Digenis.org

The L.A. Times had an article last week about the evolving state of piracy in Russia. Though it mentions the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade estimate that over 50% of all consumer goods in Russia are pirated and how intellectual property rights are the major obstacle to Russia’s entry into the WTO, the focus of the piece is on some of the more amusing recent manifestations of forgery:

Always wanted to brag to your friends about your trip to Brazil, but couldn’t afford to go? No problem!

For $500, nobody will believe you weren’t sunning yourself last week on Copacabana Beach, just before you trekked through the Amazon rain forest and slept in a thatched hut. Hey! That’s you, arms outstretched like Kate Winslet on the bow of the Titanic, on top of Corcovado!

Persey Tours was barely keeping the bill collectors at bay before it started offering fake vacations last year. Now it’s selling 15 a month — providing ersatz ticket stubs, hotel receipts, photos with clients’ images superimposed on famous landmarks, a few souvenirs for living room shelves.

If the customer is an errant husband who wants his wife to believe he’s on a fishing trip, Persey offers not just photos of him on the river, but a cellphone with a distant number, a lodge that if anyone calls will swear the husband is checked in but not available, and a few dead fish on ice.

It reminds me of the short story by Philip K. Dick, We Can Remember it For You Wholesale, in which a company would sell fake vacations complete with ticket stubs, manipulated photographs, souvenirs and implanted memories, all with the guarantee that you’ll never figure out it’s not real. It was later adapted into the screenplay for Total Recall.

The article also briefly mentions the sale of forged university diplomas and terms papers, which I’ve written about earlier here and also here.