Twenty-nine secondary pupils have been arrested for selling counterfeit products on the internet in the first six months of this year, according to a senior Hong Kong customs official. The youngest was a 13-year-old schoolboy.

The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department told South China Moring Post that there has been a threefold rise in the number of secondary school pupils arrested for selling fake goods online in 2015.

Senior superintendent Louise Ho Pui-shan, head of Customs’ Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau, said many of those arrested were under the false impression they could not be traced or they had no criminal liability.

“They had the misguided belief that as long as they declared the goods as counterfeit products to buyers, there was no intent to defraud and hence they would not have any criminal liability,” she said.

“Some also had the misconception that it would be difficult to track their crime online.”

No matter whether the products were marked as counterfeits, she said anyone involved in selling fake goods was in breach of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance and the offence carries the maximum penalty of five years’ jail and a HK$500,000 fine.

Ho said investigation showed they bought the goods online or in mainland China and resold them through social networking platforms to make pocket money during their leisure time.

“It is possible that they also sold fake goods to their schoolmates,” she said.

She said there was no evidence to suggest that there was a syndicate behind them.

Customs officers also arrested 17 tertiary students for selling fake goods online in the first six months of this year. There were 14 tertiary students involved during the same period last year.

Hong Kong customs picked up a total of 112 people (including secondary pupils and tertiary students) and seized HK$1.2 million worth of fake products in 99 cases of online sales of goods infringing copyright in the first six months of this year.

A total of 103 people were caught and HK$1.5 million worth of counterfeit products confiscated in 91 cases in the same period of last year.

The seized items included sports shoes, jerseys, mobile phone accessories, earphones, handbags and watches.

In addition to a cyberpatrol to track them down, Ho said officers posing as buyers would be deployed to deal with such illegal activities.

She said Hong Kong customs would spare no effort to combat the online sale of infringing goods.