An app to tell fakes is now in the bag!

This must be the moment many counterfeiters have been waiting for with a feeling of dread: a device that can instantly tell knock-off luxury goods from the real McMoy. So far only a relatively small number of canny shoppers had the domain knowledge to spot imitations, that too in a selective range of items. And while holographic tags, micro-printing and even radio beacons embedded in high-value luxury items are all very well, the billions being spent nevertheless on anti-counterfeiting technologies shows that faking it still pays.

Clearly the need to pool together separate databases (stored in individual minds as well as electronic caches) to outwit gyppers was what prompted a New York startup to market an app that needs just a smartphone and a handheld microscope to do the work of the eye of a seasoned fashionista.

As the software uses a database of millions of photographs of at least 30,000 accessories and updates itself as newer shots of real bags and knockoffs are uploaded, soon a very small window will remain for reproductions to be palmed off on the gullible. And if the promoters’ claim of a 98 per cent success rate in flagging fakes of 11 brands proves to be true, this could be the favourite present in the coming festival season in India, rather than — or maybe in addition to — the usual goodies from top luxury brands!