Taiwanese police in Taichung busted a counterfeit luxury watch operation after spotting suspiciously cheap "IWC" watches for sale on Facebook — bad news for online bargain hunters, good news for brand owners.

• Officers noticed a Facebook seller offering IWC watches for a few thousand Taiwan dollars, then bought one and confirmed it was fake.
• The same seller was also pushing knockoff Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Chanel watches.
• A raid on the man's Taipei home turned up piles of empty watch boxes but no watches, far fewer than his sales posts suggested.
• He eventually admitted he had drained his rooftop water tank and hidden the watches and computer gear inside — over 100 fakes were seized, worth more than NT$90 million at genuine retail value.

Outlook: The suspect faces trademark law charges, and police are warning shoppers to treat brand-name goods priced far below market as counterfeits.