Fakers

I’m sitting here watching a programme about people who fake well-known makes of goods. 

Last year I ordered my grandson a Nintendo DSi from ebay. When it arrived, it looked perfect. I wrapped it for Christmas and put it away for a couple of weeks until Christmas Day. Imagine his disappointment when he opened it, put in his game and found that the sound didn’t work. I advised the seller on ebay who had advertised his business as UK based and discovered that he was actually in China. He refused to accept liability and so I took up the case with ebay and won my full money back. You would think that this would be the end of the matter – but no. The ‘seller’ sent me repeated emails begging me to send my refund money to him as he was a student and his boss would hurt him if he found out. I was shocked to receive such emails and alerted ebay, who then barred him from communicating with me. I then bought my grandson a DSi from a High Street store – it cost me loads more but I had learned my lesson.

This week on twitter, one of my followers has experienced the same thing. One terribly upset little boy with a fake DSi. Horrendous.

Our problems pale into insignificance with the case I’ve just seen on TV though. A lovely little boy on holiday with his Gameboy, forgets to take his charger. Mum pops into a local store to buy a charger and the boy goes to plug it in whilst waiting for dinner. As mum enters the room, she finds him lying on the floor – dead – charger wire in hand. The charger looks genuine, is marked with the Nintendo logo and mum had no reason to suspect it was fake.  I watched this and my blood ran cold. That beautiful little boy was an innocent victim of illegal fakers, out to make a fast buck, regardless of who gets harmed in the process.

My heart goes out to his mother and I realise only too clearly that there but for the grace of God go I.