Who is the Fake Birkin Slayer? The Anonymous Account Exposing Hermès Knock-offs

When it comes to the battle against contraband accessories, there’s a new sheriff in town. The luxury vigilante tells Harper’s Bazaar Arabia that putting an end to the criminal ring behind fakes is a driving force behind the account’s work, a mission for which its founders have received threats

Take a selfie with your new Birkin… nobody will notice it’s fake. WRONG.  The anonymous whistleblower with a keen eye for fakes and a vengeance against the criminal ring behind them, has taken to Instagram, screenshotting fake Hermès Birkin bags and calling out their owners for attempting to re-sell fakes. As the account’s fame rises, its founders say anonymity is also a way to protect them from enemies perpetuating this lucrative underground business.

“The work that we are doing should be the highlight and topic of discussion. Also: safety. The counterfeit market is a criminal enterprise. We receive threats,” The Fake Birkin Slayer told Harper’s Bazaar Arabia.

At first blush, it’s easy to mistake The Fake Birkin Slayer’s mission as frivolously aimed at protecting the interest of corporate luxury goods, until one digs a little deeper.

Since the Slayer’s appearance peaked after the start of the year, the Instagram page has amassed 140,000 followers. We caught up with the “influencer” via Instagram and email. What was most apparent was the slayer’s disdain for the criminal forces, the human trafficking and child labor  behind the production and sale of contraband Hermès bags.

Things culminated in February when the Fake Birkin Slayer brought TikToker @BirkinTrash to the fore for attempting to re-sell several fake Birkin bags. Alex Pardoe, the man behind the account, amassed 212,000 followers on TikTok mainly due to his penchant for Birkin bags. In a separate social media row, The Fake Birkin Slayer work was celebrated by The Real Housewives of Dallas’ Dr. Tiffany Moon who commended The Fake Birkin Slayer for doing “God’s Work” after The Real Housewives of Miami Marysol Patton alleged Moon was the one running the account, an assertion Moon denied.

“We are hoping to see those we have posted with counterfeit bags share stories and posts that empathize the victims who are a product of this black market,” The Fake Birkin Slayer shares in a screenshot, a response first issued to followers, adding that it’s “a bigger flex” to donate to charities and orphanages that have a positive influence.

According to info provided by the account, there is not one person, but a team behind their mission, involving “slayers” from around the world who send tips and inside information, in some cases providing proof of individual’s purchase from a counterfeiter. The team and at least 10 eyes review each post carefully prior to posting.  All members of the team own Birkins and Kellys purchased directly from a Hermès boutique, the account confirms.

“We are able to identify the fake bags that we have posted on @thefakebirkinslayer by looking at certain details,” the Fake Birkin Slayer told Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, without identifying what those specific details are.

The link in The Fake Birkin Slayer’s bio leads to a TED talk by counterfeit investigator Alastair Gray entitled “How fake handbags fund terrorism and organized crime.”

“What the tourist on holiday doesn’t see about those fake handbags is that they may have been stitched together by a child that was trafficked away from her family,” Gray explains in the 2020 talk, adding that in addition to child trafficking, fakes likely fund the sort of terrorism that led to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015, when two terroris brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper in Paris.

Gray said that the counterfeiting underground economy is estimated to reach 2.3 trillion dollar underground economy.

In the interview, The Fake Birkin Slayer echoes this: “Counterfeits are a multi-billion-dollar market, run by criminal gangs who are selling worthless items.”

In the OECD’s last report on counterfeit and pirated goods published in 2019, the organization said that the market is estimated to constitute to 3.3 % of world trade. This amount does not include domestically produced and consumed counterfeit and pirated products, or pirated digital products being distributed via the Internet. The previous OECD-EUIPO study, which relied on the same methodology, estimated that up to 2.5 % of world trade was in counterfeit and pirated goods in 2013, equivalent to up to USD 461 billion.

Since the dawn of the energy crisis, companies have been raising their prices exponentially higher their actual costs, making luxury goods like Birkin bags inaccessible to high ticket consumers. Another caveat to owning a Birkin bag, is the rising demand and the intentionally low supply, for which in some cases, special agents are employed to procure such bags priced at a range between 15,000 AED to over 110,000 AED.

Last year, Hermès, the fabled French luxury goods maker said the prices of its bags and accessories worldwide would rise between 5% and 10% in January this year. This compares with an average increase of around 4% in 2022. At the time, it was reported that Hermès Chief Financial Officer Eric du Halgouet told reporters on a call that in previous years, the hike was typically about 2%.

With the luxury industry scratching their heads in a guessing game as to who The Fake Birkin Slayer actually is… a few similarities to Anonymous, the decentralized international hacktivist collective that came about in 2003, are striking. For starters, The Fake Birkin Slayers profile is characterized by a face disguised in a similar, yet mustache-less Guy Fawkes mask, an image made popular by the uprising started by the leader of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and in contemporary times, the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta.

Like the Anonymous members who call themselves Anons, The Fake Birkin Slayer also goes by the name Anon on its email account.  Any other questions this magazine issued, aimed at unveiling his/her/their identity, were swiftly met with a “no comment” and perhaps, rightfully so.

Follow @thefakebirkinslayer on Instagram.

Lead image courtesy of Getty Images (Christian Vierig)