I’m Kayla. I run a tiny coffee cart on weekends. I also help with school fundraisers and yard sales. Cash shows up. A lot. So I keep a counterfeit pen in my apron, right next to my Sharpie and a pack of gum. Sometimes I off-load leftover pastries or cart accessories through local classified sites, …
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I collect baseball cards. Been at it since I could stack quarters at the corner shop. I still remember that sugary gum from old Topps packs. Sticky, weird, perfect. So when I say I’ve handled a lot of cardboard, I mean it. Counterfeits? Yeah. I’ve held those too. I wish I hadn’t—but I learned a …
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I’m Kayla. I test gear for a living. Watches too. One week, I tried a counterfeit Patek Philippe. Yes, the fancy one everyone whispers about. I wanted to see if the hype around “super fakes” was real. You know what? It looked good from two feet away. But it fell apart fast—inside and out. Let …
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I shop a lot. I test gear. I baby my bags. I’ve also been burned by fakes. The sting stays. So I watch how brands handle it. When a brand uses its trademark and really fights, I notice. It feels like they’re guarding the door for all of us.For the footnote-heavy version with docket numbers, …
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I’m Kayla, and I play a lot. Church gigs. Bar gigs. Two weddings last fall. I love Les Pauls. Thick neck. Big voice. Warm, like cocoa in a mug. So when I found a “Gibson Les Paul Standard” on Facebook Marketplace last summer, I jumped. It looked right from far away. Tobacco burst. Cream binding. …
Continue reading “I bought a “Gibson” that wasn’t. Here’s what it felt like, and what I learned”
I’m Kayla. I sell small-batch coffee and help my brother run a sneaker pop-up on weekends. Fake stuff kept sneaking in. Bad returns. Swapped bottles. That kind of mess. So I tried an RFID anti-counterfeit setup for six months. Not perfect. But it saved me real money and headaches. Here’s what I used and how …
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I’m Kayla, and yes, I’ve used a two-dollar bill. A lot, actually. I like giving them as change at my craft booth. Folks smile. It feels lucky. But one week, I got burned. I ended up with a fake. It was small, but the mess was big. If you’re curious about every twist of that …
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I’m Kayla, and I run a small coffee stand at weekend markets. Cash still shows up in my tip jar and at my register. So I bought a Dri-Mark counterfeit bill marker pen. Simple idea: draw a line on the bill—if the line stays light, it’s likely real; if it turns dark brown, it’s bad …
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I buy a lot of organic stuff. Food. Oils. Spices. Even skincare. I do it for my skin, and for my kid’s lunches. You know what? I’ve been burned. More than once. Counterfeit “organics” slipped into my cart. Some looked real. Some even tasted fine. But the little clues kept nagging me. I later pulled …
Continue reading “Counterfeit Organics: My Hands-On Take (And How I Caught Them)”
I run a small bath and candle brand out of Austin. I pour in my garage. It smells like lavender most days, and sometimes burnt sugar when I mess up. Last spring, my sales fell off a cliff. Amazon had five listings that looked like my jars. Same label style. Same scent names. But the …
Continue reading “I Hired a Counterfeiting Lawyer for My Small Brand: What Actually Happened”
