Do these Judaica artists know they are committing fraud???

Just went to one of the wealthiest families in the country to put up mezuzos. They spent thousands purchasing mezuzos from the finest galleries and boutique shops in Israel. As a traditional Orthodox family they asked and were assured everything was kosher.
I decided to do a quick inspection and, believe it or not, every single mezuzah but one was a paper print! Very unpleasant explaining to these nice people that they'd been comprehensively defrauded...

UPDATE
Since writing the above post, I emailed this link to some of the vendors, with an explanatory email as to why their selling counterfeit mezuzos, while possibly not a concern to them, is unacceptable and shocking to some of their clients. I have added some of their names in the labels below, so that people searching for their products may come across this post and be warned. Am I wasting my time? Who knows. But the more people they hear it from the better. At least two of these are very popular Judaica artists and if I see their cases with their trademark paper mezuzos on a regular basis, then certainly others across the globe are equally affected.

(The fact that in this case the victims of their fraud are well known and highly influential in the Jewish world may also help in getting  their attention.)

I remember some years ago having a similar dialogue with a popular Israeli Judaica chain. The outcome was positive. Today, they sell kosher Mezuzos. You can see the dialogue here:

http://www.stamforum.com/2011/12/do-you-think-this-email-will-acheive.html

If others have been exposed to this type of blatantly unacceptable activity, an email objecting to it is likely the best course of action. The more they hear about it, the more likely they will worry about it adversely affecting their reputation, and the more likely they will stop doing it...

Comments

  1. Unfortunately, the am-hooratzus of many sochrim, even some fromm ones is truly staggering. When I was trying to find where in the neighbourhood I could get new klafim, the business owner at the local seforim store (a Lakewood alumnus) didn't even know of Va'ad Mishmereth Sta"m! And when I was in Yerushalayim last summer, most of the sochrim in Me'ah She'arim had beautiful mezuzaus, but couldn't tell me who gave the hashgocho. Unfortunately, outside of the Orthodox world, most people seem to think that a "mezuzoh" is the case, rather than the klaf.

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