In May, Singapore Police arrested two women, aged 30 and 47, following raids across several addresses in Yishun and Bukit Batok. Officers seized more than 400 items, including bags, wallets, watches, sunglasses and accessories bearing counterfeit trademarks, with a street value of over S$14,800. As with similar cases, those convicted under the Trade Marks Act face fines of up to S$100,000, up to five years in jail, or both, and police have said they take a serious view of intellectual property infringement.
A Pattern, Not a One Off
What’s notable here isn’t the value, it’s the spread. This wasn’t a single shop or a single seller. It was multiple addresses across two different neighbourhoods, which tells you counterfeit selling in Singapore isn’t confined to one type of location or one part of the island. It happens in malls, in residential estates, wherever there’s a buyer willing to skip asking questions.
What That Means for You as a Buyer
The location or setup of a seller tells you very little about whether what they’re selling is real. A polished storefront or a friendly home based seller can both be selling counterfeit goods just as easily as a stall at a night market. The only reliable signal is whether the piece has actually been authenticated, and by whom.
Every piece at TROVE is authenticated in house before it’s listed, regardless of where it came from or how good the deal looked going in. If you’d like to know how we check a specific piece, message us on WhatsApp.
Source: Mothership
TROVE by SGD is an independent consignment platform and is not affiliated with any of the brands mentioned. All brand names and images are trademarks of their respective owners.
