Ministry officers seize counterfeit smartphones

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Abdul Hafidz (second right) showing reporters one of the counterfeit Samsung smartphones during the press conference.

Abdul Hafidz (second right) showing reporters one of the counterfeit Samsung smartphones during the press conference.

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Some of the fake smartphones and powerbanks with Samsung logo which were confiscated.

MIRI: Enforcement officers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumerism (MDTC) Miri yesterday seized 37 counterfeit Samsung smartphones and powerbanks worth RM17,012.

The seizures were made following raids on three handphone outlets at Beautiful Jade Centre, Jalan Brooke as well as China Street.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference here yesterday, deputy director of MDTC Sarawak Abdul Hafidz A Rahim said three enforcement teams comprising 10 personnel raided the outlets around 11.30 am yesterday, after receiving complaints from a representative of Samsung brand.

“The premises owners will be charged under the Trade Descriptions Act 2011 section (5) 1 (b), and if found guilty they can be fined up to RM100,000 or jailed not more than three years, or both,” he said.

He added that owners of the three premises were not present during the raid, but they would be called in for their statement to be recorded.

“Only the workers were present during the raid. We will make the workers our witnesses when prosecuting the owners.

“We believe the premises’ owners have been operating for more than six months and Samsung’s team have done their own investigation before informing us,” he told reporters.

Abdul Hafidz said the smartphones were being sold as original and were priced similar to the genuine units, with some being sold as high as RM888.

“These fake phones are normally priced less than half of the price of genuine units, but they are being sold according to their original price in order to dupe consumers into believing that these items are genuine.

“To make it worse, the sellers are also charging GST on these counterfeit phones.

“We believe that these syndicates are getting their supplies from overseas, but not the original country of the brand,” he said adding that the sellers are making multi-fold profit.

He disclosed further that this was the first seizure of counterfeit smartphones in Sarawak this year and similar operations would be carried out in other divisions in this state.

In view of this, he advised consumers who wish to purchase smartphones to carry out their own surveys and researches before making their purchase or only purchase from authorised dealers of the brand.