donations as a thank you.

Distribution is still illegal, especially if they're forced to make a donation or pay for shipping before getting their "gift."

Idk what country you're in so this may or may not apply.
 
Reaver said:
My mom's co-worker got busted doing this. She works in very reptable firm. She had millions of dollars of illegal replicas in her house. She was one of the ring leaders, and she was making bank before she was busted. (Keep in mind this was while she was working at said reputable firm.)

The only reason she didn't go to jail was bc she ratted out everyone else. She wound up having to pay over a million dollars in fines/restitution/whatever.

She still works at the firm, but her life is shit. She can't get a promotion bc of what she did. She gets minimal raises - just enough to say she got one. She can't go anywhere else bc she ruined her own reputation. This happened years ago, but if you G her, that incident is going to pop up in the top 3 results.

I live in the US. This case is rather extreme, but I always think I don't want to be the one they make an example out of.
Click to expand...


I heard a story of a guy drop shipping from china. Never even touched the products fbi broke into his office and swapped his keyboard with a keylogged keyboard and busted the entire ring.
 
test123test said:
I heard a story of a guy drop shipping from china. Never even touched the products fbi broke into his office and swapped his keyboard with a keylogged keyboard and busted the entire ring.
Click to expand...

There are hundreds of stories like this. Real or not, to me the risk isn't worth it.
 
AquaticGamer said:
How about accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment. No one can track it.
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Bitcoins can most certainly be tracked. Just like any other form of currency...

Edit: What country are you from?

From experience, when selling reps it is easier to get money straight through paypal. No matter how careful you think you can be, you'll get caught IF the authorities want to catch you. They will follow the money/wait for you to slip up. No one is a perfect criminal forever, especially people who aren't criminals in the first place...

Also accepting "donations" and sending as gifts? Seriously dude, if that got put to a jury they would laugh so hard. No chance that would fly.

Do you have children/wife/mortgage? If so don't bother at all trying this... if you are young, no debts/dependable relatives you could try it. But is it worth the risk? If you get caught you are talking 200k fines if you sell a decent amount of this stuff.
 
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pjfooty said:
Wow, thanks for sharing this story.

I wasn't really looking for making this big of a business out of it. Just like a small side hustle so to say.

The punishments in the US are most definitely harder than the ones in my country but to be honest I'm not looking for to start an illegal business but rather to makes something illegal into a legitimate side income (at least one I really can't be punished for).
Click to expand...
Also don't believe this facade, this isn't a "legitimate side business" for the people you are committing fraud against (ie Gucci or whatever). They will want you stopped quickly.

pjfooty said:
I wouldn't actually start a web shop, more like a web shop where I'm showing my products.

Only money I would accept are "donations" and the products the customers are receiving are "free gifts".

Could it cause troubles even though? As I said I'm looking for loop holes to avoid getting caught and eventually punished for crimes of selling repicas.
Click to expand...
And another point. There are no loopholes just lying about. How much power do you think massive companies have in government? Do you think they let loopholes lay around, or do they lobby for them to go?
 
Very high risk business idea, can be worth the effort but i suggest if you wanna get into the replica game then you make your money and get out there as soon as possible.
Get yourself a new ID, use a VPN, maybe even a Virtual Box and so on. If you wanna use paypal for checkout, then make sure that you have a stealth paypal.
an old saying from the silkroad forums was "most bad guys make a mistake, and the fbi is usually there when they make that mistake"
 
it totally depends on what country you operate from and where you sell the items to. all the horror stories above happened because they sell the items to fellow countrymen (or they sell from other western countries). it doesnt matter if you dropship from China. as long as you are based in the US and you sell to other americans, you will be caught (customers and merchant located in the same country is always a big NO)

here's the thing. if you live in a third world country with no extradition treaty with the US and you sell the items to americans, the american policemen won't bother to try to extradite you unless you already make huge money out of it (why, you ask? because of the costs). and yes, if they want you to go to prison, they need to extradite you to the US. you won't serve jail time in local prison.

Gucci and the likes might not sue you as well because the civil court will be based on your country. this is where you need to ask local lawyers whether it's safe for you to do it or not. the loopholes in legal system are totally dependent on where you live (not the country where you try to sell the items to)

Basically there are two things that can happen:
1. they sue you in local civil court (your country)
2. they extradite you to the US so you can serve prison time.

the first point above will only happen if they have enough confident in your country's track record. a lot of countries have complex civil court system and some companies won't bother to hire local lawyers in your country to try to sue you if they see it as something not worth to pursue. once again, this is totally dependent on your own country's laws and loopholes. you need to ask local lawyer or anyone who works in law firm

the second point above (extradition) will only happen if you do something big. if you make millions out of it, the possibility is there. however, if you make something like $15,000 or $20,000, I don't think they will try to extradite you. your country won't pay for the extradition costs. the US needs to pay for the extradition but they probably won't see it as something worth to pursue . once again, it totally depends on your crime activities. if it's considered as high-calibre crime, they will try to pursue you. if it's considered as low-calibre crime, they might not.

to be honest, i do think selling replica items isconsidered as 'high-calibre crime' but i'm not sure. you have to find out by yourself

*source? i have consulted something similar to my own lawyer (but i didnt ask him about selling replica items). i also consulted with a foreign lawyer and he also said similar things
 
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janeeth20 said:
it totally depends on what country you operate from and where you sell the items to. all the horror stories above happened because they sell the items to fellow countrymen (or they sell from other western countries). it doesnt matter if you dropship from China. as long as you are based in the US and you sell to other americans, you will be caught (customers and merchant located in the same country is always a big NO)

here's the thing. if you live in a third world country with no extradition treaty with the US and you sell the items to americans, the american policemen won't bother to try to extradite you unless you already make huge money out of it (why, you ask? because of the costs). and yes, if they want you to go to prison, they need to extradite you to the US. you won't serve jail time in local prison.

Gucci and the likes might not sue you as well because the civil court will be based on your country. this is where you need to ask local lawyers whether it's safe for you to do it or not. the loopholes in legal system are totally dependent on where you live (not the country where you try to sell the items to)

Basically there are two things that can happen:
1. they sue you in local civil court (your country)
2. they extradite you to the US so you can serve prison time.

the first point above will only happen if they have enough confident in your country's track record. a lot of countries have complex civil court system and some companies won't bother to hire local lawyers in your country to try to sue you if they see it as something not worth to pursue. once again, this is totally dependent on your own country's laws and loopholes. you need to ask local lawyer or anyone who works in law firm

the second point above (extradition) will only happen if you do something big. if you make millions out of it, the possibility is there. however, if you make something like $15,000 or $20,000, I don't think they will try to extradite you. your country won't pay for the extradition costs. the US needs to pay for the extradition but they probably won't see it as something worth to pursue . once again, it totally depends on your crime activities. if it's considered as high-calibre crime, they will try to pursue you. if it's considered as low-calibre crime, they might not.

to be honest, i do think selling replica items isconsidered as 'high-calibre crime' but i'm not sure. you have to find out by yourself

*source? i have consulted something similar to my own lawyer (but i didnt ask him about selling replica items). i also consulted with a foreign lawyer and he also said similar things
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This was exactly the kind of answer I was looking for.

Thank you very much for your help! :)
 
MikeyMikey13 said:
You cherry picked the answer you wanted dude lol.
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Sorry bro I missed your reply totally.

I was looking for a kind of answer where someone seem to have a bit knowledge of this business rather than some stories of FBI or whatever busting some guy for doing stuff like this.

I live in Sweden and as I said I work in one of the biggest clothes companies in the world. I deal with fake sites myself a bit through work, from my experience I really don't think charges are being pressed towards these kind of scam sites, they are just trying to have them shut down and then new sites keeps popping up.

I have no family to support but I wouldn't want to screw up me economy for the rest of my life for doing this kind of business.

Also, as a tip for anyone wanting to buy replicas, if you own a credit card you can usually (almost always) get your money back if you buy replica products online. Just buy a products you know is a replica, call your credit card company and tell them about you being "scammed" online thinking you were buying the real products and get a statement from the clothes company and BOOM, you have a free product.

This probably won't work several times but the credit card companies do take their responsibility for letting the fake sites accept their credit cards while selling illegal products. Just saying :)
 
I agree with all the guys. And how the hell you gonna ship the items? Most countries have signed the Vienna convention - which means that must respect the copyright laws. In my country the customs must restrain the goods which violate other people copyright. And the goods must be distroed. So if you dropship something, how can you be 100 percent sure that the items are not restrained?.
 
Could you just sell the "replica" products as their own unique brand?

But have other websites/traffic source point out how they are such a great "alternative" to the original brand?
 
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