Ferrari program asks customers to rat out counterfeit cars, t-shirts and hats

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN

(CNN) — Classic Ferraris can be among the most valuable cars in the world with some selling for tens of millions of dollars. That value also means it’s a ripe market for counterfeits. Ferrari is so determined to maintain the authenticity of its cars, then, that it’s crushing potential fakes into cubes.

Ferrari hates couterfeits. Maybe even more than most companies.

“Given that Ferrari is one of the strongest luxury brands in the world, it is among the ‘Made in Italy’ companies that is most subject to counterfeiting and unauthorized use of its distinctive signs in general, not only in the automotive sector but also in fashion and merchandising,” a Ferrari spokesperson wrote in an email to CNN.

To stop these kinds of fakes from depleting the brand’s value, Ferrari has launched a program enlisting the help of Ferrari owners and fans – Ferraristi, as they’re called by the company and its followers – to help spot fakes of all sorts from cars to golf carts to Ferrari-branded kitchen appliances. (Seriously, Ferrari claims to have spotted a knock-off Ferrari-branded refrigerator.

“We have received over a thousand notifications since we started the project and have thus been able to take action against a number of businesses selling counterfeit products,” said the spokesperson.

No specifics were shared on the companies or products Ferrari has looked into or destroyed.

Potential tattle-tales can share tips on possible faux Ferrari goods on a web page Ferrari created just for the purpose. In exchange for viable tips, potential tattle-tales are being offered an undefined “complementary Ferrari gadget.” Ferrari has offered no hint as to what the gift might be but, presumably, it’s worth more than the same gadget without a Ferrari logo. That’s the whole point of all this.

How to fake a car

While creating fake merchandise can be a simple matter of placing an unlicensed Ferrari prancing horse logo on a product, producing a believable fake Ferrari car can be much more involved.

Cases of outright collector car fraud – in which someone attempts to pass off a fake as a highly collectible automobile – are rare, said Brian Rabold, vice president of automotive intelligence at the collector car insurer Hagerty. But it’s not unheard of.

“Given the value of these cars, there is often enough of a financial incentive to tempt unethical people to try to misrepresent or fake a car,” Rabold said. “If criminals will forge a Matisse, they’ll try with one of Enzo (Ferrari)’s creations as well.”

It would be tough, though, since anyone with the means and connections to even be in the market for such a car would be the very sort of person best equipped to spot a fake.

“Generally, the Ferrari collector tends to have a considerable knowledge over the brand as a whole and its cars, especially the most valuable ones,” said the spokesperson. “In addition, collectors tend to know who owns the rarest models and therefore it would be highly unlikely that, for example, someone with a replica 250 GTO (just 36 cars were built in period) would be able to pass it off as an original car.”

Far more numerous than outright fake Ferrari cars are replicas that, while looking like Ferraris, are not presented to people as the real thing. Ferrari takes exception to those, too, and has sued companies for making or presenting them, although not always successfully.

As an example of the fate that awaits any fake Ferrari automobiles the company can find, Ferrari published a photo of a red car squished into a crinkled metal cube. In that case, the car wasn’t part of any criminal scheme, however. It had been a fake 1957 Ferrari built, with the company’s permission, for the 2023 Michael Mann film, “Ferrari.” “As part of an agreement between the filmmakers and the Italian automaker, all the prop cars were destroyed once filming was completed in order to keep them from ever entering the collector car market.

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