Knock-Offs Knocked Off

The fashionable and underpaid women of Boston (of whom Bostonist knows quite a few) were dealt a cruel blow yesterday, as a trio of Chelsea sisters (along with the boyfriend of one of them) was indicted in federal court for selling counterfeit designer handbags. In the pantheon of local criminal schemes, this is hardly the most newsworthy, but Bostonist is so amused by the grave warning issued to the public about counterfeit purses, we feel we must draw it to the attention of our beloved readers:

A federal official involved in the case told the Globe, "The public needs to know that when they buy a counterfeit purse at a house party or on the street, their dollars are ultimately helping to finance large-scale counterfeiting organizations, and every time they buy a knockoff purse, they are contributing to legitimate companies' losing billions of dollars in revenue to counterfeiting every year." Yeah . . . and? Bostonist knows counterfeiting is wrong and everything, and we understand that the feds have to go after criminals big and small, but damn it, if they really want us to get on board with the campaign, they need to work on their PR. Maybe if they told us that buying knock-offs helped terrorists, or at least that it made us look really gauche . . .