Buying and selling counterfeit items on the internet is a billion dollar business. This holiday season, Homeland Security is warning online consumers to be careful of what you pay for.
“Some of the items we have seized in the Detroit field officer have surprisingly similar logos and trademarks and things of that nature,” said Ken Hammond, Chief US Customs and Border Protection Officer.
In 2014, Homeland ICE's Detroit field office made over 1,100 seizures of counterfeit merchandise which added up to more than $27 million.
Across the country, $1.25 billion in goods were confiscated. The shoddy stuff being sold ranges from fake makeup to hand bags to electronics.
“Some of these items can be very dangerous,” said Hammond. “Your child play with items with high concentrations of lead is very dangerous.”
According to the feds, it is hard to tell whether the majority of online shoppers know they’re being sold knocks off or if they think the merchandise is the real deal but homeland security advises you to look out for web addresses that start with “https,” which means it is a secured site.
“A lot of online retailers will have legitimate, secured URLs to link on but unreputable dealers won’t have that secured site certification.”
If you suspect you have bought a counterfeit item, try to return it to the vendor. If that does not work, contact your bank or credit card company to see if you gave fraud protection.
Consumers are urged to report intellectual property crime through a tipline at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.
