Counterfeit Montecristo GR's and Cohiba 1966's...

[Jimmeh]

The same 'vendor' has been distributing counterfeits to my knowledge since 2000...perhaps if we climbed out of our 'holier than thou' attitude & did name & shame it would put arseholes like him out of business & protect the newcomer to cigars....

There are plenty of clues in Monkey's post to work out if its a retailer that you are dealing with. The retailer in question talk about their director quite prominently.

[JOAO LA PEZ]

About as safe as you might be with Golden Virginia or Silk Cut. If something's fakeable someone will consider faking it.

Cannot see them making much out of a ?28 a box of 25 Quintero panatalla's, mind if you shop at home and pay UK prices then at ?150 a box there might be a bit in it.

[monkey66]

The same 'vendor' has been distributing counterfeits to my knowledge since 2000...perhaps if we climbed out of our 'holier than thou' attitude & did name & shame it would put arseholes like him out of business & protect the newcomer to cigars....

We won't be naming them here but people are free to pm me if they want (as I said in my first post).

Probably wouldn't put them out of business, they have been named over the years many times but they are still in business.

[tippexx]

Cannot see them making much out of a ?28 a box of 25 Quintero panatalla's, mind if you shop at home and pay UK prices then at ?150 a box there might be a bit in it.

And that exactly where the corner shops that sell fake fags an' booze make their money. When the corner shop buys legit Bensons and Smirnoff the Duty is included in the price they pay. The fakes they buy cheaply and then sell at full UK price .... the profit is huge.

[joeray]

Great comparison. Would be helpful in future purchases. I believe its the same vendor I bought a box of 1966 from. The cigars looked very questionable, luckily, I sent them back and got my money back. It had the same fake box code as in the picture. I'll see if I can find the pictures and post them.


Found it. Here are the pictures of the 1966 box I bought from the same website. Now I am 100% convinced they were fake:

http://s568.beta.photobucket.com/user/cigar_joe/library/Cohiba%201966

[monkey66]

Great comparison. Would be helpful in future purchases. I believe its the same vendor I bought a box of 1966 from. The cigars looked very questionable, luckily, I sent them back and got my money back. It had the same fake box code as in the picture. I'll see if I can find the pictures and post them.

That would be great, thanks.

[joeray]

Some how my re-edit didn't get posted.

Here is the link to the pictures of the fake 1966 box I bought from the same vendor/website.

http://s568.beta.photobucket.com/user/cigar_joe/library/Cohiba 1966

Keep in mind the box and the seal and the labels were excellent fake and really hard to tell the difference. The box came sealed and un open. The only thing that I really got suspicious on was how veiny the cigars looked.

[monkey66]

Great spot Joe, don't know if I would have been sure looking at those pics.

[tippexx]

Now I am 100% convinced they were fake:

Which is often a difficult conclusion to reach and from which to take the necessary next steps.

To often I see BOTL who have suspicions about their purchases take the denial route and try to convince themselves that what they have is real and that 'too good to be true' vendors are genuine. Nobody likes to feel themselves a fool or the idea that someone they've trusted is untrustworthy. It's this simple psychology which makes online selling of fakes so easy and attractive to the disingenuous vendor.

[Smallclub]

It's also a testament to the UKCF that this forum is a leader in sharing information on cigar lifestyle because we stick to our standards not to "name and shame" companies when this happens.

You can't be serious?

[monkey66]

I do wonder where these are produced. I cannot imagine any printer in Europe or America knowingly printing clearly counterfeit products.

Just speculation but China springs to mind (Puffy called it).

[Smallclub]

Just speculation but China springs to mind (Puffy called it).

Unemployment rate exceeds 25% in Spain, I don't think it would be difficult to find someone qualified for the job…

[Batler]

Just wondering if someone could pm me or email me the website these came from. I'm new to cigars and don't want to buy from somewhere I could potentially get fakes

[JOAO LA PEZ]

Just wondering if someone could pm me or email me the website these came from. I'm new to cigars and don't want to buy from somewhere I could potentially get fakes

You do not have a high enough post count to have PM's yet, think its 75 posts now.

[Batler]

Oh right I had a pm saying I had been promted haha. Nevermind ill ask again when I reach the number