Chapter 396 Professional Counterfeiter
While the two were talking, Cheng Xiaohua came in with a few small boxes in his hands and said to Zheng Youyuan, "Mr. Zheng, I found a few more."
Then, he saw Lu Yiming and quickly greeted him: "Mr. Lu, you are here."
Lu Yiming looked at what Cheng Xiaohua was holding and asked, "What is this?"
Cheng Xiaohua put the box on the table and said, "These are some counterfeit USB flash drives I found today. They are from the same brand. Their appearance is different from our products, but they are also very rough. I just took one apart and took a look. It was glued together with a small piece of old circuit board."
Lu Yiming heaved a sigh of relief and said, "It seems that the scale of counterfeiting outside is very large. I still say that there must be a traitor who can imitate our products in such a short time. The reason is very simple. Since they chose to copy and made it so crudely, it means that they have no R&D team and cannot have a good production line. Without these two things, reverse R&D in such a short time is impossible."
Zheng Youyuan said, "I thought so too. I have been checking the company's surveillance these days and I found something very strange. Liu Qian, who just resigned from the company, opened the R&D department's safe a few days before his resignation and took the design drawings on the USB flash drive. He put them back ten minutes later. I suspect he took them to make copies."
Liu Qian was in charge of sales before. After the USB flash drive entered the market, there was no need for promotion at all, and orders came pouring in. Liu Qian resigned directly, using the excuse that his mission had been accomplished.
If we hadn't checked the surveillance footage , we might not have known that he did this before he left.
Lu Yiming said seriously, "Then this person is a major suspect. Now as long as we find him, or find the factory that counterfeited our products, everything will be clear. It's a pity that Huang Junlie refused to cooperate, otherwise they would have been caught by now."
…
At the same time, in a dilapidated factory on the outskirts of Dongguan City, machines were roaring.
Although it is the Chinese New Year period, the place is bustling with people coming and going.
In a room of more than ten square meters, there was a table filled with fine wine and delicious food. Lin Jiandong and Liu Qian sat opposite each other, toasting each other.
The counterfeit USB flash drives on the market today are produced in this dilapidated factory.
Taking advantage of the first-mover advantage of being the first copycat USB flash drive, the two made a lot of money during this period.
After a few glasses of liquor, Lin Jiandong said with emotion: "Making this USB flash drive can make much more money than making floppy disks. Brother, thanks to the drawings you brought, otherwise it would not be so fast to crack the entire production technology of the USB flash drive."
After a few glasses of white wine, Liu Qian's face flushed and he looked very proud: "Let's make money together. In the future, we can divide the work and cooperate. You take care of production and I take care of sales. We will definitely make a fortune."
Lin Jiandong agreed with this and filled Liu Qian's glass again. He smiled and said, " Come on , I'll toast you another glass."
The two of them smiled and got along better and better as they talked. They wished they could meet earlier. Their relationship was so good that they almost burned yellow paper to become sworn brothers.
…
Lu Yiming once again came to the Mingcha Qiuhao Law Firm.
Li Qiu was still sitting in front of the desk covered with transparent glass, reading a book as usual.
He seemed to be always busy, but he seemed to have nothing to do except reading.
"Hey, isn't this Mr. Lu? What brings you here? Please take a seat."
Li Qiu is now extremely enthusiastic towards Lu Yiming. After all, in just a few short months, he has earned millions from Lu Yiming. It is not an exaggeration to call him a rich sponsor.
When Lu Yiming sat on the rattan chair, it sank completely, which scared Lu Yiming. He couldn't help but complain: "Can you change this thing?"
Li Qiu said in a frank tone: "This is an antique."
He poured a cup of chrysanthemum tea for Lu Yiming and said with some anticipation: "Is Mr. Lu here for another job?"
Lu Yiming was not vague and said immediately: "I just came out of the company and passed by here, so I came up to take a look. I want you to help me find someone."
Li Qiu agreed without asking, "No problem. Do you have basic information? Do you have photos?"
Lu Yiming shook his head slightly and said, "I'm not asking you to find a specific person, but I need someone, so I want you to find someone who meets the requirements."
Li Qiu nodded slightly, walked around the table and sat down at his seat, facing Lu Yiming across the table. He took out a pen from the pen holder, opened a black leather-covered notebook, and then his expression became serious: "Go on."
After thinking for a while, Lu Yiming put forward a few small requirements of his own: "It would be best if he is familiar with civil law, bold, short of money, and willing to take certain risks. That's about it. Do you know such a person?"
Li Qiu, who was still taking notes seriously, suddenly stopped writing and answered with a serious expression: "Yes."
"who?"
"Me."
"you?"
"Yes, Mr. Lu, I meet all the conditions you mentioned perfectly."
Lu Yiming looked Li Qiu in the eye seriously and asked in all seriousness, "Are you trying to make more money? Do you want to get the remuneration after getting the agency fee?"
Li Qiu smiled and said, "Boss Lu, look at what you said. I call it more work for those who are capable."
Lu Yiming breathed a sigh of relief. After all, they had known each other for a while, so he chose to tell the truth: "Think it through first: this matter has certain risks. If it goes wrong, your life may be in danger."
After listening to this, Li Qiu replied nonchalantly: "I am afraid of death, but I am more afraid of being poor."
Lu Yiming was very curious and asked, "You took so much money from me, how can you still be poor?"
Li Qiu sighed and said, "Boss Lu, you don't know that there are so many mouths waiting for me to feed."
Since the conversation has come to this point, Lu Yiming did not continue to explore it, and immediately made a decision: "Okay, now there is a way to make a fortune in front of you, it depends on whether you dare to do it."
When Li Qiu heard this, he immediately became interested.
He was so excited that he kept rubbing his hands together and asked about the details: "What kind of business is it? How much money can you make?"
Lu Yiming said slowly: "If you operate well, earning several million a year is not a problem. Even tens of millions is as easy as eating and drinking water."
“Good fellow!”
Li Qiu was shocked.
Earning tens of millions a year...what the hell is this life worth?
"Boss, take me!"
Facing the excited Li Qiu, Lu Yiming slowly told him the story of Wang Hai's anti-counterfeiting.
The story of Wang Hai and professional counterfeiting happened to be that the US President and his wife had just visited China not long ago in 1998. Wang Hai was still very famous, and his reputation as a professional counterfeiter even alarmed bigwigs in the United States, who called him "the protector of US consumers."
When Li Qiu heard that it turned out to be a professional counterfeit fighter, he immediately understood where the risks Lu Yiming mentioned came from.
It is indeed easy to get beaten if you do this kind of thing, after all, you are cutting off someone's source of income. In serious cases, you may even be stabbed.
Lu Yiming continued, "Pengrun Electric is currently selling pirated USB flash drives and other problematic products. I can lend you money as principal. After we make a profit, we can split the profits in half. How do you think?"
Li Qiu was frightened by Lu Yiming's idea and said, "Pengrun Electric's background is extraordinary."
Pengrun Electric's headquarters is within the third ring road of Beijing.
Lu Yiming disagreed: "Don't worry, I don't want you to destroy Pengrun. I just want to use legal weapons to protect my legitimate rights as a consumer. And I plan to invest 5 million to do this. Think about it yourself."
Five million!
Li Qiu's breathing suddenly became a little difficult. Being familiar with civil law, he naturally knew the legal provision of "three times the compensation for fake goods". Even if he and Lu Yiming split the profits in half, it would still be several million in income.
One transaction brings in several million, and I only get one transaction per month...
"Fortune and honor come from risk. I'll take this job!"
With a grit of teeth and a stomp of feet, Li Qiu willingly became Lu Yiming's tool and sounded the clarion call for an attack on Pengrun Electric Appliances and other channel platforms that sold counterfeit goods.
A few days later, Li Qiu, wearing a top hat, a small suit, and a briefcase under his arm, walked into Pengrun Electrical Appliance City in Baiyun City like a successful businessman.
The entrance of Pengrun Electric Appliances is not fancy at all. It has a big logo and the four characters of Pengrun Electric Appliances. Each character is as big as a French window and occupies the height of a whole floor. It is hard not to notice it. The surrounding street-facing storefronts pale in comparison with this sign.
The four-opening glass door may seem ordinary, but once you enter, you will find a different world. This hypermarket model, which looks a bit like the old state-owned shopping malls, allows people to buy all electronic products in one stop, which is very popular among consumers.
In fact, Pengrun Electric Appliances was launched to compete with state-owned shopping malls. Because there are often discounts and promotions here, and the salespeople seem very enthusiastic. In terms of shopping experience, it is much better than state-owned shopping malls.
Li Qiu walked into the mall and began to look around, looking as if he was going to make a big purchase. A sharp-eyed salesperson saw Li Qiu, ran over quickly, bowed deeply, and said enthusiastically: "Welcome to Pengrun Electric, salesperson 9527 is happy to serve you. What do you need to buy?"
Li Qiu nodded slightly and said, "I have a lot of things I want to buy. Just follow me and place an order."
"Okay!"
When shopping guide 9527 heard this, her eyes lit up.
Look at the tone of his voice, he is here to purchase goods.
It is undeniable that the products of Pengrun Electric Appliances are indeed cheaper than those in retail stores, but in fact they are not much cheaper. Going to Pengrun Electric Appliances to purchase goods is simply throwing money away. The tiny price difference can be easily offset by the warehousing and logistics costs.
But, who cares?
I sell things and you buy things. It doesn't matter whether you make a loss or not, as long as I win, it's fine.
According to the list Lu Yiming gave him, Li Qiu bought not only the USB flash drive, but also several other electrical appliances that were knowingly sold as counterfeit products. He also spent a large amount of money to buy them all.
Such a big deal made the shopping guide smile from ear to ear.
With this order, he achieved his sales performance for the past ten years.
After choosing the items, Li Qiu reminded them, "By the way, remember to give me an invoice. I need to get reimbursed when I get back."
"no problem."
For an ordinary shopping guide, such a big money sponsor would even let him kneel down and lick his shoes. How could he not agree to such a legitimate request as issuing an invoice?
Within a few days, the news that a wealthy customer had appeared in Pengrun Electric Appliances spread like wildfire, making many people very envious.
But soon, a lawsuit directly triggered public opinion in the city. It turned out that Li Qiu, who had previously pretended to be a wealthy customer, sued Pengrun Electric Appliances in court and demanded compensation from the other party.
He then listed a bunch of evidence to prove that Pengrun Electric Appliances did sell counterfeit goods, and said that there were many victims like him. As a lawyer, he was willing to help these deceived consumers file lawsuits and seek justice.
After the news was broadcast, many users who bought counterfeit USB flash drives from Pengrun Electric Appliances could no longer sit still when they heard that the company would compensate them three times for the fake products. They called Li Qiu and asked him for legal authorization to help them recover their losses.
At the Baiyun branch of Pengrun Electric, Huang Junlie, who had originally planned to go to Beijing to handle some matters, had to cancel his trip and stayed in Baiyun City with a gloomy face to deal with this public relations crisis.
In the conference room, facing several company executives sitting around the desk in front of him, Huang Junlie said angrily: "Can someone tell me what is going on?"
Several senior executives of the company lowered their heads but no one said a word. They were all pretending to be dead with pay.
After all, to be frank, the blame lies with you, Huang Junlie. If you hadn't condoned your subordinates to doing these things, would something like this have happened today?
What's more, the quality of many products produced by domestic manufacturers these days is not very good, and some are even worse than counterfeit and shoddy knockoffs.
So after all this, no one took selling fake goods seriously. After all, as long as we were not caught on the spot, we were not committing a crime.
But many times, telling the truth can get you killed, after all, how could the boss be wrong?
Even if there is a mistake, it is someone else's fault!
Huang Junlie became even angrier when he saw that everyone was silent. He slammed the table and shouted, "Speak up! You are so active in grabbing the credit, but now you are all pretending to be dumb? Did I raise a bunch of good-for-nothings? Hurry up and tell me a plan, or you all get out!"
Seeing that it was no longer possible to continue playing dead, an executive asked tentatively: "How about paying some money?"
Huang Junlie got even angrier after hearing this, and screamed, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know how much compensation we have to pay now that the matter has become so serious? Thirty million! At least thirty million!"
It can be said that as great as it was to sell counterfeit USB flash drives in the past, it is as miserable now.
"Then sue them?"
"I'm going to hit you on the head. Let's not talk about anything else. Just talk about that USB flash drive. The owner has come forward to confirm that ours is a knockoff. How can you hit me?"
"What else can we do?"
"We can't afford the compensation, and we can't win the lawsuit. So aren't we doomed to fail this time?"
"Let's make peace. As long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood."
"Who are you asking for peace with?"
After much discussion, it seemed that no one could come up with a solution to the problem without spending money.
