BEIJING, Feb. 25 -- Producers of fake vehicle emission stickers have temporarily gone underground as shanghai police step up efforts to seize bogus decals while pulling over cars that don't sport the real ones.

    Traffic police announced the seizure of two cars on Thursday with confirmed bogus emission decals, which are needed for drivers to use many of elevated roads in Shanghai.

    This was the first time traffic cops were confronted with counterfeit green decals since the rule for using emission stickers went into effect on February 15.

    Drivers have been given about a one-month period to apply for the emission sticker or ask for a test to see if their vehicles meet emission standards.

    Cars without the green decal are not allowed on elevated roads inside and on the Inner Ring Road since February 15.

    Surreptitiously, however, counterfeiters began selling the fake stickers on the same day the ban went into effect, according to a previous investigation by Shanghai Daily.

    However, with the police cracking the whip, it's becoming harder to get fake green decals now.

    A Shanghai Daily reporter yesterday contacted a female counterfeiter whom she met a week ago about buying one of her products. The answer she received was that the fake stickers were out of stock.

    "I have sold out all the stickers on hand. Now it's difficult to find a supply source. The suppliers have suspended production after seeing others being caught by police," the woman said by phone.

    The fake decal was priced at 200 yuan (US$24) to 300 yuan by the counterfeiters while the real one comes free from the police.

    One of the two cars seized on Thursday for using a fake sticker actually met emission standards, according to police.

    However, the owner of the jeep with a Zhejiang Province-registered plate, would have had to pay hundreds of yuan in overdue road maintenance fees before he could get the green sticker legally.

    And that - avoiding to pay road maintenance fee which costs about 150 yuan a month - seems to be the overwhelming reason why some drivers chose to buy a fake decal, risking breaking the rules. Most of the errant drivers are locals who register their vehicles out of town for a much cheaper car plate registration fee.

    In the second case, the driver had stuck a fake decal to his car that had failed emission standards.

    Police were still looking into the two cases to get more details such as the source of the fake stickers, according to Zhou Kai, an officer with the General Team of Traffic Police.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)