Police yesterday arrested two women suspected of selling fake Hewlett-Packard (HP) labeled ink and toner cartridges.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) told a press conference that it had received complaint letters from HP-Taiwan saying there were fake HP ink and toner cartridges being sold.
Police also said that HP headquarters in the US had paid attention to the crime. Last year, HP was the second biggest personal computer vendor worldwide.
The two suspects -- Chou Teh-yu (周德裕) and Peng Ming-fang (彭敏芳) -- were arrested at their company in Taipei County, where they sold fake HP ink and toner products wholesale to shops nationwide.
Officers searched the suspects' company yesterday as well as several shops in Taipei, Taipei County and Kaohsiung, seizing a total of 385 fake HP ink and toner cartridges and 1,386 fake HP labels to be stuck on the fake products.
The bureau said the fake products looked almost identical to the real ones, and that many consumers, including government agencies, had been using the fakes.
Police said the two women made more than NT$20 million (US$602,600) in two years from selling the fakes.
The suspects sold fake toner cartridges for HP C4129X laser printers. While the real products cost more than NT$4,000, the fakes were sold for NT$2,900, the police said.
The suspects told police they bought the fake products on the Internet from manufacturers of fake HP products in this country.
Police said they were looking for the manufacturers.
RSS