If you’ve found what you hope is a Louis Vuitton handbag being sold somewhere and you want to know for sure if it’s real or fake, here are some ways to figure that out.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shelley Alvarado, a senior account executive and former Louis Vuitton employee from Los Angeles. It's been edited for length and clarity.

A 54-year-old man previously convicted of illegally manufacturing over 16,000 counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags was ordered to pay the French firm 500 million won ($490,000) in damages, Tuesday.