It's not actually that hard to spot a fake LV from a real one.
You can't get a real one for $10 or $30. The ones that "over run" out of the factory are sold at close to full price in China or wherever they're made. The ones which are meant to be destroyed because they are flawed are sold at around half price and are "first grade" fakes. The ones with Lewis Mutton on them from a factory outside KL cost $30.
I, too, was thinking the same thing. I have flown into GVA countless times and never been stopped, hell I'm not sure I've even seen any customs officials in the green channel at all.
AbFab, Eyebeebe & PaddyG - are you white northern Europeans per chance? (Begga, I know you are )
No idea what the OP's racs/skin colour is, but I've been through customs 100s of times too and rarely stopped (once in Basel, once in Zurich). But I'm a white Anglo-Saxon.
On the other hand most people I know who are not white (Europeans) get stopped regularly. Including one case a UK national who was stopped "because he was black" - reason as given by border chappy.
Another friend reported that she was regularly stopped when alone (HK British-Chinese) but never when with her Swedish partner.
These are two quick examples off the top of my head. Sorry if this is news to you, but Swiss customs target foreigners as identified by skin colour.
when sometimes i cross the customs line at airport and when I don't have something illegal (read quantities of alcohol/wine bottles) I secretely hope that they stop me just to see their deceived face when opening my suitcase
I don't have a problem with what Praktikum did, but, to my knowledge, I've always bought the real thing and don't download songs or movies without paying for them.*
What was your point again?
*although this may be due to my technical limitations rather than anything else...
I'm sure there is some prejudice in their selection process, but a friend of mine get's stopped and searched almost everytime he flies internationally regardless of where to or from: he's tall, blond, blue eyed, always neat as a pin and very clean, doesn't drink or smoke, taxes paid up and money in the bank, says yes ma'am and no sir- he's the model citizen in every way. Must be a twinkle in his eye. Or maybe he looks at the customs guys a certain way. Who knows.
Both! Odd thing is about 10 years ago he went through customs with his girlfriend- they were separated by a dozen people or so, and the customs guys pulled both out of the group, and only them. Pheromones? Mystery.
This is urban legend. The fakes are just that, fakes. Can be made by anyone, anywhere. Second-sort items are either destroyed or sold at Outlets and/or third world countries. Manufacturing clothing or handbags is no rocket science. Could be of excellent quality and even closely matching the looks of originals, even if faked. Why at such low price? Because the margins on clothing are damn high. The average tshirt from Migros comes with a 300% profit margin. For "fashion" items, sky is the limit, and 1000% is not even where it starts.
Best way to find this out is to find a friend who does Marketing and get him drunk/forget about trade secrecy. ;-)
The real ones have security codes and blind stamps in them allowing an experienced person to determin whether they are real or not. I beleive also some of them now have hiiden micro-chips allowing scanning to check on the origin.
By the way, you don't get much LV bag for Chf 1k and the "cheapest" Hermes Birkin is now around Chf 10k.