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A Far East Plaza shop owner has come forward to share how a man allegedly tried to sell him a fake Rolex watch for S$19,000.

@bruceleekohCustomer try to Sell me A Fake Rolex Batman for $19000 Claiming His Father bought brand new and lost the Certificate.I gave him a Warning he could be jail for 2 year.Cheers.♬ original sound - Three Crowns

63-year-old Edmund Koh, who goes by the TikTok handle @bruceleekoh, wrote on the platform that the man had claimed that his father bought a brand new Rolex GMT-Master II -- also known as the Batman -- but had lost the certificate.

The Rolex Batman was discontinued in 2019.

Koh, who runs Three Crowns Jewellery & Watch Pte Ltd, told AsiaOne that the watch looked "very real" but he "spotted something strange in the Rolex mini crown crest". He says he realised that it a knock-off when he opened the back case and saw a "fake machine with plastic support".

The shop owner called the watch a "first class fake" and which could only be discerned by the machine. He also dismissed speculation that the man was duped into believing that the watch was real, and that he "intentionally cook a story (sic)" to try to pass it off as the real deal.

Koh, who told AsiaOne that he used to be a police officer, "decided to give him a chance" and did not lodge a police report as he believed in giving the man a second chance. He has apparently encountered "about five" such incidents in the past two years.

A commenter shared that a watch shop near their home got scammed in a similar fashion, and that the owner had to close his shop as a result.

Under the Trade Marks Act, any person who sells or offers or exposes for sale any goods to which a registered trade mark is falsely applied shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 for each goods or thing to which the trade mark is falsely applied (but not exceeding in the aggregate $100,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both.

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Top photos from @bruceleekoh on TikTok.