The History of Fake Perfume - A Timeline

Perfumes have been faked for over a hundred years. I found an article from 1922 stating that two men were arrested for selling fake perfume, the article goes on to say that "Synthetic perfume carrying the labels and temporarily the odors of the best known brands but actually only colored water has proved a lucrative proposition."

1890:

The New York Times, 1890:

"PERFUME DEALER UNDER ARREST; Charged with Selling Domestic Products Under Foreign Labels. Anton Heusler, with dealing in counterfeit foreign perfumes, was arrested in Milwaukee to-day by Internal officers.

1900:

1910s:

American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record, Volume 61, 1913:

"Arrested for Selling Fraudulent Mary Garden Perfume. Upon complaint of Dr John H Hecker, 92 Beekman street, on behalf of V Rigaud, the famous Parisian perfumer who originated the well known Mary Garden and Trentini perfumes, Myer Friend of the Evergreen Chemical Company, 171 Broadway New York, was held by Magistrate Murphy in the City Magistrate's court corner of Franklin and Centre streets for Special Sessions in $500 bail for selling a spurious Mary Garden perfume and trade mark infringement thereof. In the last few months, complaints have been reported from all over the country that a New York firm was selling as Mary Garden perfume, a concoction which did not come up to the standard of refined fragrance of the original Mary Garden perfume so greatly appreciated by connoisseurs. Doctor Hecker was able to locate the source of the fraudulent perfume and a quantity was purchased by his agents. Defendant was summoned before Magistrate Murphy and arrest followed. The case came up on February 6, 1913 at Special Sessions Part V, when Assistant District Attorney Smith brought the case before Chief Justices Russell Collins and Zeller. The result was that the defendant was fined $250."

1920s:

1922 article stating that two men were arrested for selling fake perfume, the article goes on to say that:

 "Synthetic perfume carrying the labels and temporarily the odors of the best known brands but actually only colored water has proved a lucrative proposition."

1927 article reads

" ACCUSED OF SELLING IMITATION PERFUME; Man Caught After Long Hunt Is Said to Have Victimized Ten Shops Here. FACES COUNTERFEIT CHARGE Police Say They Found Many Fake Labels in His Home -- To Get Hearing Tomorrow. Richard E. Ives, 33 years old, a salesman, who has been traveling so rapidly that the police have spent five months in catching up with him, was held in $2,500 bail for hearing tomorrow When arraigned in West Side Court yesterday before Magistrate Edward Weil, charged with counterfeiting the labels, caps and bottles of a perfume."

1930s:

1933, an article ran stating that film stars were duped by fake perfume.

" Alice Brady and Dorothy Burgess, actresses, and Alexander Hall, a director, ran afoul of a fake perfume merchant who sold them at low cost what was actually bottles filled with scented water and not perfume."

1933:

" Fake Perfume. Warning Given. Warning that there are fake perfume peddlers active in Los Angeles was issued yesterday by the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles."

1934, an article mentioned that

  "Sellers of fake perfume fined then jailed. Two men who confessed they had duped a number of north side working girls by selling them small bottles of water as expensive perfume were each fined $150"

1934,

"Fight Perfume Counterfeits. Perfumery Importers Association has embarked upon a campaign to eliminate counterfeiting which, the association feels, has increased since the depression inaugurated the practice of bulk sales. As part of this program, the association has broadcast a booklet describing forms of this counterfeiting."

1935 an article cautions its readers to

"Never let a servant buy goods from doubtful canvassers. Tooth paste is often soft soap; shaving soap, sticky and unhygienic ,  refusing to lather; "perfume" colored water in fancy bottles. These worthless goods are manufactured wholesale during the holiday season. Fake labels bearing the good names of genuine firms are attached."

1940s:

1946, The Chicago Tribune ran a story on counterfeit perfumes,

"Because we think the consumer should be warned, too, we'd like to pass on to you purchasers of perfume information about the enormous amount of perfume counterfeiting that has been going on for some time and has risen sharply in the last two years."

1950s:

 1952 Miami News:

“Hoboken, NJ, Police here hope they have put an end to the operations of a fake perfume ring which may well have been on the way to flooding the country with $1,000,000 worth of bootleg perfume. It was being sold as Chanel No. 5. While the outside container is similar to the one used for the genuine Chanel, the bottle for the phony perfume is obviously machine-made as compared to the hand blown container and cut glass stopper offered with the real stuff, according to the manufacturers. The ring was discovered when waterfront police noticed sales of perfume around the docks. It was at first that the perfume bottles were being smuggled off ships. An undercover  man stationed in the area was approached by a “pusher” and sold a bottle. This was taken to the Chanel Company for examination and analysis of is contents. Once it was established as fake, a trap was set. “

1953, a newspaper article mentions that

"Two men were arrested for selling counterfeit Chanel perfume. Aaron Schwartz of Chanel Co. in New York and New Haven complained that the perfumes sold by the two men were not his company's product. Samples of the phony product were sent to the New Haven Agricultural Station and the State Food & Drug Commission for analysis. Both agencies reported that it was a cheap grade cologne."

Printers' Ink - Volume 245, 1953:

"Exposes ad hoax: National magazine ads are being used to set the stage for a nationwide hoax which involves consumer sales of perfumes according to the National Better Business Bureau…the NBBB reports, “an army of fast-talking salesmen who have purchased the perfume for approximately $1 per bottle, descends upon the community hawking the "nationally advertised $20 perfume" at from $2 to $5 or what the traffic will bear, after displaying the magazine ad. The NBBB points out that the magazine accepted the ads in good faith and have informed the bureau that in the future they will accept no perfume advertising unless the advertiser's standing is well and favorably known to the trade and the Toilet Goods Assn. Cited by the NBBB are White Christmas perfume (Saravel, Inc., New York); Ecstacy perfume (Ecstacy Perfumes, New York); and Faun perfume and toilet water by Ravel (Swanmore, Sales Distributors, New York.)"

1953 article states that

"A still for making fake perfume for use in bottles with the counterfeit labels of several of the leading perfumes of the world was uncovered yesterday by Federal agents. The raid was carried out by  special investigator Joseph E. Lannon of the Alcohol and Tobacco  Tax Unit of the IRS and Inspector John J. Hanagan of the Food & Drug Control Administration. Lannon said that in addition to a 15-gallon still, they seized a large quantity of perfume bottles, some filled and come empty, but all carrying counterfeit labels of expensive perfumes. Lannon said also the counterfeit perfumes had been sold in New York, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and Havana, Cuba for as much as $100 an ounce.' On Tuesday he raised a still which was used for making fake perfume and became steeped in the assorted essences. “I was eating lunch in a restaurant,” he said “and a fellow at the next table sniffed, looked at me - and moved two tables away.”"  

1953, the Toledo Blade reported that

"The salesman with fake perfume bargains is out to take Santa Claus, warned The Perfume Importers Group of the Toilet Goods Association this week. Purchases, mostly by men, for Christmas gifts, account for 40% of all legitimate perfume sales in this country, and more than half of falsified scent swindles, said a representative of the importers here. Such swindles involve thousand of dollars each year which, although a mere drop in the 120 million dollar perfume industry bucket, are no jokes to the folks who find they have been taken. 

While watchdog activities by this group and the police keep its volume down, illicit perfume traffic can never be done away with so long as there are people who think they can get the real thing in a fine, expensive product, “dirt cheap”, the spokesman pointed out. 

Often working in a husband and wife teams, perfume crooks have imitations labels printed for Chanel No. 5 and the like, buy bottles resembling the originals from outlet dealers, and mix scents with alcohol in a bathtub or some suitable basin. Sometimes the results are indistinguishable to the ordinary nostril, from the perfume they merely imitate, but it was said that the connection was only as superficial as that between a cotton and wool suit and an all wool one. Men, who buy 65-70% of the perfume worn by women, are most easily taken in by the supposedly $15 perfumes at half the price. 

But a favorite target of the crooked salesman is the business concern interested in buying a large supply of scents for Christmas gifts to customers and employees. It looks good when a deal can be swung whereby only $10,000 out of $20,000 budget item for such gifts need to be used, but it can turn out to be very costly in customer and employee good will, the importers representative declared.  Under the circumstances, it was said the customer had better beware of (1) the  “salesman” peddling perfume for whose alleged perfume business no telephone listing can be found, and (2) the offer of a band name perfume at a great bargain - for there is no such thing."

1953, The Miami News reported that

"A perfume moonshiner arrested in Rhode Island was recalled today as none other than Robert B. Goldman, 52, arrested here in 1945 with a similar set up in a Miami beach garage. He was making “Chanel No.5 “, “Schiaparelli Shocking” and other famous brands out of rubbing alcohol, a little coloring and oil and selling it for $75-$110 a bottle. “Same man, same operation, same price,” Frank A. Edwards, chief federal probation officer, remarked today. 

Edwards was particularly interested to note that the customers in 1953 are paying the same price that they did back in 1945. Edwards said that the news of the arrest no doubt will awaken memories of several prominent persons, in particular, three attorneys that he knows, who stocked up on the stuff of Christmas gifts. Goldman reported to Edwards office “off and on” for several years after he was given a three year probation art sentence in 1947. “The last time I heard from him (that was in 1950) he was  trying to organize a candy factory in Boston, “ said Edwards. 

The law caught up with Goldman in a rather indirect way. Rumors that fancy perfumes were to be had on the black market got back to customs officials. They heard it was smuggled. Investigation uncovered Goldman’s elaborate setup in the beach garage. He originally was charged with grand larceny in perfume  dealing but finally was convicted of failure to pay federal excise taxes on his product. In arresting Goldman yesterday , Rhode Island and federal agents said he has  a still for making fake perfume for use in bottles with counterfeit labels of several if the leading perfumers of the world.”

1957 article in the  Schenectady Gazette reads

"A gray haired, kindly elevator man in a giant NY office building recently has the secretaries agog with a Christmas special. He offered bottles of “imported French perfume” marked $18.95 for the unbelievable low price of $2. His supply of 100 bottles lasted only a few days, and he quickly ordered more. But the delay proved his undoing.
Several of the girls, just too jubilant over their tremendous bargains, opened their bottles and soon smelled something was wrong. Regardless of what scent the girls ordered, the perfumed “ smelled” the same. One girl  summed it yup: “This perfume stinks.” and it did. The girls didn’t buy imported French perfume at a big markdown. They had actually bought cheap, fake perfume, which was made in a bathtub, much as bootleg whisky. The sale of these fake perfumes is a part of a nefarious nationwide practice which preys on gullible Christmas shoppers and which amounts to nothing but outright fraud. It is sold by  college students, both fake and real; by elevator operators; barber shops; mail order houses; street peddlers; in bars; and even in stores. 

 The vendor usually says he has imported French perfume  that sells for $25 a bottle, but you can have it for $10. If you stand still for five minutes you can have it for 98 cents. “If the deal  sounds fantastic”, says the better Business Bureau, “it is fantastically dishonest.” 

And the warning is out that the racketeers who peddle this bootleg perfume are out in full force this year. John Power Daley, a former FBI agent, who is director of the Bureau of Ethical Security, said that complaints of fake perfume operations have come into his office from all across the country. The bureau, finance by the well known Lanvin and Evyan Perfume Companies, was set up in the early 1950s to combat smuggling and counterfeiting of genuine French perfumes. It also works on any case where perfume is used in gyp sales. Daley who operated the bureau with another ex-FBI agent, A. Robert Swanson, counsel for the organization, warned “We have reports of a load of fake perfume operations this Christmas season. All are trade to capitalize on well known trademarks. Despite the fact that we’re constantly after these swindlers and have succeeded in knocking many of them out of business, they keep coming back.” 

The Federal Trade Commission is constantly obtaining injunctions against the fake perfume promotions. However, the same schemes are repeated year after year, because the gyp operators hope to capitalize on their fraud before an injunction can be gotten out against them. Mr. Daley said that the perfume racket usually starts in Chicago or NY and then spreads across the country. 

“These swindlers are ruthless,” he said. “they bootleg their cheap, vile smelling stuff and put it into flacons that look identical to those used by legitimate French perfume companies. Then they put a fictitious price, such as $18.85,on the side of the bottle. The containers often have French symbols such as the Eiffel Tower or the French flag. They’ll type their perfume with a Gallic sounding name. They all use French wording on the bottle when in reality the fake promoters have no connection with France and the ingredients have never seen Paris.” The ex-FBI man said the perfume grifters usually make their stuff in some out of the way still and get the bulk of their supplies ready for the Christmas rush. 

Federal agents raided one perfume still in Middletown, RI. And reported that the international ring had bilked store owners and customers in many cities. The T-men sized a 15 gallon still and a large quantity of perfume bottles bearing the counterfeited labels of leading perfume makers of the world. The agents said alcohol was mixed with various colorings and extracts and then run through the still to produce the fake perfumes. And Brooklyn, NY, police raided an apartment still when a nosy cop followed the crime scent. They seized the gyp operator with 15,000 bottles made up to resemble expensive perfumes. Officers discovered it was toilet water doctored up with appropriate colors and scents. Labels and bottles were exact duplicates of expensive perfumes. 

In NJ, police nabbed a trio who were selling a fake French perfume for $17.50 an ounce while the real trademarked perfume sold for $25. They sold more than 30,000 bottles. The raid was set up when customers who answered an ad said that the stuff they bought didn’t smell like the real thing, It was a real best-smeller the police said. 

The latest perfume racket seems to be finding a host of suckers in the rebottling of trademark colognes. According to Daley, the gyp operators buy up a quantity of the real stuff in various stores and then rebottle it. “We bought some of it”, aid the ex-FBI man, “and have been testing it. We find that plain water has been added to it. Fragrances have been mixed. Some bottles contain sediment, The price of the rebottled stuff is far in excess of the real cologne in the original bottles manufactured by the trademark company.” 

The swindlers will even place ads in slick magazines. They will then give the tear sheets to the fast talking salesmen who will display the advertisements to show that the fake junk stuff they are peddling is the “real stuff”. This helps to lower the buyer’s guard. Daley said “the best advice I can give people who want to buy perfume for Christmas is to buy from a reputable store where they can return the merchandise if they are not satisfied because every reputable merchant will stand in back of his product.” 

“In Detroit, we found fake perfume advertised with a national trademark,” he explained. “It had a price of $17.95 and was marked down to $1. Another brand was $6.50 and was selling for 50 cents. It was doing a thriving business until we stepped in and stopped it.” One Boston store was flooded  with complaints. The store owner called Daley and wanted the name of every phony perfume so that he could advertise it to his customers in order that they could be on guard. 

Swanson said that complaints have been coming in at a torrid clip from Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Miami. “We cover the country in operation here at the bureau,” Swanson said, “We work with former associates of ours in the FBI. If we have trouble in Chicago or Los Angeles, we can call on a half -dozen former FBI agents who can give up complete lowdown on the operation in a matter of hours. Daley added that although Lanvin and Evyan are their main sponsors, the Bureau of Ethical Security also does business for other perfume companies and generally keeps an eye on any fake operations in the French perfume industry. Daley asked all shoppers who felt they had been duped into buying fake imported French perfume to contact the Bureau of Ethical Security. 

”One of the worst aspects of the gyp “ , said Daley, “Is that if the cheap stuff is given as a gift, it often may mean a fellow will lose a girlfriend or even worse, a wife. We have heard of one case where a woman sued for divorce because her husband gave her a bottle of perfume that had a stench to it. And another woman wrote to the bureau that her spouse have her perfume that smelled like a wet puppy. Needless to say he wound up in the dog house.”

1960s:

1964, the Chicago Tribune reported that

"In Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian police confiscated nearly 2 million dollars worth of fake French perfumes." The Pittsburgh Press warned the public in 1966 that "One of the most popular items with the Christmas racketeers this year - as it has been for many years in the past - is perfume. “Beware of the salesman who offers perfume with $16 or $18 labels for two or three dollars.” warned Charles R. Burke, president of the Pittsburgh Better Business Bureau. 

“Even at the reduced price, this so-called perfume is no bargain.” Some of it smells so bad that instead of attracting the opposite sex, it is more likely to cause him to reach for a deodorizing spray. Many times, the perfume faker tries to capitalize on famous brand names such as Chanel No. 5 offering it at incredibly low prices. The bottle or package may carry a C-5 sticker or label which the salesman says is a code marking for Chanel. But be warned, Chanel does not implement any sort of code markings for their fragrances. “Giving this to your wife or girlfriend is more likely to bring you the cold shoulder than a warm embrace.” Mr. Burke added.

1966, the Free Lance Star ran an informative article warning buyers:

"Before you buy- Frauds often Fake Fine Perfume. Last year in late December, US Marshalls seized 41 bottles of counterfeit perfume in one city, after the maker of the real perfume has alerted the US Food & Drug Administration to the fact that somebody was faking the perfume and labeling and selling it throughout the nation. One of the jobs of the FDA is to administer the Federal Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act, which prohibits false misleading labeling of cosmetics.  

The FDA stopped that particular fraud, but every year new ones turn up or move to new sections of the country. Because fine perfume is a perennially popular gift, and because buyers, especially men, are in no position to evaluate what they are being offered - often as “bargain” - some plain facts about perfume, real and counterfeit, may come in handy this month.   

There are a variety of ways and imaginative crook can fool the trusting public with bottled fragrances. The label itself may be a counterfeit one, complete with a great French name and insignia. The bottle may be the gimmick - a small, typical perfume bottle, often very pretty, being used by the crook to rebottle either the less-expensive toilet water made by the real perfume maker, or just to package some cheap colored water with very little fragrance of any kind.  This charming little bottle, traditionally the size of honest perfume, may bear an interesting code - initials which consumers assume stand for a famous perfume name, like “MS” for “My Sin”, “A” for “Arpege” and “S” for Shalimar, etc. Unless the labels clearly state who the maker of these bottles fragrance is, so that there can be no misunderstanding as to what those initials really stand for - or don’t stand for - this violates the law.    

Another convincing gimmick of the “bargain makers” is to put a price tag on these bottles of fake perfume, stamped with an incredibly high price, are beyond the normal figure, then cross that inflated amount off and write in the “bargain” price.  

Sometimes, the rebottlers make up impressive labels for the bottles, with authentic looking French names or French towns, or even the French flag to add believability to the point of origin. There are two ways of insuring your getting not only the perfume you think you’re getting, but in getting perfume at all, instead of a weak copy. 

 The first is to make note of some basic facts about the whole business of creating and manufacturing fragrance. Fine perfumes are virtually never offered at “bargain” prices, simply because the ingredients and processes used in their manufacture are continuously costly. Some perfumes, of course, are more costly than others, depending on the “recipe”.  

A great perfume may use as many as 300 different elements to achieve a unique and desirable fragrance. All the processes require skills, experience, and time, which have no bargain rates. From one basic “mix” or fragrance natural or synthetic oils, fixatives, and carrier, a perfume maker may evolve true perfume, the most concentrated fragrances; a toilet water, next in concentration; and a cologne, the lightest of the liquid fragrances. Into the basic mix may go bitter orange oil, jasmine or rose or perhaps fragrant grasses, spices,  and herbs, leaves, roots, gums or any of hundreds of other items. It takes, for instance, 100 pounds of the coltsfoot to get ¼ pound of fragrant ingredient.  The fixatives used for the great perfumes are often more costly than the actual fragrances oils used.  

Ambergris, for instance, a substance obtained from whales, is a fantastically good fixative and is used by top perfume makers, but next to pearls, it is the most precious substance obtained from the sea. Then, of course, a special alcohol is added to the mix, to act as the carrier. At its simplest, the difference between true perfume and toilet water and cologne is the amount of alcohol each contains. The more alcohol, the less costly the fragrance, because of the dilution.   

The other means of making sure you are getting the true perfume you think you are buying is to be careful where you buy it. Reputable stores reject the kid of promotional perfume deals offered them that rest on tricky concealment of names of manufacturers. Inexpensive perfumes, as well as many toilet waters and colognes, can have delightful fragrances, but will have neither the unique quality nor long lasting life of real perfumes. If you want great perfume, expect top pay for it. A “bargain” in fine perfume is too improbable to be seriously expected.”

1968,  An article in Kiplinger's Personal Finance warns the public about:

"Perfume gyps. These work several ways. Sometimes a crook puts brand-name toilet water or cologne into perfume bottles and sells it to you for the price of the more expensive fragrance. Other frauds counterfeit the labels of top-quality perfumes, paste them on a cheap concoction and charge you top prices. For protection, buy only from reputable sources."

1970s:

1974, The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reported that a

"Fake Perfume Racket Flourishes in District. Something smells  in the perfume business these days. Which is to say, beware of the person who comes bearing Chanel, because it might be plain old sugar water. And, despite the price of sugar nowadays, sugar water just isn’t in the same league with Chanel. What is happening is that hustlers and con men are filling bottles  resembling Chanel bottles with liquids other than perfume and attempting to exchange them for a refund a busy department stores.  This bit of chicanery and skulduggery as been going on for about ten years along the East Coast and for about three years in Pittsburgh.  

Chanel is not the only brand name used, either. But it is the most popular. A couple of years ago it was well nigh impossible for the average perfumes to tell the difference between the real Chanel packaging and the hoax, so good were the forgeries.  No so anymore. At least according to Charlene Shupbach, assistant cosmetic buyer at Kaufmann’s. “A little old lady came in the other day to get an exchange or a refund on one of the forgeries. She said it was a gift, but one look and almost anyone who knows anything about perfume knew it was a forgery. Stamped all over the box was “Imported from France” The real Chanel bottle doesn’t have anything but the size on the bottom of the box. Another way to tell the bad stuff is that the seal on the bottle is usually badly forged.  

“What’s in the phony bottles? Sugar Water, usually.” Down at the Joseph Horne Co., Herb Mannion shrugs his shoulders, “Yes,” he says, “I know all about that game. We got burned a couple of times in the past couple of years, but we’re on the watch for it now. I think one of our suburban stores hot hit with a refund the other day. Chanel.” Mannion, who is he cosmetic buyer for Horne’s tells about the two youngsters who came in with three boxes with the Chanel label. They wanted refunds. “But our salespeople - and most of them have been around perfume for about 20 years, thought something was fishy. They started to call the store security. The kids bolted. We didn’t catch the kids but we found out that a lady had lost her shopping bag with the Chanel boxes in it. Funny, it was the real thing, too.”  

Mannion says a waiter in one of Pittsburgh’s better restaurants was caught trying to push phony Chanel perfume. And he says there is a brisk market in the ersatz Chanel at skating rinks. ‘Don’t ask me why skating rinks. I don’t know.”, he said." In an article in the Dispatch from 1974 "Consumers alerted to bogus Chanel No. 5.  Bogus Chanel No. 5 perfume has filtered into North Carolina from a suspected northern manufacture and distribution point, according to the Consumer Protection News, from the office of NC Attorney General Robert Morgan.    

Jim Blackburn, CPD chief said, “We don’t want any North Carolinians to lose money and we feel we are aborting sales efforts with early detection and investigation.” Between Nov 1973 and Feb 1974, New York City police seized more than 80,000 bottles of the fake “Chanel” perfume. The estimate street value was set at $1 million., Blackburn said. Reports of sale of the counterfeit perfume have been  registered in eastern, central and western North Carolina. Some of the phonies were bought at legitimate retail stores; others were bought at a flea market near Asheville.   

Attorney General Morgan said that to underworld figures, the fake perfume is called a “gaff”. In metropolitan areas, he said, the illicit manufacturers sell to shops believed to be controlled by organized crime, and to street hustlers for about $2 a bottle. Chanel No. 5 usually retails for $35 an ounce.  

Blackburn noted several irregularities in the bogus bottles of perfume: 

Authentic Chanel bottles are from a single mold; the phony is molded in two parts with the adhesive joint clearly visible. 

Authentic bottles have an inscription on the back denoting the amount of perfume in ounces; the fake has no inscription. 

Labels on bogus bottles have a fuzzy, faded appearance. 

Tops or stoppers on authentic bottles are glass; the phony products tops are plastic. 

True bottles necks are smooth, the bogus bottle neck has a rough edge. 

Real Chanel No. 5 has a distinctively darker color than the fake perfume. 

Counterfeit bottles have ripples and impurities in the glass. 

Authentic bottles are perfectly flat from each top corner to the bottle neck; the phony bottle has an upward, slanted effect from each corner to the neck. 

Although  the counterfeit may look almost identical in packaging, Blackburn said, the scent tends to disappear quickly - much like the seller. Anyone who has seen or bought one of the bogus bottles is requested to contact the Division.” The Milwaukee Sentinel ran this article in 1976: " The sweet smell of fraud has been wafting through department stores here. Clerks have had their noses full sniffing perfume bottles for women who fear their Chanel No. 5 is nothing more than scented water peddled as the real thing in the city for the past 15 months.  

The district attorney’s office last week seized 3,228 bottles of phony perfume labeled Chanel No. 5and Arpege. The fake Chanel sold for $15 per ounces, about $25 less than the regular retail prices. “We’ve got bottles all over the place”, said Deputy Ds. Atty. Richard Spriggs. “I don’t have a nose for perfume, but the difference is clear, even to a person with a burned out nose like mine.” The bogus perfume was seized at a warehouse after the executives of four defunct distributing firms left the state.”

1980s:

1981, a newspaper article in the Chicago Tribune:

"When counterfeiting was artisanal, it didn't bother us much," says Adrian de Flers, head of the Comite Colbert, a French couturier and perfumer trade group. "Now it's become industrial, and we're frankly very worried."

1983, an article in the Eugene Register Guard reported that

"Three men were charged in London with attempting to defraud the giant French perfume company Chanel by selling ordinary perfume with forged Chanel No. 5 labels. According to the London Telegraph, the charges followed a three year investigation into the sale of fake perfume and toiletries in Britain, The US, Spain, France, Mexico, Italy, West Germany and Switzerland."

-1983 article states that

"The French perfume industry estimates annual losses from counterfeiting at $62 million a year."

-1988, The Spokesman Review published this article

"Authorities have sniffed out what they say is a major perfume counterfeiting ring that made millions by slapping look-a-like labels on phony bottles of Giorgio, Chanel, Jean Patou and Christian Dior perfumes. Investigators served search warrants in recent weeks at a Fontana California printing plant and bottling firm in Indio, both east of Los Angeles, and on a home in Milpitas, in the San Francisco area. An undisclosed number of empty perfume bottles, boxes and other evidence were seized, officials said. “No arrest have been made, so I wouldn’t say its been brought to justice yet. But obviously, it’s a counterfeiting ring that has been interrupted,” said Lt Mike Stodelle of the San Bernardino County Sheriffs dept. “This is the largest perfume counterfeit operation in the country, possibly the world,” said Jacqueline Cohen, spokeswoman for Giorgio Beverly Hills, who estimated that $20 million in fake perfume was sold."

-1988, the Anchorage Daily News ran an article on designer impostor fragrances:

"The big name, high prices fragrances are waging a war with their imitators for the perfume market, but there seems to be plenty of business for both. Clones, pretenders and fakes are multiplying. US sales in men’s and women’s fragrances reached $4 billion in 1987, according to Annette Green of the Fragrance Foundation in New York.
Its not against the law to copy a fragrance, when you state that is exactly what you are doing. You cant patent or copyright liquids, so all is fair in essential oils and animal scents. It only becomes illegal  when you try to pass off a product as the real thing, right down to the name and packaging and trademarks. Most companies knocking off fragrances make their sales pitches very carefully to avoid lawsuits. 

Elizabeth Taylor and Chesebrough-Ponds, Inc, which makes her fragrances, Passion, recently settles a suit against Westport Laboratories, which had infringed upon Passion’s packaging, using the same colors and Miss Taylor’s name on its imitation, Fever. It can no longer say “the alternative to Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion” and it cant use her name in any way.  The package now reads “the alternative to Passion.” 

Bob Somner, president of Fabulous Fakes of Van Nuys, Calif., says his firm has never been sued, but it did make an adjustment to its packaging of a Giorgio copy after the Beverly Hills Company that produces the original objected to some of the fine print, which was in French. Fabulous Fakes has copies of Giorgio, Opium, Poison, Joy, Oscar de la Renta and Obsession in 1 ounce bottles, the first two being the major sellers. It sells 3 million bottles annually. It is now common to advertise “If you like Giorgio, you’ll like Primo”, or “If you like Poison, try out No. 56”. 

Those who market the real thing might object, but legally the fakes are within the boundaries of what is acceptable. More and more companies are trying to grab a slice of the perfume pie by  letting the major names such as Estee Lauder, Guerlain, Dior , Givenchy, Calvin Klein and others do all the research and spend all the big bucks in advertising, Then they play copycat. It’s really nothing new. It doesn’t seem fair, but enterprising men and women keep jumping into the parfum, eau de cologne and toilet water bonanza - copying sometimes almost to perfection, their higher prices originals.
Consumers react to beautiful bottles. That can also add to the price. 

There are women who simply like to line up beautiful bottles on their dresser or vanity table. Those who collect rare perfume bottles would hardly look to Fabulous Fakes, Michelle international, Parfums de Coeur, carter and an Peel or Poole’s Beauty Boutique - all offering imitations of most of the leading fragrances as well as the more obscure ones. Many of the bottles are not very attractive. Some of the metal atomizer containers have been compared to bug sprays - not exactly conducive to setting a romantic mood. But manufacturers of the fakes are beginning to pay more attention to bottles. Parfums de Coeur has a narrow ridged bottle, for its colognes , which is attractive, And Michelle International as a long, sleek black top for its perfume spray atomizer. 

There are about 30 companies selling $150 million worth of fakes annually, according to Newsweek magazine. Considering that Obsession perfume sells for $175 an ounce and Giorgio $165, many turn to the Fabulous Fakes or Michelle International versions for $9.95. Parfums de Coeur has copied the Obsession cologne, $42,50 an ounce, for $3.95. Its called Confess. But you only get one third of an ounce. The company’s advertising shtick is “designer quality fragrance, not designer prices.” 

Pretenders usually are found in drugstores or supermarkets, not major department stores or specialty stores. Some are available only be mail order. Parfums de Coeur also has a Halston copy called Hampton; the Poison copy is Turmoil; and Raw Silk is the imitation of White Linen. The Polo fake is called Lancer, and Apollo is the copy of Aramis, both for men. 

Michelle Galardi, heads the 8 years old Michelle International , which specializes in knockoffs. Believes numbers are much easier than names and make it less likely she would be called up for deceptive advertising. She doesn’t do colognes, just perfumes. “That’s why we put the stickers on our boxes, which say “If you like such-and such, try our number so and so”. When I started in this business, everything was so underground and so secretive, I felt like I was dealing drugs. Now I pretty much know how far you can go legally. We aren’t out to trick the consumer” she says, “Is started this company when, quite,  by accident, I was chatting with a man at a party who turned out to be the chief perfume chemist at Coty. We started talking about formulas and how easy they were to copy, and  found myself in a business. 

The last two years I have seen much more competition. More and more are getting into it. I am proud we’re doing copies. “ She says he company has copies of 60 fragrances and 14 of them are men’s colognes. Galardi says her perfumes last eight hours, comparable to the originals, although it can vacuity individual chemistry. There are 400 natural scents and 4000 synthetic ones that can be intermingled in any combination to create a fragrance, ’Bottles are a major expense in this business.” says Galardi, “mine happen to be European, but they are getting harder and harder to get from France. Empty, they cost me $1 each. An empty box costs me 40 cents..” he says her No. 60, her copy of Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion has been the big seller recently. E does not copy the packaging or use the actresses name, avoiding any legal conflict. “Women over 40 identify with Liz”, she says.  Her idol is Estee Lauder and her company as interpretations of Lauder’s Aramis, White Linen, Youth Dew, Estee and Beautiful. Most of the fragrances sell for just under $10.

1988, the Los Angeles Times reported that,

"Industry spokesmen were unwilling to guess at just how deeply fake perfumes are cutting into the $4-billion annual sales of perfumes, colognes and toilet waters. But they agree that sophisticated imitation products-which mimic expensive perfumes such as those created by Giorgio, Chanel, Christian Dior or Jean Patou, right down to the bottle and package-can wreak havoc on an industry in which competition is based on very subtle selling points. 

"On closer examination, the counterfeit merchandise looks cheap, and it is," said [William Spence] of Chanel. Printing on counterfeit Chanel products is usually of low quality, he said. The piping on the box is often out of alignment. The logo is printed badly. And "if the carton is opened and the bottle examined, the quality of the glass is poor." 

Quality perfumes contain many natural ingredients, but counterfeit products contain only synthetic ingredients, said a spokesperson for Giorgio of Beverly Hills. A sophisticated buyer can easily discern the nuances of fragrance in a "juice," she said. "But you have to be familiar with the original product to be able to tell the difference."

1989, The San Jose Mercury News reported that

"Two men, including one from Milpitas were charged Friday with conspiring to make and sell thousands of bottles of counterfeit perfume."

1989 article:

"When customs officials do seize a product, it is sent to the manufacturer to be verified as a fake. The perfume is chemically analyzed at the customs laboratory."

1990s:

1990, The Lodi-News Sentinel ran this article:

"Investigators have uncovered two of the last three illegal laboratories turning out fake perfumes that transformed the island republic of Singapore into a major world center for counterfeit scent, said officials. Private investigators and the security chiefs of top perfume houses carted away 25,000 bottles worth $1 million if sold as the legitimate items. “We think we’ve put out of business two of the last three big operators in the perfume counterfeiting business here“,  said Jean Louis Faure, director of security for Yves Saint Laurent. 

Al Vetter, corporate director of security at Giorgio, which is made in the USA, said the remaining counterfeiter was known but has not been tracked down. “Counterfeiting peaked in 1988, earning the city-state the reputation of being the major center for fake perfume“, Faure said. Before a series of raids started crippling many major producers, 800,000 bottles were exported from Singapore annually. 

Responding to pressure from the USA, Singapore tightened its copyright laws in 1987. This was an attempt to end its unsavory reputation as one of the hubs of counterfeit goods ranging from computer software, to clothing, books, watches, perfumes, and music and video recordings. US officials complained that the copying, often called piracy, cost legitimate producers hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost revenue."

-1991, The Record reported that

"An anonymous tip led undercover investigators to a warehouse where they found 100000 bottles of fake Calvin Klein Eternity perfume worth about $5 million."

-1992 article in the Miami Herald reported that

"Perfumania stock fell again Thursday after the company revealed it may have purchased fake perfume. Perfumania, the Miami perfume retailer and wholesaler, announced this week that it is investigating allegations that it may have bought $3.5 million of counterfeit fragrances. The company buys some of its perfume on the "gray market,"a network of domestic and offshore wholesalers who deal in off-brand and brand-name fragrances. A New York perfume company, Cosmair Inc., which licenses Drakkar Noir and others is seeking damages against Perfumania for allegedly selling fake perfume."

-1999, The Sunday Mercury reported that

"Tourists fall foul of the fake fragrance rip off. Fragrance makers estimate fake perfumes are costing them close to pounds 1 billion a year. The scourge is rampant across Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey."

-1999, The BBC News ran this article:

"UK shoppers mourning the loss of duty-free have been warned about buying cheap fake goods.  Customs and trading standards officers say the end of duty-free means tourists and bargain-hunters could look for cheap alcohol and perfume elsewhere. The Anti-Counterfeiting Group estimates that the trade in fake goods such as cosmetics, perfume and trainers is worth £8bn a year in the UK alone, and £60bn across Europe. 

The problem was highlighted with the break-up last month of a Liverpool gang that had imported up to 1.5m fake perfume bottles, worth about £5m. They were filled with essence from Germany and labelled as brands by Chanel, Armani, Dior and Estee Lauder. The gang planned to sell them at £12 each."

2000s:

2010, The Record reported that

"Investigators shut down an online business that sold counterfeit fragrances as the real thing, the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department said. Detectives arrested a Haledon couple allegedly using the Web site 69rocks.com to sell phony fragrances advertised as designer scents by Vera Wang, among several others, police said. 

Maria Sevilla, 21, and Giancarlo Ovalle, 28, were arrested Thursday night at Ovalle’s apartment on criminal simulation, theft and conspiracy charges and are being held in Passaic County jail on $10,000 bail. Investigators confiscated a large quantity of counterfeit fragrances and $64,500 in cash from sales through the Web site. 

Sevilla and Ovalle, who is her boyfriend, are also facing deportation because they were in the country illegally, the Sheriff’s Department said. Coty Fragrance Company told investigators that the Web site was claiming to sell some of the company’s perfumes. The Sheriff’s Department Internet Crime Task Force and the company bought several counterfeit fragrances from the Web site during a six-month investigation into the alleged scam, authorities said. It is unclear how long the couple was operating the business."