Criminals cash in on TikTok Labubu trend with dangerous fakes

At an anonymous industrial estate on the outskirts of London, a queue of police vans and empty lorries block the usual flow of lunchtime traffic.

They are here to seize fake Labubu dolls. Thousands of them.

After weeks of work, intelligence that started at a corner shop in south Wales has led Trading Standards officers to a labyrinth of rooms hidden above this retail outlet.

Inside, they estimate millions of pounds worth of fake products are piled up, floor to ceiling, but what interests them most are the fluffy, mischievous-looking dolls at the centre of a global TikTok craze.

According to Forbes, the popularity of Labubu dolls helped parent company Pop Mart more than double its total revenue to £1.33bn ($1.81bn) last year.

They are wanted by children and adults alike, with some telling us they queued for hours or travelled across the country just to secure an authentic one.

However, messages seen by BBC News also suggest scalpers may be buying hundreds of genuine products at a time to resell them at a profit, with authorities reporting a "flood" of counterfeits entering the market.

Border Force has seized hundreds of thousands from UK ports in the past few months, meanwhile officers at the London industrial estate believe the dolls grinning up at them from the crates hide a darker secret.

"The head comes off. The feet will pull off," explained Rhys Harries from Trading Standards, as one literally falls apart in his hands.

Mr Harries first saw dolls like this after raiding a corner shop almost 200 miles away in Swansea, before tracing them back here.

"I've found them in the bags where their eyes are coming off, their hands will come off."

Mr Harries' team use a plastic tube, shaped like a child's throat, to measure how dangerous objects are - if it fits, it is a choking hazard.

"These [parts] will all get stuck and then potentially cause choking," he said.

Mum-of-one Jade said she "100%" agreed the fakes were a choking hazard after some fell apart shortly after giving them to her son.

The 34-year-old from Caerphilly knew she had bought fakes - sometimes nicknamed Lafufus - for her son Harri's sixth birthday as she could not justify the cost of the authentic dolls.

But she felt "obliged to get him one" after all his friends got their own and found knock-offs for just over £10, compared to some genuine ones costing £80.

However, just a few hours into Harri's birthday, Jade said the keyring came off, followed by part of one of the feet a few days later.

When Harri was swinging his new toy the hook came off the keyring, only for Jade to spot it in his mouth.

She said "luckily" her son was old enough to tell her about his toy falling apart, but she warned things could be different for younger children.

According to the Intellectual Property Office, the rush by criminals to get fakes to market often results in dangerous materials being used.

"Counterfeiting is the second largest source of criminal income worldwide, second only to drug trafficking," said Kate Caffery, deputy director of intelligence and law enforcement.

"It's in the interests of these criminal organisations to respond quickly to trends to maximise it, to get on the back of it and make the most money that they possibly can.

"So that's why we see it happening so quickly and a complete disregard for safety concerns."

Ms Caffery dismissed claims these fakes were made in the same factories or using the same materials as the real thing as "absolutely not true", adding that they "could be made from anything".

These range from the inferior to the dangerous, including toxic plastics, chemicals, and small parts that aren't properly attached "that can then pose a chocking hazard".

Although fake Labubus are still relatively new to the market, investigators know from previous cases involving counterfeit toys that they can be made with banned chemicals, including some linked to cancers.

Authorities say most counterfeit products, including Labubus, can be traced to China, Hong Kong or Turkey and people are being warned to look out for "too good to be true" pricing or packaging that feels cheap and flimsy.

TikToker Meg Goldberger, 27, is no stranger to collecting in a market filled with fakes.

She has about 250 Jellycat plush toys, alongside her new collection of 12 Labubu dolls.

"The more people talked about it and the harder they became to get, the more I needed them. That's why I now have 12," she said.

However, pretty early into her search, Ms Goldberger said she realised the odds were stacked against her in her hunt for the real thing.

She said she spent about 12 hours over several days waiting for Pop Mart store's TikTok live video, where Labubus are released for sale at a set time, just like gig tickets.

"It used to be they sold out within like a minute. It's now like literally two seconds. You can't get your hands on them," she said.

Instead, she opted to find someone reselling them online, but also discovered why they may have been selling out so fast.

When she asked an eBay reseller for proof the Big Into Energy Labubu series she was interested in was genuine, Ms Goldberger was sent "a screenshot of what could have been like almost 200 orders of Labubus".

"These people will sit at home and somehow robots hack the websites and bulk buy them, which is why they go so quickly. Then they'll resell them."

Mr Harries said a selection of fake Labubus would be taken from London back to Swansea for use as evidence.

The rest will be stored as evidence at a secret location before being either recycled or destroyed.

"These were going everywhere," he said.

"There were invoice books with them and they were going all across the UK. It's a national issue."

Pop Mart has been asked to comment.