COUNTERFEITING

BY ALAN OSBORNMAYBE not all of us would know the difference if we got servedbootleg vodka instead of Smirnoff in a pub, but make no mistake - this is happening on a wide scale and it amounts to a rip-off that is cheating drinkers of millions of dollars a year.It may not be as bad in Britain as it is in China, say, where over half of the top-branded drinks on sale, including Hennessy XO cognac, are fakes.But as the International Chamber of Commerce's Commercial Crime Services (CCS) points out "the business of counterfeiting is booming. Larger incentives and easier ...


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