Gang taken down for selling fake golf clubs of top brands
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Some of the fake golf clubs seized by police
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Some of the fakes seized by the police.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Some of the fakes seized by the police.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Some of the fakes seized by the police.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Some of the fakes seized by the police.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE
Thirteen suspects have been caught for allegedly manufacturing and selling fake golf clubs of famous brands, included PING, Titleist and TaylorMade, Shanghai police said on Thursday.
Police in the Pudong New Area started their investigation after allegations from the companies that run the brands earlier this year that several shops on Taobao.com were selling counterfeit products.
The imitation products were highly similar to the authentic golf clubs but were up to 10 times cheaper, police said.
Also, the shops were selling spare parts of the golf clubs, including grips and club heads, which are usually not available on the legal market, according to police.
Eight suspects were located and nabbed in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, with five others based in Hunan Province, who sold the fakes to them, caught later.
Police seized more than 2,500 fake golf clubs, around 25,000 spare parts of the knockoffs and 54,000 counterfeit labels of the products during their raids. The authentic counterparts of the fakes are estimated to be worth more than 5 million yuan (US$780,000).
Some of the suspects had work experience with legal golf set manufacturers, but the fakes were still of far inferior quality to the authentic ones, police said.
