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Smart computer works round the clock to catch sellers of fake goods online

Social media sites now the preferred platform for online counterfeit sales, say customs officers

PUBLISHED : Monday, 27 July, 2015, 3:48am
UPDATED : Monday, 27 July, 2015, 3:48am

Frank Feng
[email protected]



Guy Fong Wing-kai, commander in the department's technology crime investigation division with a counterfeit Rolex watch. Photo: Dickson Lee

Hong Kong customs has launched a computer system to trace counterfeit transactions on online social media networks.

Jointly developed by the Customs and Excise Department and the University of Hong Kong, the HK$780,000 system, named SocNet, works 24 hours a day searching for suspicious sales on social networks.

"Due to mass information on social networks, our law enforcement turned out to be very stringent," said Guy Fong Wing-kai, a commander in the department's technology crime investigation division.

"The idea is [to help] cope with the mass of information online, in which illegal trades might happen."

By scanning social networks and talking to target dealers with artificial intelligence, the system can identify illegal sellers who can then be traced by customs officers.

Fong said SocNet could improve customs efficiency by 90 per cent in handling online counterfeit cases.

The number of online cases of fake sales increased by 11.6 per cent last year, from 164 in 2013. In the first half of this year, there were 99 cases, while 112 people were arrested for trading counterfeit goods on the internet.

Online auction sites used to be the platform favoured by sellers of fake goods, customs said, but social networks were now preferred for counterfeit trading.

Customs figures showed that in the first six months of last year, 79 per cent of fake online trades were made on auction sites while for the same period this year, social networks accounted for 65 per cent of cases.

"We will arrest lawbreakers when we entice them to came out to trade," said Louise Ho Pui-shan, head of intellectual property investigation for customs. "We also have cooperation with [delivery] companies, which could help us find them even if they don't come out."

Connie Liu, a student, had a bad experience the first time she shopped online for trainers.

"I seldom shop online, but the first time I did on Facebook, I was given fakes."






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