Updated April 2020: I received a very lovely email from the owners of Retyche explaining their connection to Salem and how they are no longer working with him. Seems like Salem has been using their name to sell fakes so again, if you are shopping on Instagram, make sure you know exactly who you are purchasing from.
Updated April 2020 – Salem for the past year was working with Sharyn Scott and basically destroyed her reputation and also under the website, MyLuxuryCloset.com and while I am waiting on confirmation for the website, they have in the past sold blatant fakes so steer clear.
Updated February 2019 – Salem Moussallam is behind the companies SJ Lux and House Of Brand, still selling counterfeit bags and accessories so be forewarned in doing business with him, no matter what he tells you.
Last December I wrote a post warning you guys to not shop on Instagram. It was about Chicago Consignment owner, Allison Hess’s experience with a seller on Instagram. She was new to resale and trusted the seller stating that the three Chanel necklaces she was interested in purchasing were authentic. They even came with “certificates of authenticity”. She asked all the right questions, he has over 25 thousand followers and was excellent at customer service. She was devastated when she found all three necklaces to be fake and those certs? Fake. She reached out to the seller and was lambasted for even suggesting that the pieces were fake and he refused to refund her money. She had the pieces authenticated by a reputable company which confirmed her suspicions, all three were again, fake. She would not let him off the hook and while it took over a month going back and forth with him and Paypal, she finally did receive her refund.
Now, that story is not rare. People sell and people buy fake designer items everyday but this guy continues to do it and is screwing women out of thousands of dollars. Now that the legal team of Chanel is involved along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, I’m sharing what I know because I literally do not want to hear one more person in tears over purchasing a 3K bag only to find out it’s fake.
In my original post I did not name names as I didn’t feel it was appropriate and thought it may be was a one off kind of thing. I did give him the benefit of the doubt and I reached out to him for a his side of the story. His response is below. Fast forward to now and I have been contacted by SEVERAL woman accusing this person to be allegedly selling not only fake designer handbags, scarves and jewelry but also sending letters from a lawyer threatening to sue them if they even mention his name disparagingly online. Bullying does not work and when you have built your business around taking advantage of unsuspecting people, well then all bets are off.
I’m going to say “allegedly” because everyone is innocent until proven guilty but the women (over 10) that have reached out to me have all accusing Salem Moussallam aka Snobluxury, Remix, ShopRemix, sjlux.com, who is based out of Canada , of “allegedly” selling fake and real handbags off Instagram. He’s become an expert at this but all the women I have spoken to are fighting back and we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars.
This is how he “allegedly” operates. He claims to have a consignment store and I know a few years ago he did have a location under the Remix name in Canada. Because he is mixing fake and real, it’s very hard for people who aren’t that savvy with these designer pieces to tell which one is which. They see a guy who pretends to be your friend, has a ton of followers on Instagram (bought) and pressures you via text and phone calls when he is trying to sell the bag. The minute you question the authentication he turns on you accusing you of switching the bags, being stupid and not knowing anything and harassing you online. Now he has resorted to sending letters from his lawyer threatening to sue the person who purchased the fake bag for defamation of character if they say anything at all!
He also is known to “allegedly” remove the interior sticker from Chanel bags and wallets and place it in a fake bag but sell as if they were real. You can tell because the sticker is not fully attached and looks like it was placed there and not by Chanel. He also pushes people to pay via email or through Paypal’s Friends or Family option which leaves you zero recourse. I he also receives shipments from China and tries to resell those pieces as real. I have seen the posts on Instagram with photos taken from websites that only sell fake merchandise.
Fake, See the watermark and plastic wrap?
He also uses the authentication company Archive Authentication but unfortunately that too is a fraud. See the first post I wrote and look carefully at the photos of the jewelry.
The original piece sold to Allison Hess
What kills me is these women are just wanting to purchase a real designer handbag at a great price and he continues to (allegedly) sell fake handbags while claiming they are real.
This YSL Tassel bag was returned to SnobLuxury as being fake and he is reselling as real.
Fake Louis Vuitton Duffel
Melissa Knape is the owner of Meme’s Treasures which is a highly regarded authentication expert on Louis Vuitton
No words….
While I was compiling this post, two other women have come forward. One purchasing a Chanel and the other a Gucci. Both Fake. What I don’t like is that if you are duped into purchasing a fake bag from him, he forces you to sign documents that state that he is not admitting fault and that you cannot speak ill of him or his business or you will not receive your refund. I think that’s called extortion, right?
I have also noticed he no longer has any Chanel products on his Instagram of recent so I am assuming that their (Chanel) lawyers have reached out and scared the pants off him! Good.
Just a couple of warnings. He has several “interns” working for him and those people in my eyes are innocent. He uses several different aliases and has reached out to several people that sell for recreation to start selling for him. He’ll send you the photos and he’ll ship the bags. Uh, no thank you!
Bottom line is STOP SHOPPING OFF INSTAGRAM! Only do it if you know the company and never pay anyway other then credit card or Paypal (and not friends and family).
If you’ve been sold a fake designer item from Salem/SnobLuxury, please contact me. All conversations are held in privacy.
As this post went live, Salem scrambled which I found rather odd. If he is innocent, why would he be deleting photos and changing his business name? It looks like someone who is not a fan of his grabbed his SnobLuxury name on Instagram and posted rather telling photos of his business practices. The below posts all happened within a span of just a few hours and seems kind of frenetic.
Update 4: And, we’re back, sort of!
Update 3: Now he’s saying his Instagram account was hacked and is slandering him.
UPDATE 2: The latest name change: heroinstudioscanada
UPDATE: Salem/Snobluxury has changed the name to Carte Blanche www.shopcarteblanche.ca
We also warned all our followers about him on our story! We were happy to help get back 3 of our clients money back from him but we will keep continuing to warn others! Thank you for sharing this blog post
Today Retyche posted a story detailing a timeline of how they stopped collaborating with House of Brand in 2019. However, Salem has changed the name to Carteblanchecanada and is continuing to scam people. Best part is the exact same pictures of the same bags are on Retyche and Carteblanchecanada’s page as of July 2020. They must think we are stupid.
Umm then why has no one reported him ever?? Obviously he is selling fakes and has been for over a decade so it seems… why has no one reported him, set him up to have him arrested. This is all just talk unless you’ve been exposed and then with your 10 or so mentioned in the article go and report it. KISS.
It’s being handled and thanks for reading!
This a-hole sold me a fake LV Pochette Métis for $2700 when operating as HOUSE OF BRAND. I got my money back from credit card company as a charge back. He tried to argue with me but I ripped him a new one.. He had no leg to stand on once I refused to give him the bag back so he can scam someone else. He made up this elaborate story about how he deals with IG models that buy designer bags from the boutique to take one or two pics just to post and then sell them to him and that this fake was given to him by a client of his and how mad he was. Then he said it wasn’t a fake. Like he’s an idiot. Straight up. I got my money back in the end.
He’s still at it and literally one of the worst people I have ever run across. So sorry that this happened to you but happy you received your money back.
He got what was coming to him. So arrogant and cocky. Serves him right.
How does he sleep at night?!
We see his fakes every week in the course of our work, sadly, and assisted Allison with her Chanel pieces. He’s a piece of work! This is an excellent write-up, and great info!!
Kaleigh
Realitycheckauthentications.com
Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to have a conscience. I do hope people either wake up and stop shopping off Instagram or at least have larger ticketed items authenticated!