手机应用程序帮助打击肯尼亚造假者

AS IT IS 2015-09-28 Phone Apps Help Stop Counterfeiters in Kenya 手机应用程序帮助打击肯尼亚造假者

Counterfeit¹ goods, or false versions of products, may cost the government of Kenya as much as $1 billion each year. The fake goods also hurt business owners who find it hard to keep customers. But information technology is being used to try to stop the problem.

Jemima Mwafigu is a 34-year-old businesswoman who sells products like perfume and cologne. But in the first year of running her business, she found it hard to keep customers because of counterfeit goods.

Ms. Mwafigu says her business has improved since she began using a smartphone application called Barcode Scanner. The app is used to authenticate² products. It checks to make sure the products are not counterfeit.

"With this application I'm able to scan the bar codes of each perfume and instantly I get the manufacture date, the [expiration] date and I'm able to know the authenticity,” she says. “That way, I have confidence in selling to my customers."

In 2010, Kenya created the Anti-Counterfeit Agency, or ACA, to fight against illegal trade. The ACA has successfully asked government officials for stronger punishments for counterfeiters.

Agnes Karingu is the agency’s acting³ deputy director for research and awareness⁴. She says the ACA is trying to stay one step ahead of those making fake goods.

"We are also looking into IT solutions where we can be able to use SMS programs, bar codes and information sharing,” she says. “The end users of the products can actually be able to get the authentication⁵ information, and this information comes back to ACA and intellectual property rights holders⁶."

The agency is testing another program called Allvirtuous. The application is another way to find out if a product is real or not by scanning its barcode. The barcode information is sent to a database. Then a result is sent back to the app.

The International Chamber⁷ of Commerce is a global business organization. It says the value of counterfeit goods produced around the world is expected to be more than $1.7 trillion this year.

For business owners in Kenya like Ms. Mwafigu, the new apps will help them know if their products are the real thing.

Words in This Story

barcode – n. a group of thick and thin lines that is placed on a product so that a computer can get the price of the product and other information about it

counterfeit – n. something that is made to look like an exact copy of something else in order to trick people

scan – v. to use a special machine to read or copy something, such as a photograph or a page of text into a computer

1 counterfeit   

vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的

参考例句：

• It is a crime to counterfeit money.伪造货币是犯罪行为。
• The painting looked old but was a recent counterfeit.这幅画看上去年代久远，实际是最近的一幅赝品。

2 authenticate   

vt.证明…为真，鉴定

参考例句：

• We would have to authenticate your relationship with the boy.我们必须证实一下您和那个孩子的关系。
• An expert was needed to authenticate the original Van Gogh painting from his imitation.这幅画是凡·高的真迹还是赝品,需由专家来鉴定。

3 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

4 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

5 authentication   

鉴定，认证

参考例句：

• Computer security technology includes mainly:Authentication,Encryption,Access Control,Auditing and so on.计算机网络安全技术主要有: 认证授权、数据加密、访问控制、安全审计等。

6 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

7 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。