An Orchestrated Counterfeit Attack During Ramadan

During Ramadan, my company has been the victim of an orchestrated attack. We’ve had issues with counterfeit products for years. A factory in China has been making a series of fake and dangerous versions of the My Salah Mat. During Ramadan, the peak season for Muslim companies, a new surge of these fake products has been unleashed.

So how did they do it, and why has it been so difficult for us to combat? They set up simple Shopify websites with a fake version of our product on it - but these are actually drop shippers, working with a company they’ve found on AliExpress or Drop Shipping sites. We suspect it may be commission-based, meaning they receive a portion of this.

This attack is their response to the anti-counterfeit measures we have put in place over the years. We’ve been deactivating any listings for counterfeit products we’ve found on Amazon, Ebay, Noon and other selling platforms. They have not had an opportunity to make sales in vast quantities, due to the fact that we’ve been deactivating them. 

They launched this attack at the perfect time. If they launched the websites too early, we would have noticed and reported them. So they chose to do it the week of sales, meaning our response was delayed. Another thing they’d done is use TikTok and Facebook ads to aggressively promote these fake products with videos and images stolen from our social media accounts. This is done to generate income and website traffic. 

So, over the course of Ramadan, we have deactivated over 30 Shopify websites. Some had the trademark present, others photoshopped it to cover them. Others would then reactivate them after deactivation. In short, this is a constant, ongoing battle. We report, get them deactivated, they relist and so on. I can’t express how frustrating and exhausting this is, trying to defend against these fakes while fasting, trying to pray and running a growing team of 9 members. 

One of the most disturbing things we found were two websites that made an almost-replica of our website. They had bought the domains www.mysalahmat.shop and www.mysalahmat.store.

The problem with this is that customers can’t tell the difference. They even use Google ads to advertise these fake websites. This has led to us getting a string of bad reviews from Customers, telling us that our product is defective - or, even worse - not receiving a product at all. This means these counterfeits are being used to scam people. 

What then followed was us having to find a way to combat them. We started by reporting them to Shopify, TikTok, Facebook and Google Ads. We created extensive information telling our followers and customers to be aware of these websites. We spent hours each day focusing on this, robbing us of time we could have to develop new, innovative products. 

It’s hard to express the extent of the damage this has done to my company and my mental health. The mental impact has been challenging. As director and CEO of the company, I am not only responsible for the jobs of my staff, but also for the safety of children who are being exposed to faulty products created in the name of my company. This has caused me mental exhaustion. I’m not able to focus on growing the company or developing new inventions, because I have to manage these constant attacks. It’s even stopped me from looking ahead, which is something I always do. 

Thankfully, we have made great progress in both mitigating the damage from this targeted attack, and safeguarding our company and customers from future issues regarding fakes. In March, my colleague and I discovered that there was a way to quickly remove fake listings from TikTok. Using the backend of TikTok’s reporting platform (the IPPC), we registered our IP and filled out a form. They responded quickly, and most of the time hear from TikTok within 48 hours with a notification that they’ve taken down the content. 

This was an attack on platforms we were not ready for. Last year we had problems with Amazon, now it’s under control. We are going to continue to report this criminal activity. Some of them might even be reading this post - but you can rest assured this is not something we will leave, or take lightly.
Here is some of what we will do to combat these fakes:

• Contact Shopify directly, to find a process that they have for organised criminal activity. (If anyone has any contacts please let us know). 
• We will continue to work with TikTok to take down videos and ads. 
• We will continue to report and delete listings on Amazon and other selling platforms.
• Issue cease and desist notices to those selling counterfeit products, and pursue further legal action if our warnings are not followed.

I want to stress that I didn’t start this company to make money - I started it to educate, support people, and to connect with Allah (SWT). It is for this reason I will never give up. My mission is not to become rich, but to leave a legacy, one that helps people to pass prayer on to their children, family, or friends.

The entire process of a counterfeiter is to make money, with no cares of who they harm. They may have the ability to generate traffic through fraudulent methods, but they will never be able to make innovative products for the Muslim community in the way we do at My Salah Mat.

If my mission isn’t to make money, but to create something greater - then there is no amount of counterfeiters that can stop me from doing this. Developing the product created many obstacles, and this is just another. My conviction to make products that help the Muslim community will continue no matter what.