I still love them and the fakes are the biggest pain in the ass to verify. That is until now.
Panerai recently (from the looks of it in 2019) launched a platform called Pam.Guard https://t.co/pUJjySH7xr to verify your serial number.
You can use this service to verify if the serial number is in their database.
Here's an example of a legit watch:
And here's one of a fake:
Stay safe out there fellas!