Come at me, ABRO. Nick Fountain/NPR hide caption

This episode originally ran in 2019.

Tim Demarais works for an American company called ABRO. The brand is a big deal in many foreign countries. They sell so much masking tape in places like Pakistan that when people there refer to a roll of masking tape, they'll often call it a roll of ABRO.

But back in 2002, ABRO's sales started to dip. Tim heard from a customer that counterfeit ABRO goods in China might be causing the problem. So, he flew over to investigate. What he discovered — the extent of the fraud — was shocking. And even more surprising, the company posing as ABRO insisted they were the real ABRO.

Today on the show, it's real ABRO vs. fake ABRO.

Music: "Up On These Sticks," "La Traicion" and "The Duchess."

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