Fake brake pads made from grass

UAE Discovers Brake Pads Made Out of Grass

According to a report by The National, counterfeiters have develop a new level of sophistication to the point where they’re passing off brake pads as the real thing, even though they’re made from compressed grass. The brake pads made from grass disclosure was made at a recent Interpol crime conference in Dubai, where experts state that the global trade in fake goods has reached almost $461 billion/year.

Very sophisticated counterfeiting

Counterfeiting is usually conducted by criminal gangs. But that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. They know that they get spotted right away by low quality packing, so they’ve upped their game. The printing has improved dramatically. In fact, Julian Redman, managing director of operations at SilberArrows, a garage specializing in Mercedes-Benz in Al Quoz notes that

“The counterfeit boxes are very good. The holograms and printed part numbers look real but as soon as you take (the item) out of the box a trained professional should notice immediately the weight and feel is wrong. The worst case I’ve seen is when I was working at Toyota and we found brake pads that were made out of dried grass. They had been packed and dyed to look like rubber. It was frighteningly dangerous.”

Redman has also noticed an increase in suspension parts made in China that don’t meet safety standards. He’s run across alloy wheels that bend and buckle on speed bumps and even counterfeit spark plugs. He says that he’s seeing more fake BMW air and oil filters as well as brake pads. Genuine BMW air filters have a stiff orange plastic band around the circumference, but the fake units have a pink band.