Hong Kong Customs officers raided a trading company in Hung Hom on Tuesday, dismantling an online operation selling counterfeit mobile devices.
Authorities seized 5,400 fake items, including smartphones, earphones, and chargers, with an estimated market value of HK$6 million, and arrested three individuals connected to the syndicate.
The arrested suspects, all foreign nationals, include two men and one woman aged between 35 and 46.
The men serve as the company’s manager and director, while the woman is also listed as a director of the firm.
All were released on bail pending further investigation. Customs said there may be more arrests.
Senior inspector of the department’s Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau, Liu Man-chun, said at a news conference that the trading company is mainly engaged in re-export trade, and preliminary investigations show the counterfeit phones were mainly destined for the Middle East.
According to Liu, the company set up its own website and deliberately created the image of a large-scale online store to win consumer trust and boost profits.
The fake phones were priced at about HK$800 to HK$1,000, roughly 80 percent of the retail price of genuine products.
While the seized devices closely replicated the outward appearance and registered trademarks of authentic brands, investigators noted that the knock-offs were not highly sophisticated.
Customs officials identified four distinct manufacturing flaws to help identify the fakes.
Notably, the serial number on the counterfeit packaging features a slash between the letters “S” and “N,” which is absent on authentic boxes.
Furthermore, the label on the back of the fake devices is applied at an angle rather than straight, a sequence of letters on the back lacks the proper spacing between words, and the word “communications” is noticeably misspelled on the provided chargers.
Based on the evidence presented during the briefing, the vast majority of the seized contraband consisted of imitation models of the Huawei Y6, Huawei Y7 Prime, Xiaomi Redmi 13C, and Xiaomi Redmi 14C.