Fake Padron Millennium

So I met this scumbag at the TAA who was trying to seel "real" Sublimes and Padron Millenium to members of our club (he was promptly booted with a do not return stamp on his forehead). In any event, he was handing our samples of his wares and I snagged 1 of each. Here are photos of the fake Millennium and a real Millennium (go to Island of Cuba) to see the Sublime photos. So, which do you say is the fake, Left or Right?

God does these suck...I'll try to get better photos of the bands and wrappers, it's basically a blind guess based on these. Funny, they look better on my PC.

gotta be the one on the right, right?

Marito said:

God does these suck...I'll try to get better photos of the bands and wrappers, it's basically a blind guess based on these. Funny, they look better on my PC.

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Yeah, the photos aren't that great... hard to even see the band, but I'd guess the one on the right is the fake.... the size just doesn't look right, and the PMMs should be thinner than they are wide.

I'd LOVE to see a hires photo of 'em. Hell, send me one if you have a spare!

Thanks for the thread. And yes, those pictures make it impossible to say with any degree of confidence. I'm looking forward to the high-res photos.

Wilkey

I think the one on the right going strictly by size and shape, but dont quote me on that...its nearly impossible to tell without getting a high-res close-up of the label.

I have to go for the one on the right too. The 2 I have look like a slight box press was done which makes them seem to match the left hand one.

aren't all padrons pressed in a rectangular shape as apposed to a square like the one on the right?


*spelling

The one on the right is the fake. Youo can see the chocolate leaf in the real one on the left!!

-Fetter

fetterjohn said:

The one on the right is the fake. Youo can see the chocolate leaf in the real one on the left!!

-Fetter

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LOL !!

Quit it

I to will go with the one on the right, judging from the reference on this forum it does not look nearly dark enough and does not seem to be pressed in the same way as other high end Padrons I have had. Though I have never had the pleasure of actually smoking a millenium.

The right is Fake. Do the math.

yeah the one on the right is fake,the other one though has a nice little black swoosh in the middle of it, thats very padron and yeah the press is off.
i handle about 2 boxes (64's or 26's) a week and handle each cigar to tag it,
so if i could actaully HOLD the cigar :whistling:

i could tell you if it FEALT ??? like a padron but then again only one way to tell and that is to SMOKE it

Ironworker said:

fetterjohn said:

The one on the right is the fake.  Youo can see the chocolate leaf in the real one on the left!!

-Fetter

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LOL !!

Quit it

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oh no not this again.............lol
the right one looks like a Sancho Panza with a Padron band on it!

Marito said:

So I met this scumbag at the TAA who was trying to seel "real" Sublimes and Padron Millenium to members of our club (he was promptly booted with a do not return stamp on his forehead). In any event, he was handing our samples of his wares and I snagged 1 of each. Here are photos of the fake Millennium and a real Millennium (go to Island of Cuba) to see the Sublime photos. So, which do you say is the fake, Left or Right?

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The more I look at this post, the more pissed I get at the people who have the nerve to pass fakes, much less those who make them. This is a real insult to those who spend their hard earned cash to buy them and their even more hard earned time smoking them. :sign: :sign: :sign:

Wilkey

Ok...well since the photos suck so bad (sorry 'bout that, I will attempt to improve my photo skills for future threads), yes, the one on the right is the fake. A couple of points:

1) You couldn't tell this from the photos since I am a S#$@ photographer, but the band is actually real. I compared it very closely with a real band and it is spot on. I e-mailed the serial # to Jorge Padron and he verified it to be an actual Millennium serial number (as an aside here, Jorge was able to trace who purchased that humi of Millennium and is following up with said person to find out how the bands got into the hands of a scumbag). What struck me most when I handeled the fake was that the band slipped off like a loosely fitting collar. The bands on every Millennium I have ever seen are so tight to the stick they are almost impregnated into the wrapper leaf. Jorge believes the original owner or a subsequent purchaser of the real sticks carefully removed the bands, re-glued the tails, and slipped them on the fakes.

2) The length of the fake is off; it's too long by about 1/2 an inch.

3) The wrapper is WAY off. It's not a maduro (and as many of you know the naturals are VERY rare); it's very veiny, loaded with imperfections, and may not even be one leaf.

4) The ring is WAY off. This could be because the stick is not box pressed as many of you have noted. It alters between round and square the whole way down. This is perhaps the most ludicrous aspect of the fake; I have never seen any Padron (Millennium, Serie 1926, PAM/PAN, or line series that is not beautifully box pressed).

5) The inner leafs seen at the foot bear no resemblence to Padron inner leafs.

So there you have it. Hope it was fun. I'll try to improve photo skills and I'll update you all if Jorge gets back to me on the followup.

Excellent report on this Marito. I appreciate your bringing this to our attention. This has been a very useful and illuminating thread.

Wilkey

Great Job Booting that guy out Marito. A couple of weeks ago a guy tried to sell me a box of PAMs that "Padron forgot to put the second band on, and kinda mispressed the original". The sticks were way off, after the shock of the initial audacity I thought it was a pretty funny con.



Rat Bastid counterfitters

CYG

Marito was kind enough to send me one of the fake Padrón Millenniums... I took some pictures:

Close up / Angled -- (Real PMM on top, fake on the bottom) As Marito stated, the bands look real, but the size of the cigar is all wrong, as is the construction. It doesn't look like any of the Padrón Millennium Naturals I have either.

Hope you bust the bastard, Marito.

Nice pictures btw...You can even see how loose the band is on the fake. :whistling: Looking at it kinda reminds me of some Hoyo's.