Luxury Counterfeiters Keep Outwitting Makers of $10,000 Handbags (2)

Dressed in a white lab coat, Mélissa B. slips on thin cotton gloves and gently places a Zanzibar blue Hermès Birkin bag, its iconic orange box, a cloth dust cover, and various documents on her desk. She steps back to eye the $18,000 purse, hunting for any bulges or bends. She runs her fingertips along the top, then picking up her pocket-size magnifying glass, she leans in to examine a palladium plate on the flap. The logo has evolved over time, but the engraved text has remained sharp and well-defined, with the characters evenly spaced. “This is one of the ...