AliExpress under scrutiny for counterfeit items

A 39-year-old smuggler, identified only as Yang, was caught by the Korean customs agency after making 300 million won ($228,212) from selling 746 counterfeit golf sets smuggled in from China.

Customs officers examine fake golf clubs smuggled from China at Incheon Regional Customs headquarters on Wednesday. The seized golf clubs were purchased by a smuggler who smuggled some 746 golf club sets from AliExpress since 2021. [YONHAP]

A 39-year-old smuggler, identified only as Yang, was caught by the Korean customs agency after making 300 million won ($228,212) from selling 746 counterfeit golf sets smuggled in from China.

“With the golf craze sweeping the country, counterfeit gold clubs could earn me a lucrative fortune,” Yang said.

The fake clubs were smuggled through AliExpress, the largest Chinese ecommerce platform managed by Alibaba Group.

The clubs were knockoffs of famous brands, including Honma Golf and Maruman.

The smuggled golf clubs were then sold at Korean ecommerce platforms, including popular secondhand marketplaces, or on his own website, to make them look legit.

Furthermore, he sold the golf clubs at half the price at 50,000 won to as much as 1 million won when he actually paid a quarter of the genuine item.

He even lured his victims by claiming that finding the golf clubs in secondhand markets was hard as they were brand new models. He even promised after-sale service at a discounted price.

Although some customers who purchased the golf sets sued Yang after realizing they had purchased knockoffs, he continued with his business.

Yang smuggled counterfeit clubs from China to Korea from August 2021 until recently.

He also used people he knew to smuggle the golf clubs.

He took advantage of a customs loophole that lifted the obligation to report items if they were less than $150 in value and used personally by the person who purchased them.

He bypassed the custom report by making it seem like his friends and relatives had purchased the clubs.

He also registered the clubs as hiking sticks, stainless steel pipes or other items.

The Incheon customs officials discovered Yang’s counterfeit smuggling when a customs agent found a golf club in Yang’s special delivery cargo instead of a hiking stick as registered.

According to the Korea Customs Service, such counterfeits have posed a persistent problem, with most items coming from China.

Customs agents uncovered 2,730 cases of counterfeit items from China in the first 10 months of this year.

It’s not just fake golf clubs being smuggled from China.

Customs officials in Masan, South Gyeongsang in March caught a smuggler who illicitly brought in fake copies of a famous British children’s book, passing them off as if they were genuine articles sold in Hong Kong.

The customs agency is primarily focusing on AliExpress, which has become the typical route for counterfeit products from China.

Based on data collected by JoongAng Ilbo, 2.3 million shipments were ordered through AliExpress in the last three months.

Of those, customs officials believe 1,152 were counterfeits.

In fact, of the 1,152 shipments, on-site inspections found 408 to be counterfeits.

The customs authorities are working with original brands to check the authenticity of some 279 items.

The fakes and suspected fakes include famous brands like Pearly Gates, Titleist golf bags and Nike jumpers.

A 31-year-old, Song Hye-joo, said she purchased fake earbuds through AliExpress in 2021.

"I thought the product was legit because it had an authenticity label,” Song said.

She added that even the packaging was identical to the original product.

The earbuds were sold at a reasonable price of 30,000 won.

“But when I tried to connect my device to the earbuds, it was incompatible,” Song said. “Soon, they broke.”

She said she no longer uses AliExpress after the experience.

A 46-year-old man said he also fell victim to purchasing items off AliExpress.

“I bought eight golf clubs at one-third the price of authentic clubs,” he said. “They turned out to be fake.”

“An authentic Black Yak winter jumper costs 300,000 won, but on AliExpress, its knockoffs cost between 10,000 and 30,000 won,” lawmaker Kang Min-kuk from the People Power Party said at a parliamentary audit on Nov. 16. “Lawmakers’ badges cost 15,000 won,” he added.

“[AliExpress’s assertion that] its counterfeit ratio is 0.015 percent is hardly believable,” Rep. Back Hye-ryun of the Democratic Party said.

Amid continuing controversy, Ray Zhang, general manager of AliExpress Korea, announced the company would invest 100 billion won over the next three years to counter counterfeits and protect customers better.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]