1. Fake Company Names
Chinese are very clever in imitating even the biggest companies around the world. They have fake Apple stores that even the employees believed they are working for a legit brand. Imitation outlets of Nike, KFC, IKEA, McDonald’s, Starbucks, and so much more have been surfacing like mushrooms.
2. Fake Walnuts
One can work up quite an appetite pounding the pavement in Zhengzhou, Henan province. But avoid snacking on street foods or you might end up like Charlie Brown on Halloween if you know what I mean. Remember “I gotta rock”? Buy walnuts from a kiosk in Zhengzhou and that's exactly what you might get. Good grief!
It seems canny syndicates possibly in league with Zhengzhou's dentists were taking walnuts, carefully removing the nut meats, replacing said nut meats with a lump of concrete, and gluing the shells shut.
They even took care to wrap each cement lump in paper so it wouldn't rattle when shaken by suspicious buyers.
3. Fake Chicken Eggs
It looks like chicken eggs but it’s really a counterfeit. The main ingredient of these eggs are coagulants, starch, and resin. The shell, on the other hand, is composed of wax, calcium carbonate, and gypsum powder. How to know the difference? The yolks will bounce when cooked. According to reports, the consumption of these fake eggs can lead to memory loss.
4. Fake Cabbage
So, they have taken their imagination into the next level. Now, even creating phony vegetables?!? Very sneaky. Reports say that formaldehyde-laced cabbages were found in Shandong province. And most people who buy these products are those who cannot afford to purchase organic or foreign goods. So sad!
5. Fake Police Academy
A con school named Jiamusi People’s Police Academy was busted after Wei Zhenhai, their so-called “honorary President” exposed the truth. They have deceived rookie officers by offering them a 3-year law enforcement studies course managed and coached by veteran officers. They even had their victims pay up to £2,000 fees in a promise that their diplomas would land them their dream job.
6. Fake Cardboard-filled Buns
In July 2007, a reporter exposed an undercover story detailing how street vendors were adding cardboard to their baozi aka pork buns. He also managed to show a footage of how the buns were actually made. Later that month, this reporter was detained for allegedly faking the news report. According to reports, he hired 4 migrant workers to produce cardboard-filled buns as he films the scenario. Beijing’s health authorities have not found any evidence that stores are making these kinds of goods.
7. Fake Beef
After a 3-month operation, Chinese police finally confiscated at least 20,000 tons of illegal meat sold as beef or lamb but actually made of rat. Nasty! The suspects have been reported to inject the meat with water to make it look fresh.
8. Fake Fossils
There are different ways how they produce counterfeit fossils. One is by breaking the genuine fossil and fastening them together to make fossil skeletons that look real. Other people use modern bones and teeth and gluing them into plaster. Some sculpt the relics onto a rock then painting them. Very creative, eh? People actually buy these fakes in prices as high as the real ones.
9. Fake Receipts
Now why would anyone have bogus receipts? Vendors sell them on the streets and people buy them to deceive their employers and escape tax. That’s clever! There have been actual reports that even multinational companies have been victimized by these schemes
10. Fake Death
There was a Chinese local vendor that staged his death to a point that he let his friends parade his “corpse” in the public. He pretended that he was beaten to death by China’s urban management workers so his partners in crime can demand compensation. With 300 onlookers and 80 police officers in the crowd, the man suddenly jumped up and got a drink. “It’s too hot. I can’t bear it anymore”, he said when interviewed. Well, that was hilarious!
