"what would you do?" don't forget, you can connect with us any time, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. don't go away. "20/20" starts right now. this is going to scare a lot of people. what are you really putting in your hair? >> announcer: on "20/20" -- "to catch a fake." putting your family at risk. could you spot a fake? this shampoo, this soap, and what's really inside these counterfeit viagra pills, or in this makeup? we test it. the ingredients will shock you. >> people have no idea they're putting real copper on their face. >> david muir on the hunt for the fakes. >> i'm on "20/20" and we're rolling right now. >> we're right there as they bust the sellers in three different cities at once. >> state police. come out with your hands up. >> you've been had! need a great job but don't have a great resume. >> i was lying to everyone. >> just buy one, an entire work

history. college degree, former employers. business websites. even fake followers on twitter. meet the robin hood who says he's helping, not hurting, the unemployed. >> you're lying and helping other people lie, no? >> the liar' club. plus, buying a fancy bottle of wine you thought was from a chateau? yeah, chateau kitchen sink. >> dishwater. >> we're hitting the bottle to catch the counterfeiter so you koent have sour grapes. tonight, we're out to catch a fake. >> dirty little business. >> here now david muir and elizabeth vargas. >> tonight a "20/20" exclusive. we take you inside the stealth teams out to bust the fakes in every corner of the country and we're not just talking about those handbags and fake rolexes, are refer day item notice medicine cabinet. you were there on the inside.

>> this is hurting everyone in the family, husbands, wives, children, all targeted with fakes. tonight we head to the lab, what's really in the counterfeit makeup? what is that that fake viagra? the ingredients will stun you. not to mention shampoo, soaps, what are you really putting on your face? you're about to see it all go down. >> reporter: in every corner of america tonight -- families getting their shopping lists ready for the weekend. and who isn't hunting for a steal? but tonight, you're about to see what happens when that real deal isn't the real thing. >> this was manufactured in china by a criminal organization. >> reporter: you're about to watch as "20/20" takes you on the inside. >> come down here so we can at least block this path here. >> reporter: we join the elite teams who bust the fakes. >> are we rolling? >> reporter: the people putting your family at risk. >> okay, that's the signal. >> let's go! >> reporter: three different cities, and you'll see the moment they're put on the spot right here. >> police. can you stand up? >> reporter: the product in your medicine cabinet that could be making your husband sick. the staple bought by women every day. and the ingredients that will stun you. and your babies -- did you buy

something that's putting them at risk every time you use it? and this was the headline that got us started -- >> a major bust tonight involving products. what was really inside those products? >> reporter: long island, new york just this year -- one of the biggest counterfeit busts on u.s. soil. authorities say two brothers selling products with names and labels we all know. look at this. the vicks vaporub. the chapstick. the baby oil. but all of those products customers were putting on their face were fake. and who knows what was in them? and get this. the products were being sold in stores across the country. from florida to new york to pennsylvania. and as you'll see tonight, investigators say that's just the start. we team up with the feds -- the international property rights center in washington, d.c. -- where inside we are given a firsthand look at products fooling american families every day. do you think americans would be shocked to know just how much of what they're buying is actually fake? >> i think most americans have no idea.

>> reporter: it's a dirty little business? >> it's a very, very lucrative business. >> reporter: director lev kubiak takes us into the room where they pulled out the fakes -- what they've seized from store shelves and internet sites across this country. >> so, all of these are everyday american products? >> everyday american products. >> reporter: perhaps you would expect luxury knockoffs -- the fake ugg boots next to the real ones. the beats headphones -- fakes too. but tonight here, we reveal the dangerous fakes. the ones right in your bathroom. the ones your family uses every day. coming from low wage factories all over the world, where they steal the labels and place them on their own products. >> these fakes are made in china. >> reporter: the shampoo. the bathroom soap. the razors. even the condoms. guaranteed to protect you. but in this case, investigators say they used substandard materials. and then a brand name we all know. but in this case, really head and shoulders above the rest? so, this shampoo is in showers across this country, but this isn't the real thing? >> it's not. >> what are you really putting in your hair?

>> heavy contaminants, heavy metals. >> so you could be putting metal contaminants into your hair without even knowing it? >> things that a legitimate company would never introduce. >> reporter: he says it's a mistake that can be toxic. that if you're shopping in a discount store, a dollar store, and you're getting a trusted brand name for far less you should ask yourself -- is this really the real thing? >> so, if you're paying a dollar for this when you normally pay a lot more, it should be a red flag? >> it should be a red flag. >> reporter: and look at this tonight -- also found in a discount store. an extension cord for a lot less. the same color. the same packaging. even the safety seal to seal the deal. >> they even put on this underwriter laboratory seal to make sure the public feels that it's been tested or there is some security there. >> the safety seal. >> the safety seal. >> reporter: but they're about to show us what happens even with that seal when a counterfeit cord is put to the test. investigators say the copper wire is so thin it can't even carry the electrical current coming from the living room wall. and he tells me it's not just what you buy for your home. it can be in your car, too.

if you've ever been given a great deal on a repair, driver beware. even the replacement airbag can be a fake. this is going to scare a lot of people. >> reporter: and watch what happens side by side. on the left, a real air bag, fully deploying. on the right, the fake airbag, disintegrating right into your face. bursting into pieces. nothing there to protect you. >> how do they know if they've got a fake airbag in their car? >> take it to an authorized dealer or a repair shop that you really trust and have them check it. >> reporter: tonight here -- with all of those fake goods pulling in $500 billion a year -- >> ready to rock. >> reporter: -- we're with the teams out to protect your family. we start with mom. and we head to a discount store, not unlike so many do across america. this one right here in the heart of new york city. and our team heads right in to buy mac cosmetics, a brand name you can trust. but we wanted to know what's really in that rainbow of colors. we buy it -- >> you got some great stuff here. >> -- and take it to the lab. the "20/20" test.

is this eye shadow pretty? or pretty dangerous? we're told we'll have to come back for the results. and tonight, we're also out to protect your husband with something else in the medicine cabinet. >> why would you let something like erectile dysfunction get in your way? >> reporter: that's right. authorities tell us viagra is one of the most counterfeit medication sold in america. but investigators ask -- in counterfeit bottles, what's really in some of those little blue pills? in fact, we've all heard the warnings in those commercials -- one line in particular. authorities say it's in there in part because of possible fake ingredients. too little or too much of something can lead to an unintended consequence. >> seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. >> reporter: and just like the makeup, we're about to learn tonight what's really in these little blue pills discovered by investigators. and while we wait for those results, investigators aren't standing down. we're given exclusive access right there with them in phoenix, in new york, in los angeles.

it's another hot day in l.a. and they're about to turn up the heat, trying to snuff out the fake-outs. l.a. county sheriff sgt. janice munson and her team getting ready -- >> this is going to be operation "wrong time." we're going after an individual who's selling rolex watches. >> reporter: in the room with them, we meet private investigator kris buckner, who hunts down the fakes and then turns them over to the l.a. sheriffs' department. >> well, that's kind of our job, we're on the ground, we identify the targets that are selling or making this stuff. >> reporter: first up, one of the most common fakes of all. but time's up for the fake rolex. and we listen in as they tell the team the signal to watch for when they catch their guy. >> as soon as the hat comes off, the hat is the sign that we have product. once the hat comes off and it's a go. questions? >> are we rolling? >> reporter: they're on the way. the cops arrive at the parking lot. unmarked suvs -- we're in one of them -- putting up the visor to keep our cameras out of view. that's the customer right there. he's actually working undercover -- waiting. now, will the seller show up? and right on cue, he pulls in.

everyone inside the cars, including us, now studying that cap. >> okay, that's the signal. >> let's go. >> reporter: the suspect under arrest. and the fake watches about to fetch him thousands could tonight fetch him jail time. the next stop, this parking garage. tucked in the back corner. fake bags that could fetch $150,000. we're right there, tonight, two more under arrest. when we come back here -- the results of our "20/20" test. what's really in that makeup? and you won't believe the ingredients revealed in those counterfeit little blue pills. and what happens when i go back to that store? >> i'm with "20/20" and we're rolling right now. >> reporter: to show them what we discovered in the lab? are you selling fake makeup? >> reporter: you're about to be

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>> reporter: this evening, all across america, the people pushing fake goods are getting ready to cash in on unsuspecting shoppers all weekend long. by next year, counterfeiting will become a trillion dollar industry worldwide. and "20/20" right there on the inside tonight with the investigators, out to catch the counterfeiters before they dupe you. 8:00 a.m in phoenix and they hand out pictures of their first target. this squad on the hunt for a man who they say is also selling fake makeup right out of this shoe repair shop. >> all right, let's go. >> reporter: even in the desert heat, we watch as the team puts on its full tactical gear, they stay undercover. they say, the best way to catch them. >> they're undercover, so they don't want everybody to see them. >> reporter: they wear the gear

because they never know what they're going to walk in on. >> phoenix police search warrant, come out with your hands up! phoenix police anybody in here let yourself be known! >> reporter: this man is charged with operating an illegal enterprise and fraud. >> he's just displaying this like this because he doesn't think it's enforced. his mistake is he's in phoenix. >> reporter: we listen to the brand names. >> so we have michael kors, and chanel. >> reporter: and we noticed the makeup case, it looks like it's right out of a department store. >> in this counter what we're looking at is counterfeit makeup. and this is a true health and safety issue. >> reporter: and remember, "20/20" found the same thing back east, that makeup our team bought in new york. we took it to the lab. so cheap, we wondered was it too good to be true? and we compared it to the real thing. first, testing full price mac makeup, buying it at an authorized store, and here are the results. >> we're not seeing anything of concern in respect to metals. >> reporter: they told us it was perfectly safe. and we're about to get t results on the other mac makeup,

that great deal we bought elsewhere. dr. whitney bowe, a dermatologist, waiting inside for me, and she's about to take us through the results. so this is the mac that we tested? >> exactly. >> reporter: what did you find? we start with the lead. so the lead was at least five times higher than what you should be allowed? >> yes. it was an order of magnitude higher than where we should be. >> reporter: and then the copper. and think about this number. the fda limit on copper, 100 parts per million. in the makeup tested, more than 2,000 parts per million. so in this test there is so much copper that there is no question in your mind there is copper flowing through the bloodstream if you use this product. >> there is free copper flowing in the bloodstream, hurting kidneys and hurting the liver. it's frightening. >> reporter: people have no idea they are putting real copper on their face. >> they are putting real copper, >> reporter: but the most frightening discovery in that makeup, was the beryllium, a category 1 carcinogen. beryllium can be a cancer causer. >> beryllium is a known carcinogen. >> reporter: is this a wake-up call? >> this is a major wake-up call.

>> reporter: and tonight here, estee lauder, the company that owns mac, confirming to "20/20" that that product we bought in nyc and just had tested was indeed a counterfeit product, and not one of their own. and those results weren't the only ones that alarmed us. because phoenix investigators revealed to us what they have found in those counterfeit viagra pills. just listen. >> the pills were made out of road paint. the stuff you see on the roads. that's what gives it its coloration and talcum powder gave it its form. >> reporter: and just watch as they take us out on a new case. a man they say is promising a good night in the sack with those little blue pills. but he's about to spend his night behind bars. >> let's see what we've got here. >> jacob's moved in place to meet the target. >> reporter: just watch as the customer standing there working undercover buying from the man in the driver's seat. 40 counterfeit viagra pills for a hundred bucks. it would cost him 1700 at the drug store. after the deal, we watch as the

police helicopter followed the seller's moves and that alleged pill pusher is about to get pulled over. just a few hundred feet from his $600,000 home in scottsdale, arizona. >> aerial thank you very much for your assistance. >> reporter: "20/20" cameras rolling as they count the cash they found in his car. >> 1,000. 2,000, 3,000, 4,000? >> 4,200. >> reporter: the squad taking us inside, searching the house. >> phoenix police. anybody in there let yourself be known. search warrant. >> reporter: and here's what they showed us when they came out. >> we found all kinds of -- his inventory. and these are some of the different samples that are designed to look like levitra and viagra and cialis and apparently, there's a lady viagra which is news to me. >> reporter: the phoenix police department confiscating more than 7,000 counterfeit pills, a retail value of $150,000. "20/20" given eye-opening video.

investigators, working with pfizer, and just look at where their drugs are being counterfeited. factories in china, latin america. they say india, too. all of it shipped to america. sold in low-end stores, on the street, from people's homes. and there's someplace else. so, viagra, people are buying this online? >> yeah, we've seen a real explosion online. >> reporter: they take us into their operations room where they track fake websites. and look at this. side by side, the drugs. can you tell which bottle of viagara is real, which is fake? and it's not just adults in danger. it's parents and their children too. babies. look at these two websites side by side for the popular baby carrier by ergo. but this one is a complete fake. side by side, i thought this was the real one. >> we get that reaction a lot. >> reporter: parents are falling for it. those ergo baby carriers, designed in america, but the idea stolen everywhere. with no guarantee that there's anyone checking the safety of those fakes.

so where do they make the fake? >> these fakes are made in china. >> reporter: so what's the best way to tell if your baby carrier is real? if the viagara you're buying will have the intended effect, and if that make up is made up? >> look at the manufacturer's website, take a look at where these companies say their products are distributed. >> reporter: and there is one last stop for "20/20," back to where our shopping began. armed with the results of that make up test, we're headed back to that new york city store where one of our producers bought that make up three weeks ago. testing positive for lead, for copper, and for that carcinogen beryllium. how would they explain the results? i'm with 20/20 and we're rolling right now. is this supposed to be real? >> i don't know. >> reporter: are you selling fake makeup? >> i don't have any idea. >> reporter: but all this makeup is real?

we ask her, does she remember selling the so-called mac product to us? we were rolling three weeks ago when we sent our producer in. do you remember working with her? >> i don't know. >> reporter: do you remember her face? >> i bought this from you, remember? >> reporter: and how does she explain the test results? but look at the test results. lead copper, beryllium. these are cancer causing agents. >> oh. >> reporter: and we reveal to her what estee lauder, the maker of mac, told us about that case of eye shadow. and mac told us this is not the real thing. they told us they've never even sold eye shadow in a box like this. >> i don't know. i don't have any idea. can i see the paper? oh, yeah. >> reporter: when you see these test results, do you feel badly? >> yes, of course. >> reporter: you feel badly about it? >> yes, of course i feel badly. if the -- >> reporter: but what will you do to stop it? >> it's not good. >> reporter: we repeatedly asked to talk to her manager, to the boss. but for two days now "20/20" has been calling, and we've been told he's out sick. but we did notice that on that shelf, three weeks ago full of that makeup labeled mac, all of it gone tonight.

remember at home, check manufacturer's websites to find out where they sell the real thing. we ask you tonight? have you ever been duped? tweet us, using #abc2020. >> have you worked hard for every job, every promotion you've ever had? what about the people fake it with their resume? getting your promotion instead? >> those fake resumes, busted, next. >> announcer: next -- is everything on your resume 100% true? meet the guy who doesn't just pad your resume, he reinvents it. next.

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in a tough job market like this people will do almost anything to get a job. but faking an entire resume and work history? complete with our own website and phony twitter followers? that's the big new job market whose slogan might as well be, no credentials, no problem. here's deborah roberts. >> reporter: andrea stanfield was living the dream in tampa, florida. a six-figure paycheck, a big house, expensive clothes. >> we had a boat, jet skis, rolex watches, the whole nine yards. >> reporter: truthfully, life was great. except for a small detail. it was all built on a lie. >> i got more and more anxious that i would be caught. i was just lying to everyone. >> reporter: her big lie began when she decided to apply for a stockbroker position. the job required a college degree, which andrea didn't have. so, she simply made up a business administration degree from akron university. she landed the job and quickly

moved from one big position to another. >> so, then you must've been emboldened after that? >> yeah, it was like they don't even care. >> reporter: andrea's career was soaring on phony credentials which apparently millions of us do. by some estimates half of all resumes contain a lie. these dpas it's an art form. need a college degree you? can buy it online, complete with transcri transcripts. how about 40 bucks for thousands of phony twitter followers? >> with the access to the internet applicants out there can easily create whatever resume they'd like. >> reporter: the alarming rise in faked credentials has led some companies to turn to private eyes like mario pecoraro to sniff out those phonies. most companies don't use p.i.

agencies like his but he's the gold standard for those who want to screen out the fakes. >> have you met someone yet who's been able to fake you out pretty well? >> not so far. there are a number of good fakes out there, and we make it our business to catch them every time. >> reporter: but if he's the big cat in the land of resume fakes, we've found the clever mouse. his name is william schmidt, a surfer-looking dude in columbus, ohio, riding the waves of desperate job seekers willing to pay for phony credentials. >> this is my global corporate headquarters. >> reporter: in his flip-flops and shorts, from his cramped sunroom, schmidt operates the crème de la creme of fake resume sites called careerexcusedotcom. for $125, he'll sell you a phony job history with a gleaming web page of your fake company complete with a phone number and address, just waiting to be googled by a prospective employer. >> you'll see that it is on google maps.

so again, it brings more realism to our virtual company. >> this is pretty clever. >> reporter: a factory worker, schmidt juggles his real job with his virtual one, helping scores of people who lost jobs during the recession and feel stigmatized after being out of work for so long. >> they're just totally desperate. they want to fill in a gap on their resume. >> what's your track record like? >> i would say half of my subscribers will get a job probably within 30 days. >> reporter: he says he's motivated by the high fives he gets from grateful clients who have been offered jobs and thank him for kwour service. but you're creating a site that really, is basically dishonest. >> it's like a poker player. a lot of times, he's going to have to bluff and that's what job seekers are needing to do nowadays to land a job. >> reporter: so, we decided to call his bluff. could a small town mouse slip past the claws of a big cat like

pecoraro? to find out we hit the job market, applying for actual positions at companies that work with pecoraro's firm, like a sales manager job at this beer distribution firm in saratoga springs, new york. our applicant, "20/20" staffer sarah lang, has zero experience in the alcohol industry. so, sarah jumps online with schmidt to fake up a job history. within two days, he comes up with this slick-looking website for the "oyster island brewery." it includes an address and phone number in case someone decides to check up on sarah. and he's added a position as marketing associate at the brewery to her resume. next, we raise the stakes and apply for a vice president of marketing and communications job at this i.t. company in clifton park, new york. our applicant, "20/20" producer

michael, who's clueless about marketing. so he goes online, paying $500 for an mba degree from the unaccredited "ashley university." then schmidt gives michael marketing experience, creating jobs at two fake companies one as product manager at "performa marketing" and a current job as marketing director at "altman research." and one last thing that couldn't hurt, michael springs for more than 2500 of those phony twitter followers. we submit both phony resumes through the companies' websites to see if they'll catch our fakes. schmidt boasts he's rarely been caught because few companies thoroughly check resumes and job references. >> they're very boilerplate. they question nothing. >> reporter: at the end of the day, you're lying. and you're helping people lie. >> but, you see, that moral question has to reside within the person who's subscribing to my services. >> reporter: which brings us back to our fake job applicants.

over 100 people applied to the two positions, the more promising resumes, including ours, landing here in front of pecoraro's investigators. they don't know who our ringers are, but they find plenty of other fakes, including a guy with a phony degree and another who lied about two of his past jobs. then they're on to us, beginning with michael's fake degree. >> one at ashley university, which we found to be a diploma mill. >> so, that one was pretty easy. >> reporter: but what about those elaborate websites schmidt created. >> pretty impressive website. >> with their sposedly real addresses, phone numbers and operators? >> the phone number associated with the website came back to a generic service, with no direct response. and we went one step further and identified the address of oyster island brewery to actually be a dunkin' donuts. >> so, much for that one. >> reporter: but we did manage to sneak one thing past pecararo

those 2500 phony twitter followers. >> wow, you smoked us out, huh? but we got you on the twitter followers. >> you got us on the twitter followers. >> reporter: so, what went wrong? we skyped with schmidt. we got caught. what happened? >> how many people really make the effort to check if every single company that people put on their resume is real? the majority, it doesn't happen. anyone who uses a fake reference service is taking a gamble. >> reporter: in the end, resume faker andrea stanfield says living a lie isn't worth it. her career and marriage are history after she came clean, fearing she'd be fired. today andrea is about to enter nursing school, determined to find a new career the old fashioned way earning it. >> i'm finally going to take the long road and i'm going to do the right thing and not have to lie about anything. so, that's gonna be fantastic. >> good for andrea for admitting

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>> most of us reserve a fancy bottle of wine for a special occasion and then there are those who really go are foyt, spending a fortune for the best wine they can find. what happens when that fancy wine has been whipped up in some guy's kitchen? here's brian ross. >> reporter: in a city that so

celebrates glitz over substance, the fakes can be hard to spot. a perfect place for this master faker, a young, debonair bon vivant from indonesia who, as these government photos showed, courted hollywood with his seemingly exquisite taste with his knowledge of the world's finest wines. his name is rudy kurniawan. >> he was generous and he had the juice. he wore hermes suits, very expensive watches. he drove a bugatti he had a house in bel air. living high on the hog and being the toast of the town. >> reporter: rudy was a regular at the top restaurants in los angeles and new york. >> he was a big, big partier. rudy picked up an $85,000 tab and he did that more than once. >> reporter: and soon rudy kurniawan's fame spread across the wine world. known in auction houses as someone with rare wines that no one else could find.

>> this is a 1961 latour a pomerol that was basically unseen in the market for about 30 years. >> reporter: maureen downey is a wine expert who helped to unmask rudy's many fakes. >> and all of a sudden, rudy kurniawan started mass producing them. and they were available kind of like crazy. >> reporter: snapped up, she says, as status symbols for the rich. >> you know, these bravado jackasses who, you know, my bottle's bigger than your bottle. >> reporter: what they did not know was that rudy's rare wine was not produced in some french chateau 50 years ago, but in this suburban los angeles home rudy shared with his ailing mother. >> i like to call it his counterfeiting house of horrors. >> reporter: in his kitchen, where he soaked the labels off french bottles, printed up new ones from the finest chateaus and then filled the bottles with a home-grown recipe of much less expensive wines that fooled millionaires and billionaires for a long time. >> he was an artist at this.

>> reporter: pete hellman helped break the story of rudy kurniawan in the magazine "wine spectator." and the fact that he made this wine in his kitchen must embarrass a lot of people? >> it does embarrass many people. it's humiliating. >> reporter: and it's not just the wealthy who are being embarrassed and tricked. it turns out the world seems to be awash in fake wines of all kinds and prices. just two weeks ago, authorities in italy seized a shipload of fake bottles destined for overseas supermarkets. police were tipped off by customers who reported a strange bitter taste. they discovered bottles filled with about $4 worth of low-quality chianti, that were labeled and meant to be sold as $40 bottles of italy's top red wines. by some estimates, as much as by some estimates, as much as one-fifth of the wine sold in the world, in restaurants and stores, is fake, not really what's on the label.

a consumer scandal that only began to be noticed in the wake of what rudy kurniawan was doing in his kitchen. >> i mean, i think that in the last decade, he's produced well over $100 million in rare and fine wine. >> reporter: and he had a good thing going until he crossed paths with the wrong billionaire. >> i'm brian ross, abc news. i'm here for bill koch. the man who lives in this oceanfront mansion in palm beach, one of america's wealthiest people. bill koch, who agreed to do something that few billionaires would ever consider, appear on "20/20," to admit he was a sucker, a sucker for fake wine. >> i bought a lot of them. >> you've called yourself a sucker. >> you're damn right. pigeon, a sucker, whatever they call the mark. >> reporter: koch, whose billionaire brothers are known for the money they spend on conservative politics, is himself known for the money he spends on his passions, including wine and art. there's hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of art in his living room alone. and not a single one of them a

fake, according to his experts. but downstairs in koch's elaborate wine cellar, it is a different story. laid out for us on this table just a few of the 400 to 500 bottles of fake wine that koch says he was tricked into buying by rudy and other fakers. >> this is a fake? >> that's a fake. here's another one, 1805. >> 1805? >> yeah, and that's fake. >> so when you bought an 1805 you thought, "i'm really buying a piece of history?" >> that's right, exactly. instead i was buying, i don't know, moose piss. i've spent close to $5 million and it's all fake. >> reporter: koch was blissfully ignorant that he was a sucker, until he discovered these four bottles that supposedly came from the collection of thomas jefferson, but he says were produced by yet another a faker in germany. >> paid over $100,000 per bottle. >> $100,000 per bottle? >> per bottle. >> reporter: so koch has gone on

the offensive in a very public campaign against wine fakes. he went to the fbi and agreed to testify in court against rudy kurniawan and then launched a series of expensive lawsuits. >> are you spending more than you lost? >> damn right i am. i've spent over $25 million to date. i cannot stand to be cheated. i want someone to know they sell me a fake, man, i'm coming after them no matter how much it costs. >> reporter: as koch admits, it's hard to have much sympathy for a man of great wealth to be parted from his money by a crafty faker. but, as we saw, it is almost enough to make a billionaire cry. can any wine be worth $25,000, $100,000 a bottle? from your point of view is the taste that much better? >> you know, a normal person says, "hell, no, it isn't," but for me, the art, craftsmanship. excuse me. >> you care about this?

>> oh, yeah. that goes into it, is worth that. >> reporter: and as for rudy, the bon vivant convicted as what prosecutors called the most successful wine fake in the world, a federal judge in new york will sentence him next month, and bill koch plans to be there. when we return -- can't carry a tune? ♪ you coming home with me >> announcer: don't worry with a few technotricks of the trade, you can. ♪ you coming home with me >> announcer: just like these superstars in concert. how does pink get everything right without having to phone it in? >> you shouldn't have to sing in this position, nobody should. >> next.

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to catch a fake continues, with fake music. here's nick watt.

>> reporter: is it too late to back out of this entire thing? i am one of the worst singers on this planet. >> that feel good? >> reporter: no. that's not false modesty. listen. ♪ coming home with me-e-e you are so full of it. tonight this grammy nominated mix engineer -- >> that was great! >> reporter: -- who's worked with the likes of nicki minaj and rihanna will attempt to turn my tuneless warbling -- ♪ i don't mean to come on strong ♪ >> reporter: -- into a saleable record, faking it with his computer. >> we use autotune, melodyne, eqs, compression, doublers, reverb, delays, um -- that's the majority of the tools we use to do the heavy lifting. >> reporter: we're taking you on a journey into the murky world of what some consider fake singing. a world where kanye west's voice

is manipulated and justin bieber vomits on stage, while miraculously his voice continues on. hmm. what's going on here? >> now, with the technology that we have, you can be a singer without really singing. >> reporter: like these viral seenations. selena gomez, oops a daisy, falls off stage but her singing doesn't miss a beat. miley cyrus smooches katy perry, hang on -- how can she sing at the same time? if you decide to be a singer, you should be able to sing the songs that you're known for recording. here's shakira, a little out of time at the last soccer world cup. it's either lip synching -- miming essentially -- or a little trick called a performance track. the instruments, the backing

vocals and pre-recorded lead vocals play in the background and -- >> so they're singing along with themselves, doubling themselves. it's kind of like karaoke in a way. >> reporter: live television events are a hotbed of such fakery. who can forget ashlee simpson's "saturday night live" lip synching debacle? her song played on without her. ♪ ten years ago, this was shocking. >> lip syncing was not something that the public really understood. it wasn't this ubiquitous term that it is now. >> reporter: now, it's everywhere. country, all about real, is trying to hold out. listen to this bold statement at the academy of country music awards this year. >> everybody in here tonight is ready to listen to some great, amazing, live music. >> reporter: but a little later, rascal flatts totally lip synced.

they later blamed sore throats. >> is it great to sing live whenever you can? absolutely, but it is physically impossible sometimes to do. >> reporter: not every big time singer would agree. >> no, i don't think it's cool to lip sync. i think the artist should [ bleep ] have some pipes and sing their records. >> i think everyone who lip syncs in public on stage when you pay like 75 quid to see them should be shot. it's gotten to the point where savvy fans, like, this post-britney crowd just assume their favorite stars aren't really singing. >> it is hard singing and dancing at the same time and especially the caliber of moves that she's doing so i think it's excusable to lip sync. >> shows have become so gargantuan in terms of production and dancing. how can you hold a note when you're twirling around in circles? >> reporter: so, obviously pink was lip syncing at "the grammys" this year, right? >> when she's swinging around. she's not actually singing. >> oh, she's totally singing. >> reporter: dreya weber is

pink's aerialist coach and choreographer. >> going from upside-down to laying back and up to standing, she's singing. >> reporter: pink has taken a stand. "i have never lip synched in my entire life. i'm 100% against it." >> reporter: taking that stand takes -- uh -- training like this. no one should have to sing from this position. i can't remember those words and pull myself up and spin around and not vomit all over the audience. hats off to pink. >> indeed. >> reporter: okay, so not all pop stars can sing like pink on stage. but can they at least sing in the studio? >> you're not creating pop stars out of tone deaf cheerleaders? >> no. that magic has to be there. you can't fake it. >> reporter: is studio trickery like autotune any worse than airbrushing fashion photos? or cgi in movies? i can't quite decide. >> we're pushing the boundaries of our creative freedom.

it is the lip gloss that we apply to just about every pop singer. ♪ i don't mean to come on strong ♪ >> reporter: all right, so back to my recording. if he can make me sound like neil diamond, then this technology has gone way too far. >> i've processed it as far as i can. >> here i am in the raw after just 20 minutes of his mysterious magic? ♪ need know if we're going steady or am i just one you keep around ♪ >> reporter: the truth is you still need just a modicum of talent to become a star. >> i implore you to go home and practice some more and come back and we'll do some more songs

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