Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

FUTIAN police recently arrested nine people who had allegedly infringed on the Jenny Cookie brand biscuit of Hong Kong, manufactured the biscuits and sold them online to make a profit.

In a joint action recently with the Alibaba anti-counterfeit team, Futian police followed clues online and used big data to confirm that a cake shop in an urban village was highly suspicious because the employee delivered a vanload of products to a warehouse every afternoon that was then distributed nationwide through a parcel delivery service.

In three teams, police stormed the cake shop and two workshops and arrested four people who were suspected of making the Hong Kong brand-name products. A total of 20 cartons of biscuits were seized.

From the warehouse, police seized 50 cartons containing 1,500 boxes of biscuit products, and police seized the tools, phones and computers that were used for online marketing from an apartment. The biscuits had a market value of 350,000 yuan (US$51,310).

The Jenny Cookie manufacturer, who expressed thanks to Futian police at a banner-giving ceremony Thursday, said 90 percent of Jenny Cookie products sold on the mainland, and even 70 percent sold in Hong Kong, were counterfeit.

On the mainland, only nine online shops on T-mall and Taobao, and three offline shops in Shanghai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Sheung Wan, sell authentic Jenny Cookie products, according to the manufacturer.

People making purchases through other channels should expect to find fakes, the manufacturer said.