Fraud not flattery

By Nicola Upe

The subject of counterfeit products has been high on the channel news agenda recently in particular the issue of fake toner cartridges. Westcoast supplies vendor, KYOCERA recently revealed that they have seized fraudulent goods worth in excess €5m (£3.92m) since April. Worryingly, this points to a significant increase compared to 2015, when the firm seized more than 100,000 units, worth in excess of €10m throughout the whole year.

The saying goes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery however the reality of counterfeiting is its negative impact on innocent people. Counterfeit supplies are often dangerous, environmentally unfriendly and cheat consumers of the quality they are entitled to expect from branded consumables. As well as this, they deprive hard working, law-abiding people out of sales and in some cases, even their jobs.

KYOCERA is doing its bit to fight back against the fraudsters.

Fake and counterfeit goods are becoming increasingly hard to spot as the fraudsters themselves become more sophisticated. Copies made from scratch to mirror the genuine thing are relatively easy to spot due to their low quality however refilled and reboxed cartridges are often harder to identify. That’s why genuine supplies from KYOCERA carry specially-created holograms, traceable serial numbers and/or QR codes. If you’re still unsure, more information on how to spot the fakes can be found here. 

As Jonathon Robbins, Consumables & Spares Sales Manager of Kyocera Document Solutions UK said in a recent press interview, “It’s time to take the fight to the criminals, and stand up for resellers and businesses who are being duped into buying sub-standard products, often in good faith, by increasingly organised criminals”.

KYOCERA is also encouraging both resellers and end-users to only buy from an approved KYOCERA consumables partner. It’s worth remembering that if a deal seems too good to be true it probably is! Westcoast has been an authorised distributor of KYOCERA supplies for more than 10 years. Customers can therefore be assured that when they buy KYOCERA through Westcoast, they receive the top quality they have come to expect.


For more information on KYOCERA and Westcoast please visit our iMprint site now or speak to your Account Manager.