Combatting Counterfeits Using the Power of Advanced AI and Human Expertise

From phone chargers prone to catching fire, to brittle car safety seats marketed for children, consumers are being put at risk at an unprecedented scale by counterfeits. And this is only being supercharged by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Scribe, and OpenArt, exploited by counterfeiters to generate images and advertisements that appear legitimate, rapidly and at scale.

The total displaced economic activity from counterfeiting in 2022 – namely the cost to brands and manufacturers – totaled $1.1 trillion, resulting in a loss of $174 billion to worldwide sales tax revenue, impacting up to 5.4m jobs.[1]

Our eBook, The Three Key Components of a Successful Brand Protection Program, analyzes the current threat landscape facing brands and the tools businesses can use to maintain consumer trust and brand reputation.

Bad actors exploit consumers through three distinct threats: counterfeits, brand impersonation, and grey market goods. In part one of this blog series, we looked at current and evolving counterfeit threats and detailed an example of a large, real-world counterfeit operation. Read part two below to learn how you can harness hybrid intelligence to combat counterfeits, protecting consumers and online revenue.

Table of contents:

• Stop the AI arms race with Brand Protection fueled by hybrid intelligence

• Save time with automated threat detection and prioritization

• Speed up time to action with AI-assisted enforcement

• Tackle high value targets with online-to-offline expertise

• Detect and remove counterfeits at scale with Corsearch

• The key components of an anti-counterfeiting program

Stop the AI arms race with Brand Protection fueled by hybrid intelligence

Operating across social media, marketplaces, and eCommerce websites, bad actors have fired the first rounds in the AI arms race against brand owners. They are harnessing generative AI tools to create professional-looking image and video content to promote counterfeit and other illicit products.

AI has enabled bad actors to counterfeit products at speed and scale. Unfortunately, this issue is only set to grow as AI tools become increasingly powerful and easy to use. What would once take a bad actor weeks to produce can now be spun up in a matter of minutes – from convincing, professionally written copy to detailed product illustrations and advertising materials.

Examples include:

• Deepfakes of brand-linked influencers to promote counterfeit products, as recently experienced by fashion brand Popflex[2]
• ChatGPT-generated copy for a phishing email purporting to be promoting legitimate branded goods

So, what can you do to stay ahead of the threats and safeguard brand reputation?

While AI certainly has nefarious use cases, it is also a force for good. Pioneering companies are already harnessing it to detect, predict, and act against threats such as counterfeits and similar IP infringements. Businesses can stay ahead of the AI arms race with Brand Protection technology underpinned by hybrid intelligence.

What is hybrid intelligence?

It takes human intervention and diplomacy to stop an arms race. That’s why it is critical that brands can harness a combination of the speed, scalability, and pattern recognition capabilities of AI with the judgment of industry-specific experts with access to the largest datasets. This approach is coined ‘Hybrid Intelligence’.

The synergy of advanced AI and human expertise enables you to detect, prioritize, and remove threats rapidly across all channels and with high levels of accuracy. This enables you to protect brand reputation, safeguard consumers, and deliver real ROI with your program.

As highlighted in our eBook, there are several key capabilities powered by hybrid intelligence at your disposal to fight brand impersonation:

Save time with automated threat detection and prioritization

Automated threat detection and prioritization enables you to find and remove counterfeits across marketplaces, websites, social media, and more. AI reduces manual workload and speeds up threat detection by recognizing the hallmark signs of counterfeits – such as known seller IDs and images, lower price points, and unusually high stock counts.

_{How AI addresses counterfeits – An example of how a counterfeit listing on a marketplace is automatically detected}

Image technology

Sophisticated image technology allows you to both find infringers that attempt to avoid detection and to speed up the detection of similar infringements.

Logo detection

Logo detection instantly prioritizes listings containing trademarks, resulting in more relevant results and a faster enforcement rate. Logo detection can also be trained to recognize distorted logos – a tactic used to avoid detection.

Image similarity

Image similarity tools scan through captured listings and recognize imagery that has been lifted from company websites and authorized listings. Any identified images of counterfeits can be used in a reverse image search for all similar photos across your dataset, leading to enforcement on an even wider range of listings in just two clicks.

Optical character recognition (OCR)

OCR technology enables enforcement agents to extract and prioritize key information embedded in images such as brand names, discount codes, seller IDs, contact information, and website links.

Network Intelligence

Network Intelligence technology is key to eliminating the source of counterfeits. Use this capability to trace links between separate accounts such as seller location and contact details, helping you to identify and act against the perpetrators at the heart of illicit operations.

Speed up time to action with AI-assisted enforcement

AI that learns from previous enforcement actions enables your analysts to quickly recognize risks and recommend the top threats for action. The more actions taken by analysts, the more your AI will be able to flag similar infringements using an enforcement predictability engine.

Advanced AI enables you to surface over 70% more threats that would otherwise be missed. Auto-generated takedown notices and platform APIs mean you can improve time to action and minimize the risk to your consumers.

Seasoned professionals serve as an extension of your team, there to drive and execute your strategy, provide expert insights, and ensure enforcement actions are accurate and successful.

Tackle high-value targets with online-to-offline expertise

Anti-counterfeiting programs can also make effective use of online-to-offline investigations that aim to find the physical source of counterfeit goods. Counterfeit manufacturers and distributors are often seen as high-value targets – driving lasting impact through an increase in enforcement ROI and potential revenue recovery.

Expert investigators and strategic partnerships with offline vendors enable you to engage with sellers directly before commissioning test purchases to confirm the distribution of counterfeits. Using the evidence gathered, you’ll then be able to go upstream to find those responsible.

Key to success is your ability to harness relationships with online platforms and law enforcement agencies. This will enable you to pass on critical intelligence to facilitate offline raids and build a dossier of evidence for potential legal action.

Detect and remove counterfeits at scale with Corsearch

To find and action the counterfeit listings that present the most risk, your team needs the right solution that harnesses hybrid intelligence. We blend advanced AI and human expertise to provide leading global brands with anti-counterfeit solutions that protect consumers from harm and preserve vital online revenues.

Our AI-fueled and expert-guided Brand Protection solutions offer:

• The broadest visibility of threats across all online channels
• Instant identification of counterfeit listings
• Enforcement with proven success
• Lasting impact to protect your brand, IP, and consumers

Our platform relationships enable you to take down the most problematic infringers, while our prioritization engine saves you hundreds of hours in manual review time. Global brands utilize our Network Intelligence tech and Investigations Team to surface offline locations and stop the source of threats, as seen in the recent Pandabuy raid.

Largest in-house investigation team

We maintain the largest global network of on-the-ground experts and employ over 80 specialists as part of our China operational team to support regional strategy and engage with challenging Chinese platforms. Boasting the industry’s largest in-house investigation team, we can also harness our relationships with law enforcement agencies such as the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) to disrupt high-value targets.

Request a demo to see how you can harness our technology to swiftly detect and remove counterfeits and fakes across your key channels.

eBook: The key components of an Anti-Counterfeiting Program

Comprehensive Brand Protection and Anti-Counterfeiting programs combine three key components to deliver substantial ROI.

Use our eBook to dive deeper into the technology and expertise you’ll need to realize your strategy.

Read eBook >

[1] Employment loss: 4.2-5.4 million jobs (Frontier Economics)
Cost of displaced legitimate economic activity due to counterfeiting: $1,106 billion (Frontier Economics & Corsearch calculation) (2022)
Impact on sales tax revenue: $174 billion (Frontier Economics & Corsearch calculation)

[2] Forbes (2024). Forget Counterfeits. Fashion Designers Now Face A New Threat: Deepfakes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2024/05/28/forget-counterfeits-fashion-designers-now-face-a-new-threat-deepfakes/