Opinion

Commercial fraud and blowing in the ashes

April 26, 2018
Commercial fraud and
blowing in the ashes

Saeed Al-Suraihi

Okaz newspaper

ABOUT 17 government departments have shared a unified toll-free telephone number to protect the consumers who find themselves victims of the commercial fraud which has almost become a trade mark in a number of our markets.

The small shops in the popular districts and the shops in the mega markets all commit various kinds of commercial fraud which many supervisory bodies are trying to fight but in vain.

The efforts of these bodies have not led to anything despite the daily raids against the sale points and the warehouses.

The inspection tours often discover places where the international trade marks are being forged or where the fake goods and the expired products are redistributed.

The purchasing fever for which the citizens and expatriates are bracing before the advent of Ramadan represents a profitable season for the traders who are involved in fraud.

They will find the opportunity to get rid of their fake goods with expired validity.

The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has realized that its campaigns alone will not be enough to curb the fraud so it asked the citizens and expatriates to be more cautious when buying commodities for the fasting month.

It said many types of commercial fraud are committed before Ramadan including forging the international trade marks and selling the fake goods at whatever price.

If the supervision, the inspection, the confiscation of goods and the fines are not enough to deter the merchants who commit the crime of fraud, we should review the punishments against them with a view to making them harsher and more deterrent.

If the punishments which are currently being applied are deterrent, the commercial fraud would not have continued and the supervisory bodies would not have found that their efforts were not more than blowing in the ashes.

No shop or a market in our country is free of the artificial and fake goods.


April 26, 2018
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