The Investigation Of The Crime In Selling Counterfeit Goods Online

The normalization and constant development of online shopping and efficient logistic system have enabled an increasing number of illegal sellers to profit off counterfeited and low quality products.Utilizing the invisibility of the internet,selling counterfeited products online should be seen as a new type of internet crime which,comparing with selling counterfeited products by traditional means,is harder to detect,is not restricted by time and space and will cause a broader and larger damage to the market economic order and online customer rights.The fast development of electronic commerce platforms provides criminal minds with even more ways to lure and defraud customers by illegally manipulate their customer ratings and presenting counterfeited certification.At present,the crime of selling counterfeit goods online trends highly and is receiving a substantial amount of financial benefits,and it has become the highest occurrence and most reported crimes of all internet crimes.The prime reasons leading to the stated situation can be attributed to failures to reach standard regulatory procedures by related governing bodies,to unclear cooperation to-do list and procedures among administrative,executive,and criminal prosecution branches,to inefficiency in evidence collection,case jurisdiction,evidence transfers and inspection identifications.This further leads to the failure of obtaining evidence accurately and in time,indicating a sign of severe legging in initiating crime investigations.Facing such rigorous situations,investigative authorities should swiftly change their investigative logic and method to a more fitted one targeting the characteristics of selling counterfeit goods online.Due to the concealment of the internet and large quantity of cases,investigative authorities should firstly excel in intelligence and clue collecting.They should not only obtain intelligence and information from customer reports and complaints,but also should be able to improve cooperation with internet police,financial institution,e-commerce platform providers and executive branches to broaden means to obtain information.Additionally,a comprehensive and overall awareness is necessary since selling counterfeit goods online,in most cases,involve multiple criminal gangs and they allocate specific personals in every specific steps of their procedures.Consequently,a properly operated intelligence information organizing system is fundamental.Paying special attention to logistics,cash flows and transaction information and initiating investigations in multiple ways to understand the whole crime network in order to strike them all.Finally,because of the easiness of duplication of online selling of counterfeit products and difficulties in reconnoiter,investigative authorities must work closely with other departments of the police force and ask for help from e-commerce platform providers andexecutive branches to destruct the whole criminal chain.