A Taiwan reseller used 166 influencers to move NT$80M of fake sneakers

Fansi Technology (凡斯科技), a Taiwan reseller, imported counterfeit sneakers through unspecified mainland Chinese channels and sold them as genuine Nike, Adidas, Converse and Vans stock. Rather than sell directly, the company recruited 166 social media influencers to run time-limited group-buy promotions, telling both the influencers and their followers the shoes were authentic.

The scheme ran for roughly ten months, moving 23,594 recorded transactions and defrauding 401 buyers, before Taiwan prosecutors indicted the company in April 2025. Investigators seized 3,789 pairs of shoes, almost all of them counterfeit, and calculated the operation's illegal proceeds at NT$80.68 million.

The case became a rare public accounting of how far an influencer-driven resale operation can scale a counterfeit trade before regulators catch it — 166 separate accounts each vouching for the same fake stock, spread across group-buy posts that looked identical to a real sneaker retailer's marketing.