this is "nightline." >> tonight, crooks cleaning up. with apparent counterfeit products, fake tide, downy and much more. when what you see isn't what you get. the big business crime on the rise. tonight we're with investigators checking in on dodgy derer the gent and putting it to the test. >> plus sequels like "indepdendence day: resurgence." are these global special effects enough to save a summer block buster? >> you were too young to see the original movie? >> to make the big screen box office sizzle again, turning back time, but where's will? >> wait until i get another

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good evening. thank you for joining us. you've heard of counterfeit couture, fake rolex, but what about alleged dirty dealings

with laundry detergents. abc's nick watt with the latest on the investigation. >> we need to be quick and thorough and hit them hard. >> california morning, officers. >> they're not after drugs, weapons, moon shine. oh, no. today the l.a. county sheriff's department is on the scent of dodgy detergent, and hidden among a reportedly stolen speedboat and coffee pots, buckets and buckets of apparently counterfeit tide. in the office fake labels for fake gain? >> do you think this might be the distribution center? >> it is. >> reporter: tide in five gallon buckets. why do we think it's fake? >> there's no such thing here. >> reporter: no such product? >> they don't make this. >> reporter: we don't sell tide

in five gallon buckets. it's sent of the lab to find out what it is if it ain't tide. >> the risks are quite large. we just don't know. you don't know where it came from. it would be like putting your family in a car that you had no idea who made it or where it came from. >> reporter: we'll follow that trail in a minute. counterfeiting, they say, is a nearly $500 billion a year business. hundreds and hundreds of labels. the past year alone procter & gamble has helped identify and close 50 factories, cranking out counterfeit goods. >> be safe. >> reporter: today the boys in blue now have a nearby address, one step closer, they hope, to the mr. big to another factory. >> when we find the source of this, we're going to find some kind of organized criminal organization. >> reporter: i'm riding with a veteran lieutenant, jeffrey deidric. >> my body is trashed.

i've had knee surgeries, broken this hand three times. >> reporter: from stuff on the job? >> yeah. >> reporter: he now has the l.a. county sheriff's counterfeit and piracy team. laundrydetergent. i don't get it. >> if we have cocaine, we're nervous. they're driving around van loads of this stuff every day like nothing. if you made as much money selling counterfeit tide as heroin, what would you choose? the tide. you're not going to do 40 years in prison. >> reporter: the math, investigators say does something like this. they buy the stuff for $5 a bucket and we found it for sale online for five times that. $35. within 20 miles of where i am, i'm being offered fake tide by one, two, three, four, four

different sellers. >> we started seeing this really escalate starting about a year ago. it's showing up all over the place, and the social media is the enabler. >> reporter: in places like texas, illinois, manhattan, where we found this ad offering samples and a free laundry bag with the purchase of six gallons. >> if the product comes in a five gallon bucket, that's a huge tipoff that the product is illegal counterfeit. we don't sell product in five gallon buckets to the public. >> reporter: they also don't sell downy or gain in gave gallon buckets. so this, this, and this, they way, must be fake. detergent seized in california has been analyzed here at procter & gamble's lab in cincinnati. >> it actually looks and smells kind ofdetergent. it had very high water content. >> reporter: make but effective. >> this is a chocolate pudding

tan. this is the same stain that gets washed in water. this was washed in the counterfeit detergent, and this was washed in the tide liquid. when you use the counterfeit deter jenlt, you can see that it's not that much different than just using water by itself. >> we're here to discuss the impact of counterfeits on consumer health and safety. >> reporter: a procter & gamble executive recently testified in front of congress. >> counterfeiting is consumer fraud. >> reporter: the company is fighting back, hunting down leads and handing their findings to law enforcement. >> we realized this was something that it was -- that we couldn't handle ourselves. but we were really concerned about what kind of fraud was happening here with our consumers. >> we get tips from the community. we get tips from private investigation firms. we get tips from citizens. in this situation the tip came from procter & gamble. >> reporter: what you're watching now is hidden camera

footage shot by a procter & gamble hired investigator at the warehouse in compton. that's the man they just arrested. sticking fake downy labels on buckets filled with apparently fake downy fabric softeners. they believe crooks are selling mostly online. >> with the explosion of social media, it's taken off and become a problem. >> reporter: and some people are selling it out knowing it's not the real deal. >> fundraiser for spain trip for my daughter. my son's baseball team is selling them. fundraiser for my day care. tide five gallon buckets. the actual brand, no generic, homemade stuff. they're claiming this is the real deal. it's not. >> there's one here for a student ministry. i mean, these are highly lucrative find raisers for these people, and when we have to tell them that they're selling fake product, it becomes a really

emotional situation for everybody involved. >> location, three, unit 97. >> reporter: back on the front line on the streets of l.a. >> there's a unique keeper here. remember, they are chasing down a lead, an address they picked up during the warehouse raid earlier. >> it's all cash. you always have the propensity for some kind of armed robbery or a robbery to steal the money and the person selling the product is going to have to defend it. >> here we are. there were a half or dozen or more simultaneous raids this morning, and at this house they found a lot of money. >> reporter: a suburban home, but out back counterfeit detergent and maybe 10$,000 in cash plus a firearm. the sheriff's department saying it's loot and laundry, a unique caper, indeed. i'm nick watt for "nightline" in los angeles. >> and next, pass the popcorn. can this resurgence of a summer

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it's the first week of summer. season of the super sequel. hollywood's hoping their block buster fire works lures younger crowds into theaters. but the plot thickens. >> reporter: hard to believe but it's been 20 years since the war of 1996. >> elvis has left the building. remember "independence day"?

>> oh, my god. >> reporter: now 20 years later, they're back. >> that is definitely bigger than the last one. >> reporter: better late than never, "indepdendence day: resurgence." >> earth is not for the taking. >> reporter: summer block buster as an unusual time capsule showing how much our world and the movie industry that has changed in 20 years. >> let me ask the awkward question first. that's where is will smith? how can you do this without him? >> reporter: will smith drove the original independence day to box office glory, the number one movie of 1996. >> welcome to earth. >> reporter: alas, he passed on the sequel. but the director brought back plenty of others. >> what goes up must come down. >> reporter: your character. you started as the cable guy and now you're in charge of the earth defense system. >> that's like failing upwards.

>> reporter: bill pull maman, remember that speech? >> today we celebrate our independence day. >> reporter: bear in mind, that was during the clinton administration. back when the idea of an attack on new york or d.c. was hollywood fantasy. five years later, president bush gave his bull horn speech at ground zero. >> it was like kind of totally stealing -- >> reporter: he's hoping this movie is good too. >> pretty clear with the film says who i would vote for. it's a female president. that says it all. >> reporter: viv ka fox is back. and vo is jed. >> he has not edge aged a day. >> no. we made him a little bit old in the first one. >> reporter: back in 1996 the

one star who is now trying to fill will smith's shoes saving the planet, you know recognize liam hemsworth. >> you were too young to see the original movie? >> i was six when the first film came out. i didn't watch it until it was on videotape. at the time my parents didn't want oh me to watch it. >> do you think your parents will allow you to watch this one? >> hopefully my parents allow me to watch this one. >> reporter: his co-stars seem to enjoy giving hemsworth a hard time about being so young and studly. >> that head of hair. a high thread count. >> you could make a pillow out of this hair. >> i'd like to sleep on a pillow stuffed with that. that's delightful. >> reporter: whenever you show up in a movie like this, it's a bad sign. the aliens attack or people start turning into flies. >> i see what you mean. >> but it could be very successful. >> reporter: and entertaining. >> bless your heart.

you flipped it all around. that's going to be the name of my new auto biography. the chaos merchant. >> reporter: the summer of 2016 hasn't been kind to summer block busters. some of them, sequels to movies that aren't exactly obvious candidates for a followup. for instance, "now you see me 2 ". one reviewer joked the only slight of hand here involves your wallet as hollywood struggles to make bagable franchises. summer box office revenues are down 22%. on track for their worst domestic 60 sales in 20 years because many young movie goers are staying away. me len yals are the most important audience, especially when it comes to big block busters. >> reporter: they're hoping movies like the black buster

reboot and this independence day reboot will not only bring in the young crowd witnessing all this for the first time but also bring back fans of the original. >> it also seems that the audience in hollywood has changed since that first movie was made. hard not to miss that in the first movie, los angeles. washington d.c. new york. they were obliterated. in this movie, singapore. >> reporter: a nod to the overseas box office in 2016. this summer war craft totally flopped here in the office but turned a profit thanks to a strong showing in asia. >> china is the fastest growing film market and is expected to surpass the u.s. box office in the next couple of years. >> reporter: the technology of film making, i would imagine has changed a lot. >> radically.

>> reporter: did you shoot all of this on an iphone? >> i didn't get that far, but maybe one day. >> reporter: the original independence day won an oscar for special effects. >> the original white house shot was -- we had built a model of the white house. it was then detonated. >> reporter: fast forward to now, how much of that is real with models? >> nothing. >> reporter: i would imagine as stimulating as the movies are to watch, they're difficult to act in because not all of this stuff is happening. >> i find them stimulating to make and difficult to watch. >> reporter: he's joking, of course. the chaos merchant on the publicity hour. banking on big budget destruction to save hollywood's bottom line. > "indepdendence day: resurgence" opens this friday. and next, lots of controversy. what's at the root of the mom

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and finally tonight, a hairy story about the extra pressures on moms today. abc's lindsey davis on the big tangle. >> mom hair. you know the haircut i'm talking about. not too long, probably layers, and definitely hassle free, but now those two words are igniting fury. this piece that talks about now new moms struggle with hair loss, calling the post baby cut frumpy and comparing it to mom jeans as encured the wrath of women on the web everywhere. >> reporter: women like this mother, who in her blog post criticizes the article before mommy shaming. >> kids yank on jewelry and clothes. it makes sense that moms would want a short haircut. >> reporter: and these days

shorter looks are strutting down the red carpet with celebrities. they are flaunting shorter locks and looking great. but style critics have long seen mother hood as synonymous with uncoolness and mom hair seems to be the latest fashion faux pas. >> i don't think that look is for me. >> reporter: snl recently mocked mothers shedding their sexy long locks. >> the cut is upon us. >> the cut, the cut. >> welcome, sister. >> reporter: we have a hard time seeing moms as sexual beings because we just want to see them in that focussed way. mom take care of kids. >> reporter: a psychotherapist and author of the new book, your best age is now. >> just because somebody has a baby, it doesn't mean they don't want to look good or glamorous, and if they don't hit the market right way, it's an evolutionary

process. >> reporter: well, she frowns on hair shaming but she says getting the haircut that makes you feel good could be good for your health. >> they did a harvard study where they found that women who got their hair done, the younger they felt they looked, the more their blood pressure would go down. i think we just need to give people a break and understand, you know, you're going to have your good hair days, bad hair days, but most people really want to present themselves in the best way they can. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm lind can i davis in new york. >> my late mom wore her hair short and she was gorgeous. she was a great mother for many reasons. her hair wasn't one of them. it was the late academy award winning actress who said it's not the way she combs her hair. good knignight, america.

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