Women nabbed for selling fake HP toner
cartridges(Taipei)
Police yesterday arrested two women suspected of selling fake Hewlett-Packard
(HP) labeled ink and toner cartridges.The Criminal Investigation Bureau (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 and Peng Ming-fang — 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.