Recent raids by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department turned up 400 buckets of an unlikely counterfeit product, one that you wouldn’t expect – phony laundry detergents. Buckets and buckets of knock-off laundry detergent are being passed off as the real thing to unsuspecting consumers.
Crooks are selling the 5-gallon buckets online through social media and it’s becoming increasingly big business for organized crime according to police and Proctor & Gamble. Branded as Tide, Gain or Downy, the criminals are selling the fake detergent at a high profit margin.
The counterfeiters buy the fake detergent at about $5 a bucket. They then sell it online for as much as five times that. The fake stuff looks and smells like real soap but it’s actually watered-down and a lot less effective at cleaning. It’s also unclear where the chemicals come from.
“These guys are driving around with van loads of this stuff every day like it’s nothing,” Lt. Geoffrey Deedrick told ABC News. “If you made just as much money selling counterfeit Tide as heroin, what would you choose? The Tide.”
So how can consumers know if they are getting the real deal or a fake product? Look at the size being sold. These fake products sell in 5-gallon buckets, but none of the manufacturers (Tide, Gain, Downy) sell products of that size.
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