Millions of Counterfeit Products Flood e-Commerce Websites

Amazon, eBay, Alibaba are ideal counterfeit distribution platforms.

August 10, 2016, - Los Angeles, CA – Amazon (AMZN), eBay (EBAY) and Alibaba (BABA) are making it easy for the world's largest criminal enterprise to peddle $1.7 trillion in counterfeit goods to unsuspecting consumers. Social media sites Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have also become popular counterfeit outlets. Even Walmart has opened its website to third-party vendors and was caught selling counterfeits.

Just last month, The Counterfeit Report®, a popular counterfeit awareness and consumer education website, sent notifications to Amazon, Alibaba and eBay to remove listings for 3,820,408 counterfeit or fake items offered or sold on their websites – products destined for, or purchased by unsuspecting consumers. eBay listings, which reflect actual sales figures, indicate consumers purchased 10,640 of the counterfeit or fake items. Alibaba subsidiary AliExpress, whose listings occasionally list sales figures, indicate 2,804 counterfeit items were purchased by consumers.

Particularly shocking, is that the 3.8 million products removed by The Counterfeit Report are just a tiny sample of the infringing products offered on the e-commerce websites, and most likely products that consumer would neither suspect or be able to identify.

Could you identify these dangerous or potentially deadly counterfeit products listed on Amazon, eBay or AliExpress?

Counterfeit Products shown - clockwise from top left. (Photo: The Counterfeit Report)

• Your life literally could ride on this auto suspension part. Group-A Autosports®, the manufacturer of the authentic item, does not manufacture this lower control arm in red, blue, green or neo-chrome (shown). The item was repeatedly purchased on eBay and reported, yet remains.
  
• U.S. based Fullips, LLC is a family owned business producing very popular beauty and cosmetic products under the registered Fullips® trademark. Unscrupulous counterfeiters will produce anything to deceive consumers and make a fast dollar, including the counterfeit Fullips product shown. Visually virtually indistinguishable from the authentic item, consumers are easily deceived into purchasing a poor quality counterfeit that was found to contain dangerous lead and other suspect ingredients.
  
• Counterfeit memory cards may damage your equipment, destroy data, or your once in a lifetime photos. Consumers are easily deceived by counterfeit memory cards which are difficult to detect without test software and usually are much lower memory capacity than stated. Labeled as a Kingston® 64GB microSDHC memory card, this product does not exist in the Kingston product line -- it is a fake. Thousands of microSDHC® memory cards in capacities above 32GB, the maximum capacity for authentic microSDHC cards, are offered on Amazon, eBay and AliExpress displaying many popular brand names including SanDisk®, Samsung®, Kingston®, Sony® and ADATA® as well as unbranded "generic" cards. They are all fake.
  
• Drew Technologies® provides vehicle diagnostic equipment including the sophisticated electronic connector cables and software used to program critical vehicle safety, braking, emissions and performance specifications to vehicle computers. Consumers face severe safety risks from counterfeit products which may damage or destroy the vehicle ECU, ECM or PCM controller units. Once destroyed, the software cannot be reinstalled or replaced. Drew Technologies does not offer the interface cable in the color shown -- it is a fake. Other counterfeit versions are offered on Amazon, eBay and AliExpress bearing the manufacturer's registered trademark with accompanying who-knows-what software.
  

Inexplicably, the e-Commerce giants don't notify consumers they received a counterfeit or fake item and are entitled to a refund, even when they know the items are fake – items that don't exist in the manufacturer's product line but bear its registered trademark.

Illegal counterfeiting activity is profitable, difficult to track and widely unpunished. While consumer awareness is only part of the global solution, counterfeits are now very deceptive and consumers often unknowingly purchase hazardous or deadly counterfeit products.

Companies that facilitate criminal activity and benefit from the proceeds of dishonest actions which impact jobs, consumer safety and public trust create a public perception of deception and impunity. However, reputation damage is only a small part of the problem: counterfeiting costs U.S. manufacturers over $250 billion, US workers over 750,000 jobs, and the manufacturer's brand integrity is tarnished or destroyed.