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Munich. Jochen Schaefer from the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry tells us that the sale of
counterfeit goods is booming. The industry sector is in the status of alert. It is focusing on a new method to
combat this plague. “It is proven that terrorist organizations use such illicit trade as means for financing their
activities. We try to intervene as early as possible prior to the physical shipment of the counterfeit goods. We,
i.e. we with the help of an Italian cooperation partner, who owns a proprietary software have succeeded in
shutting down more than 160,000 webpages”.
We want to take a closer look at this cooperation partner and are visiting such service provider Italy. The
head of operations, Michele Provera and his team are facing massive threats. Since they spoil the business of
the product pirates.
“What we do is we hunt in the Internet online offerings of fakes. To be able to do this we have developed
a specific analytic technology and methodology, which allows us to crawl through the whole Internet by
screening in particular Chinese and Far East trading platforms. We identify offerings of fake products and
then start the process to delete such offerings and to banish the shops of the counterfeiters. On a 24/7
basis, Provera and his team are searching for illegal product offerings and report these to the operators of
the Asian online portals. They are by law required to react and to delete such webpages, which brings such
trade with counterfeit products to an end. Different than the authorities, who frequently only prosecute
these activities on a single case-by-case basis, the Italian IT experts go after the source of the evil. Without
merchandise, no money for criminals or terrorists……………..”
[ the remainder of this TV broadcast dealt with the smuggling of cigarettes, which terrorists are also using as
revenue source for their activities].
3. CONCLUSIONS:
I strongly believe the legitimate industry manufacturers and sellers of sporting goods products could do
a better job to educate consumers, potential and actual customers all over the world that the purchase
of fake products is not just a petty offense, or even a ‘smart buy’, as it is often view would, but that such
illegal activities in reality serve as financing to not only for the organized crime, but also for terrorists, which
threaten the lives of innocent people all over the world. When in July 2016 e.g. the passengers of a regional