An excerpt from the exclusive interview, on newsstands these days, revealing all the tricks, cunning and pitfalls of those who speculate on online watchmaking (and not only), told by one of the 'sharks' of the Net.
Because knowledge is still the best way to prevent.
From L'OROLOGIO 160 August/September:
Q:When did you start your 'activity'?
A:I have been doing this for about ten years. In the beginning it was a game, then I supplemented my income, today it has become my primary and only source of income.
Q:Who is your favourite 'customer'?
A:Always the private person of course, because everyone thinks they understand something and instead they don't, especially for vintage. What would a person even of my age know about a 1970s watch? Nobody at the age of five or six looks at what watches people are wearing and then, today, how many can they have seen?
Q:What are your 'working' channels?
A:Without a doubt the internet is the safest: nobody knows you, nobody sees you. I go on online auctions, I open and close 'virtual shops' on the web...
Q:Virtual shops?
A:I buy a domain, open a 'shop' which of course only exists on the web. Then inside I put about fifty different models for sale, the ones everyone is asking for. Maybe the idea is to place ten fake pieces, bought for a few lire.
Q:What about photos?
A:Easy, I take the ones from the official sites or I always look around on the internet.
Q:And then?
A:It just takes a little patience. You have to wait for the orders to arrive. Then, when you have arrived at the figure you set yourself, continuing in the example above 50,000 euro for the ten pieces, and the buyers have already sent in the money, you send in the fakes.
Q:But how much do you charge for them?
A:The market figure, as true of course. Then of course I close everything, delete the domain and start again with something else.
Q:So you're telling me that from Italy there are people willing to buy valuables on a foreign site, paying in advance and without requiring any particular guarantee?
A:Of course, most of the time Italians, thanks to the favourable exchange rate, are very tempted to buy abroad, especially in countries where the dollar is the currency. They are convinced that they are saving money.
Q:And when do the fakes reach the buyers?
A:Surely someone will complain, but in reality no one can do anything because there are no laws that really protect the buyer. And then, in the borderline case that someone manages to get to me or someone who does what I do, how will he prove that the watch sent was the fake one he shows? I will always be able to claim that the watch sent was real and indeed say 'it is you who want to cheat me!'. Not to mention the very long time required for an almost certainly losing lawsuit, the endless investigations and expert opinions, the legal expenses...
Q:So how does it end?
A:It always ends up that, when it goes well, they keep the fakes.
Q:And when it goes wrong?
A:They don't receive those either. There are those who send a box with a piece of brick inside and some messy tape, so that it looks tampered with during transport. Others, to get it off their chest, send nothing at all.
Q:And how does it work with online auctions?
A:There it is even easier, because you don't even have to register the site and thus spend money. The idea always starts with the almost total lack of control, or rather, they only check if there is someone who reports anomalies. It makes it much easier for us that there are generally so many listings that it is easy to put in a few 'fake' ones.
Q:And how does it do this in practice?
A:There are different ways. The cleanest is when you sell a replica watch, without saying that it is fake, but asking for a very low figure, not congruent with the actual value of the object.
Q:An example?
A:Selling for 300 euros a piece that is worth 10,000 euros. No one should reasonably expect that to be true. On the contrary, for the sake of peace of mind, one always replies truthfully to questions from buyers, saying that it is a perfect replica, a beautiful piece, but in that case making it clear that it is not an original model.
Q:What about the other modes?
A:In reality, real money is made when fake watches are sold for real.
Q:Is anyone falling for this?
A:Yes, more than one would expect.
Q:And how does it end?
A:When the money arrives you collect it, close your nick-name on the auction site, delete the e-mail address you had used and start all over again. Let's say that with a financial commitment of 100 euros, and several hours at the computer, you can easily make three or four thousand euros.
Q:What about forums? Do the same rules apply as for online auctions?
A:No, there it is difficult to 'drop the package', because in reality the forums are much more closed communities than you think. It is always the same people who frequent them and run them, even between 'competing' forums, and in the end they are all friends, they know each other and so it is almost impossible to do 'my' business.
Q:So no sales on the forums?
A:What are you saying? It is exactly the opposite! Forums, but not only watchmaking forums, serve almost exclusively to sell and buy. They are generally sustained by the contribution of traders, merchants or various traffickers, who have created their business there, overt or covert. It is they who are the barrier to the arrival of people like me, but not to protect the forum, simply to protect their business.
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