Customer himself can verify genuineness:

SMS technology to combat fake products

Ruwanthi ABEYAKOON

A new system has been introduced to combat fake products entering the market through SMS technology, Country Head, Holographic Labels SDN BHD Malaysia, Jayampathy Arambepola told, ‘Daily News Business’.

“Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) will be protected through SMS technology in Sri Lanka and in South Asia for the first time. IPR is a major concern due to rising counterfeits around the world including in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Arambepola said with modern Holographic methodology and with advanced technology in telecommunication, fake products can be reduced and brands can be protected from fakes.

He added that a SMS system was installed with Dialog Telekom where the consumer could identify the genuine products from fakes.

“The biggest advantage is that the customer can verify the genuine product by scratching a sticker on the product and ‘SMSing’ the serial number on it to the short code 4656.

Immediately there would be a response stating whether it is genuine or fake. Hence verification becomes so easy and the consumer can ensure the product is not a counterfeit,” Arambepola said.

“In addition, getting rid of the fake educational certificates, birth certificates and other valuable certificates ‘is a must’.

Such important documents can be printed on security paper with the trust seals along with OVD ink identifications where the fakes could be identified easily. This will eliminate fake documents,” he explained.

Arambepola pointed out that Malaysia has already strengthened their first level of documents and Sri Lanka needs to commence at some stage to move forward.

Country Manager, Lalith de Silva added that if the same code number is SMSed again, the response would be negative.

“The unique numbers on the sticker of the phone will respond only once. Anyone copying the numbers or a reproduction will not work. The sticker once pasted cannot be removed,” he said.

De Silva added that the response from companies have been most positive as it a pro-active solution. “People are trying to avoid their brand names from being counterfeit as developing brand names are so expensive,” he said.