# Fake Vape Equipment



## BetaTester552 (3/9/19)

Good day all

I'd just like to share my story. So there is a supermarket close to me that has gone into the business of selling vape stuff. A few smok pens, and pod systems. As well as a whole host of e-liquid. I bought a few liquids from there since their prices seemed really good. Upon further inspection I found out that the e-liquids are fake, and the devices are not authentic. 

I bought one device JUST to test the authenticity, and sure enough, it showed up as a confirmed fake on Smok's site. I went to see the supermarkets owner regarding the matter.

He was very understanding, so I showed him the ins and out of how to tell if stuff is fake. He seemed genuinely thankful that I showed him this. This was a few months ago.

I went back to the shop this afternoon and they STILL have the fake e-liquid and devices, meaning the owner just brushed off my advice.

Why is this bothering me you might ask? Well, I'm sure you all heard of the case in Illinois where a person died due to vaping. This being vaping of non-certified e-liquids and knock-off as later confirmed. The majority of the population will not read into the small details however and just be convinced vaping is bad.

Aside from that, the supermarket is just over the street from a high school, where students can purchase these products. 

I'm afraid if something was to go wrong from the things this guy is selling, it could have a negative influence of vaping in South Africa, so I'm just longing for advice. I don't know if there's someone to report it too or if there is really anything i can do. 

I'm open to comments and suggestions, please let me know

Kind regards

Reactions: Like 3 | Winner 5


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## Arthster (3/9/19)

Unfortunately there is no authority for the vape industry and so there is no place to go to. You might contact the SAPS since they are on a mission to catch people selling fake items.

I would say name and shame but that could lead to legal issues for you

however I would try and see kids buying from them and hand that over along with proof of fake goods to the SAPS

Reactions: Agree 4


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## Rob Fisher (4/9/19)

This is a massive problem for the vape industry and others... it's all about the money and lack of ethics.

Reactions: Agree 5


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## Acidkill (4/9/19)

My major problem with this is students who can't really afford juice etc. Go to these kind of shops and they don't realize how dangerous it is. I have seen at my local corner shop, nasty juice selling at R90. So it's attractive to them.. I know of a legit vape store closing down in a university town due to all the students buying fake junk.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Mr. B (4/9/19)

BetaTester552 said:


> Good day all
> 
> I'd just like to share my story. So there is a supermarket close to me that has gone into the business of selling vape stuff. A few smok pens, and pod systems. As well as a whole host of e-liquid. I bought a few liquids from there since their prices seemed really good. Upon further inspection I found out that the e-liquids are fake, and the devices are not authentic.
> 
> ...


I've come across so many fake items over the two few years. Mostly I find the fake items in corner shops or garages. I've spoken to some of these people before and as far as they are concerned, most of the other corner shops and garages also sell these fake devices and e-liquids and they also want a cut of that money/profit. They do not care about the ethics of it all - it's only about making a quick buck. If you confront them about the health hazard then they simply argue that they didn't make the product, they just sell it and how were they supposed to know it's not safe?

It saddens and sickens me at the same time.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Arthster (4/9/19)

Mr. B said:


> I've come across so many fake items over the two few years. Mostly I find the fake items in corner shops or garages. I've spoken to some of these people before and as far as they are concerned, most of the other corner shops and garages also sell these fake devices and e-liquids and they also want a cut of that money/profit. They do not care about the ethics of it all - it's only about making a quick buck. If you confront them about the health hazard then they simply argue that they didn't make the product, they just sell it and how were they supposed to know it's not safe?
> 
> It saddens and sickens me at the same time.



That's exactly why this industry is in need of a regulatory authority. It has grown so big that it has become a necessary evil... Down side is that kind of thing usually inflates prices

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Silver (4/9/19)

Very sad to see and hear about
Thanks for the thread though @BetaTester552

Reactions: Agree 2 | Thanks 1


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## Puff the Magic Dragon (4/9/19)

I would presume that if you want to stop a garage shop from selling a "dangerous item" the best procedure would be to contact the petrol company, BP, Shell, Mobil, Caltex etc. 

Surely they would act swiftly to prevent the shop from selling "explosive" devices.

The problem is that there is little to no evidence that clone pods are more dangerous than the originals.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Hooked (4/9/19)

Rob Fisher said:


> This is a massive problem for the vape industry and others... it's all about the money and lack of ethics.
> View attachment 176713



That is a gross pic @Rob Fisher!

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Hooked (4/9/19)

Is it a supermarket chain? If so, I would suggest that you contact their HQ. I'm sure that a chain would not want to be connected to fake goods. It's even possible that the vape products are not part of the chain's retail stock. In other words, that supermarket is not supposed to be selling vaping products in the first place.

If it's just a small, privately-owned supermarket, I don't know. It might be an idea to contact Carte Blanche. They are sensible enough not to represent vaping, per se, in a bad light. It might even work in our favour to give Carte Blanche the facts about vaping!

Reactions: Agree 3


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## Rob Fisher (4/9/19)

Hooked said:


> That is a gross pic @Rob Fisher!



It is indeed... A can of worms just like the fake and clone stuff that permeates our industry and beloved hobby!

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Jean claude Vaaldamme (4/9/19)

Agree with @Puff the Magic Dragon 
Any evidence that any fake gear or juice is dangerous?
As for ethics/profits. How many times has Woolworths been sued for selling fake/cloned stuff? You boycot them?
Nobody ever shop at chinese mall? Almost everything is fake or clone. Yes you can spot a clone vape at chinatown, but if you not into torches you wont know that the torch you buy is also a clone, or the toy or the mop.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Hooked (6/9/19)

Some new vapers have shown me bottles of Liqua which they bought for between R20 - R35. They're most surprised when I ask them if they bought it from a China shop. "How do you know??" they ask. I've told them about the possible health dangers and some have taken it to heart. One guy even gave me the bottle to throw away so I PIFd him some juice instead. But I can see others don't care - it's cheap and that's all that matters.

I understand that juice makers spend a fortune on Clean rooms and mixers and temperature control etc. etc., but the problem is that the cost of vaping i.e. juice and mods, is simply too high for the low-income group. So who can blame people for buying a bottle which costs only R20 - R35??

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 3


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## Jean claude Vaaldamme (6/9/19)

Hooked said:


> Some new vapers have shown me bottles of Liqua which they bought for between R20 - R35. They're most surprised when I ask them if they bought it from a China shop. "How do you know??" they ask. I've told them about the possible health dangers and some have taken it to heart. One guy even gave me the bottle to throw away so I PIFd him some juice instead. But I can see others don't care - it's cheap and that's all that matters.
> 
> I understand that juice makers spend a fortune on Clean rooms and mixers and temperature control etc. etc., but the problem is that the cost of vaping i.e. juice and mods, is simply too high for the low-income group. So who can blame people for buying a bottle which costs only R20 - R35??


I always wonder, all the diyers that does not have clean positive pressure iso700 rooms, are their juice dirty, dangerous and unhealthy?

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Arthster (6/9/19)

Jean claude Vaaldamme said:


> I always wonder, all the diyers that does not have clean positive pressure iso700 rooms, are their juice dirty, dangerous and unhealthy?



It's very possible yes. I wouldn't exclude some form of contamination but I have have been DIYing for a while and no negative effects as yet.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Arthster (6/9/19)

Jean claude Vaaldamme said:


> Agree with @Puff the Magic Dragon
> Any evidence that any fake gear or juice is dangerous?
> As for ethics/profits. How many times has Woolworths been sued for selling fake/cloned stuff? You boycot them?
> Nobody ever shop at chinese mall? Almost everything is fake or clone. Yes you can spot a clone vape at chinatown, but if you not into torches you wont know that the torch you buy is also a clone, or the toy or the mop.



Well that whole mess in the USA with two vapors dying has obviously attracted very negative attention to vaping but its also come out that they where vaping on a prefilled cartridge that contains THC... which is legal but the product they used was fakes.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Stillwaters (6/9/19)

There's also a difference between mixing for yourself (generally at low quantities) and mixing for commercial purposes where liters at a time are made. When mixing for yourself you usually mix into a small-necked container whilst the commercial mixers are pouring the liquids into large-necked containers where the risk of airborne contaminants entering the container is much greater

Reactions: Agree 4


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## Hooked (6/9/19)

Jean claude Vaaldamme said:


> I always wonder, all the diyers that does not have clean positive pressure iso700 rooms, are their juice dirty, dangerous and unhealthy?



@Jean claude Vaaldamme You've got a good point there. I've been given and I've bought juice from DIYers on this forum and I assume that it has been made under clean enough conditions and that nothing untoward has been added. 

However, fake juice from China ... that's another story. So much happens there e.g. fake baby-milk powder to which melamine was added. Read here. If that can be done to baby milk, what are they doing to e-liquids???

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Arthster (6/9/19)

Hooked said:


> @Jean claude Vaaldamme You've got a good point there. I've been given and I've bought juice from DIYers on this forum and I assume that it has been made under clean enough conditions and that nothing untoward has been added.
> 
> However, fake juice from China ... that's another story. So much happens there e.g. fake baby-milk powder to which melamine was added. Read here. If that can be done to baby milk, what are they doing to e-liquids???



That's exactly the problem. especially with fake or cloned products

Reactions: Agree 1


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## DoubleD (7/9/19)

Every "cheap" cell phone shop here in the weskus sells these fake gear and e liquids and I mean every one them. The worst of it is that these clueless guys are selling mech mods to their customers too and obviously have never explained or heard of mech safety.

Reactions: Agree 2 | Informative 1


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## ARYANTO (7/9/19)

My problem is fleamarket vendors who buy bulk at China mall and then adding a moerse profit sells it as legit juice ,
I feel to marinate their heads in the crap they sell. Best is Mom and Dad buy the stuff [mods included] at inflated prices
for their kids eg. Boksburg fleamarket , it is one of the places where they even sell Smok coils for R25 -40.00 .

Reactions: Agree 2 | Funny 1


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## WBotha (7/9/19)

fake juice and mods is easier to get by for a new vaper , sometimes more than we know the public dont see a difference between the fakes and the orginals for them its all the same . I joined a conversation with some colleagues earlier in the week and they felt like vape shops bieng a money making scheme , because fake mods and juice is cheaper and it does the same than the original .
I see this train of thought dangerous for vaping as people believe it and wil continue buying fakes

Reactions: Agree 4 | Can relate 1


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## Hooked (7/9/19)

DoubleD said:


> Every "cheap" cell phone shop here in the weskus sells these fake gear and e liquids and I mean every one them. The worst of it is that these clueless guys are selling mech mods to their customers too and obviously have never explained or heard of mech safety.



That's dreadful @DoubleD!

Reactions: Agree 3


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## Arthster (7/9/19)

Hooked said:


> That's dreadful @DoubleD!



And also a true unfortunate fact in JHB as well. The china mall by me has a vape shop selling what looks like big brand imported juices. however compare those boxes to the proper vape shops you can tell by the quality of the printed labels and the color of the juice that things are horribly fake.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2 | Informative 1


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## Mollie (8/9/19)

I must confess here
Since i started vaping(October 2018) i always bought juices at Montana flea market for about the first 2 months
Some of the juices was quite good but then on the other hand some was crap the flavour went down in about 3 days after opening
But after awhile i could feel some pains on my lungs when using some of these juices
You can get 5 x 60ml juices there for R200
And i think that most people that dont know the danger of cheap juices(i was one of them)will buy it because its cheap.
Even the clone mod they sell there is very cheap but you can see the BIG danger sign when you ask them questions about the mods(they cant answer the questions).
STAY AWAY from these things
Rather diy like most of us(i know its frustrating)but atleast you know what you mix is what you vape

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## Room Fogger (8/9/19)

Another shoddy dodgy shoppy just opened in the Mall near me selling hookahs and mods and juices. This is just around the corner from a Evolution vape kiosk. Cannot comment on their pricing or validity but will go past there sometime to see if it’s the real deal, which at this stage I’m pretty unsure about. Too many of these places don’t have the faintest idea of what it is their selling. 

If it turns out to be fake I will bring it to the attention of mall management, don’t know if they will respond but if not I suppose one less customer won’t bother them. Pity they don’t take note of the bush telegraph and the impact it can have on business ala Walmart and Marketing 101.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Mollie (8/9/19)

Room Fogger said:


> Another shoddy dodgy shoppy just opened in the Mall near me selling hookahs and mods and juices. This is just around the corner from a Evolution vape kiosk. Cannot comment on their pricing or validity but will go past there sometime to see if it’s the real deal, which at this stage I’m pretty unsure about. Too many of these places don’t have the faintest idea of what it is their selling.
> 
> If it turns out to be fake I will bring it to the attention of mall management, don’t know if they will respond but if not I suppose one less customer won’t bother them. Pity they don’t take note of the bush telegraph and the impact it can have on business ala Walmart and Marketing 101.


The only thing i sometimes buy from places like these are cotton bacon when im in the area

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## WBotha (8/9/19)

The vaper said:


> The only thing i sometimes buy from places like these are cotton bacon when im in the area
> 
> Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk


 

I once bought fake cotton bacon for the same price as the orginal , thinking it was orginal due to the price and good packageing . The cotton wicked easy and smoothly , but oh man the taste was horrible and I went on a trip to dry hit city . My wicks only lasted 3 days . Soon after I bought a packet cotton bacon from my vape shop and compared the two packages , thier were only minor small differences but definitely a difference in quality of product

Reactions: Agree 1 | Informative 2


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## Mollie (8/9/19)

WBotha said:


> I once bought fake cotton bacon for the same price as the orginal , thinking it was orginal due to the price and good packageing . The cotton wicked easy and smoothly , but oh man the taste was horrible and I went on a trip to dry hit city . My wicks only lasted 3 days . Soon after I bought a packet cotton bacon from my vape shop and compared the two packages , thier were only minor small differences but definitely a difference in quality of product


I dont think i ever had a problem with the cotton bacon
What i can be sure of is Nasty cotton.I bought at a vape shop about 2 months back only tested once and the packed is collecting dust now

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## GSM500 (8/9/19)

Just my thoughts on the fake, commercial and DIY juices.

Fake Juice
The raids going on in Gauteng for fake goods seems to have brought these so-called fake juices to the attention of the relevant authorities. I have heard that these juices were purchased and tested in a lab. They found that an extremely high percentage of these "flea-market juices" contained traces of brake fluid. Brake fluid being a silicon based lubricant really doesn't belong in an e-liquid. You really don't want these kind of products on the market, it's not going to do the vaping industry any good. E-liquids use food grade PG and VG, not an industrial grade. I advise everyone to avoid these products.

Commercial and DIY.
Commercial juices are made an a positive pressure lab to reduce the possibility of contamination of the product. This does not guarantee that contamination won't take place, but the company manufacturing the e-liquid has at least made a good effort to prevent this which makes us vapers feel a little better. A DIY'er on the other hand will mix at home and has a greater chance for contamination in this environment, but as a DIY'er, you will at least be conscious of what you are doing and problematic contamination is unlikely as you are mixing one juice at a time in low quantities.

But what if a juice did get contaminated? Well, I think most juices do get contaminated at some point. Even if you buy a commercial lab made juice, is it not possible for the juice to become contaminated as soon as you have cracked that cap? Then also take into account your atty and the tools you use to re-wick, did you sterilise them before you started and are you using rubber gloves to thread your cotton? Oh yes, the cotton.....What if that has something in it that does not belong? The list of possible contamination's is probably pretty long and some form of contamination probably occurs more often then we like to think. But fear not, because we have a friend in our juice and his name is Propylene Glycol and this liquid has pretty good anti-bacterial and anti-fungal characteristics. I have never heard about a juice that went mouldy or fermented as such (Excluding juice exposed to UV light for extended periods or just bad DIY recipes). We also need to consider what happens to the juice when it gets to the coil.....That's right, it gets cooked and the chances of bacteria surviving that are pretty slim. I think you have more chance of picking something up from a kiddies creche than vaping a juice bought from a store or made at home, as long as it is made up of the correct ingredients.

Just my 5c!

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## Mollie (8/9/19)

GSM500 said:


> Just my thoughts on the fake, commercial and DIY juices.
> 
> Fake Juice
> The raids going on in Gauteng for fake goods seems to have brought these so-called fake juices to the attention of the relevant authorities. I have heard that these juices were purchased and tested in a lab. They found that an extremely high percentage of these "flea-market juices" contained traces of brake fluid. Brake fluid being a silicon based lubricant really doesn't belong in an e-liquid. You really don't want these kind of products on the market, it's not going to do the vaping industry any good. E-liquids use food grade PG and VG, not an industrial grade. I advise everyone to avoid these products.
> ...


WOW brake fluid 
Thanks for this and its VERY sad to see that people will do anything to make a quick buck regardless the health and safety of the customers
I know of some people that buy juice from the flea markets going to warn them now


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## Jean claude Vaaldamme (8/9/19)

Ooooh this sound like the news papers spreading fake news of vapers lung deaths. May we please have a link to proven lab test stating flea market juices contain brake fluid?


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## Mollie (8/9/19)

I found something but its not based(well not saying it)on flea marketshttps://books.google.co.za/books?id=jwhgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=brake+fluid+found+in+e+liquid&source=bl&ots=QPlpuhXcQm&sig=ACfU3U2dNl2a8rfFBsCyyINyy4qVooruiA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCs5nUosHkAhXjURUIHQL4Bds4FBDoATAAegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=brake%20fluid%20found%20in%20e%20liquid&f=false

They referred to Ethylene Glycol which is known anti freeze which is used in brake fluid and obviously anti freeze






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