Police charge 10 suspects for involvement in counterfeit shoe selling scheme

Social Affairs

Published: 10 Jun. 2024, 11:17

Police charge 10 suspects for involvement in counterfeit shoe selling scheme

A screen capture of one online marketplace run by 10 suspects who allegedly sold counterfeit shoes to consumers [JOONGANG ILBO]

Police said Friday it had busted a suspected crime ring selling counterfeit sneakers online, passing them off as real limited-edition items and earning nearly 5 billion won ($3.6 million) in profits.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Precinct said that it booked 10 sellers on charges of fraud and violations of the Trademark Act. This included an online shopping mall operator in his 30s.

The offenders were accused of deceiving consumers by listing the counterfeit sneakers as authentic limited-edition pairs and selling them to around 24,000 consumers between March 2022 and last month. They were also reported to have collected a profit of around 4.9 billion won.

The suspects allegedly sourced the fake shoes from China-based factories and sold the items on 19 online commerce platforms that they operated.

One suspect in his 30s, known as the operator, plotted the crime scheme based on the high demand for limited edition sneakers from famous shoe brands, such as Nike.

The police said the suspects sold the counterfeits at prices similar to the genuine products — ranging between 100,000 won and 200,000 won.

The entire search and investigation took two years and two months. When police became aware of the fraud case in early 2022, they began the investigation and captured seven suspects last September.

The police recently finalized the investigation after arresting the remaining three suspects, while the alleged leader was caught in the second round of crackdowns.

Of the 10, six were detained, and four were referred to the prosecution without detention.

A screen capture of one online marketplace run by 10 suspects who allegedly sold counterfeit shoes to consumers [JOONGANG ILBO]

The state-run Korea Communications Commission blocked access to the 19 online marketplaces run by the suspects, said police.

Police received a total of 72 damage reports from the purchasers of the counterfeit sneakers.

Police said there would be a larger number of victims than those who reported because it is difficult to distinguish between the counterfeits and legitimate products.

A police official warned of a “reality where sales of knockoffs are quite prevalent on the internet, including clothes and golf items,” asking people to pay extra attention when using e-commerce platforms.

The police said it will “enforce a monitoring mechanism to crack down on the circulation of illegitimate products.” Also, they promised to improve guidelines to address consumer damage through coordination with the Korea Consumer Agency, a public institution for consumer rights protection.

BY HAN YOUNG-HYE, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]