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Lexi's straighteners lay in the corner of her room. Smoking like a pair of mutant barbecue tongs. The GHD's crackled and fizzled with the acrid stink of burning plastic.
"I could have put those in my hair," she says. "Like, 9 out of 10 for anger."
It's unlikely that 16-year-old Lexi Cuneen will ever plunge back into the black market world of counterfeit goods again. But you never know. She's got a lot of shopping left in her yet.
The lure is enormous. The prices unbeatable. The worldwide supply, virtually endless.
According to Interpol there are $600 billion worth of counterfeit goods in circulation. Anything with a brand name is a target.
When you hand over $20 at some shonky backstreet market for a Rolex watch, some Gucci sunglasses or a handbag that normally retails for the price of a small car, then sure, Louis Vuitton might register a small twinge in the back pocket, the argument goes, but it's not going to do you, the consumer much harm. Besides there's some primal satisfaction in thinking that you've beaten 'the man.'
The FBI calls it the crime of the 21st century but I guess that depends which side of the catwalk you're on.
In China, where an estimated 85% of the world's counterfeit goods come from, they have a name for it: Shanzai culture. According to Forbes magazine the phrase literally means "mountain fortress, conjuring up a romantic notion of bandits in a mountain hideaway taking potshots at giants."
The giants being companies like Polo, Levi's Prada and other must-have fashion brands like Lexi's GHD hair straighteners.
One could pursue the romantic notion further and paint these giant-killers as biblical heroes bringing down fashion monopolies armed only with the catapults of black market capitalism. As far as consequences go, the worst that your knock-off Rolex is going to do to you is put you crook about the time, but as Lexi says "I could have been electrocuted."
The GHD's she bought came from a website purporting to be based in New Zealand. She paid her $200 and the fake GHD's arrived. (They normally retail for $350) She compared them to a friend's authentic pair and they looked the real deal.
They would have, says GHD despairingly, the fakes are getting so good that the counterfeiters have even copied the unique hologram on the inside of the blade. When you split open the plastic though, inside, there is the key difference.
The fakes are badly made and electrically unsafe, as Lexi would attest.
Our Fair Go investigation revealed that her money (and dozens of other young women's) went into bank accounts opened by what the police call counterfeit "mules". They are Chinese visitors or residents who act as fronts for websites produced in China and made to look as if they were local.
The bank accounts and websites are set up with false passports, false addresses, false phone numbers. The mules withdraw money from New Zealand ATM's and take the money back to China. This appears to be an international model reproduced in every country where 16 year old's covet a pair of GHD's.
The fact that Lexi's fake GHD's went up in smoke is a glimpse into the serious side of counterfeiting.
Fake pharmaceuticals and fake parts for cars and trucks are further examples of commercial imitation with life threatening consequences.
Ethically speaking there's also the matter of child labour. The factories which produce the counterfeits illegally are hardly going to be leading the way in outstanding working conditions for their workers.
Final random thought on fakes - It's only regular people who
fork out for expensive authentic goods in a recession. The rich
people buy knock offs cause they know no-one will question
them.
Don't miss Fair Go, 7;30pm Wednesday's TV
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