Man in His 20s Who Tried to Sell His Mother's Luxury Bag Behind Her Back Faces Attempted Fraud Charge···Case Not Referred

The store: "The suspect explained it was a bag that had passed authentication"
Police: "Hard to view it as claiming authenticity for the purpose of deception"

A case has emerged in which a man who had been suspected of trying to sell a counterfeit luxury bag by passing it off as genuine received a finding of no charge from police.

The Seoul Suseo Police Station was confirmed to have made a decision not to refer the case, for insufficient evidence, on the 8th of last month regarding A, a man in his 20s suspected of attempted fraud.

A was suspected of trying to sell his mother's counterfeit luxury bag at a secondhand luxury store in January while running away from home. The store claimed that A attempted the sale by deceiving them into believing it was a genuine item purchased on a certain secondhand trading platform that operates an authentication system.

During the investigation, it was also confirmed that before visiting the store, A had received a notification message from the platform to the effect that the bag was difficult to trade. Based on this, police suspected that A had attempted the sale knowing the possibility that it was counterfeit.

A completely denied the charge. He argued that he had merely made up the story of buying it on the platform out of fear of being caught for secretly taking his mother's bag, and that he had no intent to deceive anyone into thinking it was genuine. He also explained that he had requested authentication from the platform to verify the bag's authenticity, and that he had simply visited the secondhand luxury store without knowing that a message saying trading was difficult had been sent.

Police accepted A's argument and judged there was no charge. Police stated, "It is acknowledged that A said he purchased the bag on the platform," while adding, "However, it is not sufficiently proven that he claimed it was genuine while knowing it was counterfeit for the purpose of deception, or that he actively tried to deceive the store employee," explaining the reasons for not referring the case.

Attorney Seo Bong-ha of Daeryun LLC, who represented A, explained, "For an attempted fraud charge to be recognized, the intent to obtain a financial benefit by deceiving the other party must be clearly proven," adding, "We were able to obtain the decision not to refer the case by demonstrating that the client visited the store without having checked the platform's notification message, and that luxury authentication is not decided merely by the seller's word but is judged by the knowledge of a professional appraiser based on an appraisal certificate and the product's authenticity."

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Man in His 20s Who Tried to Sell His Mother's Luxury Bag Behind Her Back Faces Attempted Fraud Charge···Case Not Referred (Go to Article)