Counterfeit

It should be fairly well known that in our affluent society there are many counterfeit products on the market such as designer jeans, wristwatches, toys and tapes. Still we choose to purchase these illegal items because of price or prestige in the "name brand" label. Now a government agency functions to investigate these violations and, if the counterfeiters are caught, large fines and imprisonment are imposed. This is as it should be. The above products are not life-threatening, and many consumers will say, "So what?"

Southern California designer jeans maker True Religion Apparel Inc. has won a $864-million court judgment against online Chinese counterfeiters, but actually getting that money will be a battle. The Vernon company, whose jeans can go for nearly $500, sued 282 websites originating from China and accused them of lifting company trademarks and peddling fake goods. The websites had names such as TrueReligion4Cheap.com and ForTrueReligionJeans.com. The defendants were a no-show in court, so the New York federal judge handed down a default judgment this month.

Sex shop owner Wang Yunsu wondered how so many competitors could suddenly undercut her low prophylactic prices. Now she thinks she knows: The other condoms are counterfeit. "Some manufacturers are cutting corners," she said, stocking a shelf with a domestic brand whose name translates as Forever Love. "And it's all about profit." It's China's latest knockoff scandal -- inferior contraceptives that health officials say provide little protection and may in fact spread infectious diseases, tarnishing the axiom that condoms mean safe sex. In November, investigators in Hunan province provided details about a July raid on an underground workshop where they found laborers lubricating condoms with vegetable oil in unsterile conditions, passing off the counterfeits as high-quality-brand products.

A Los Angeles-area wine collector who became so influential in the rare vintage market that he drove up prices worldwide has been charged by federal authorities with fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars in loans and attempting to sell $1.3 million in counterfeit French Burgundy. Rudy Kurniawan, 35, was arrested Thursday without incident at his Arcadia home by FBI agents assigned to the Los Angeles office after a years-long investigation by the FBI Art Crime Team. In an indictment unsealed Thursday, the Indonesian national was charged by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud.

About a week before Christmas, I took a stroll around the Los Angeles Toy District and bought a pirated DVD. As I wrote on Dec. 21, curious about the quality of the merchandise for sale on the street, I shelled out five bucks for a copy of the movie "District 9," which was still days away from being available in your local retail store. As I've been informed, quite properly, by readers in and around the movie industry, that casual act made me part of a global problem that is killing jobs and eliminating opportunities for creative people everywhere.

Fakes of goods ranging from Cartier watches to heart drugs are getting more convincing, costing firms around the world a fortune, according to an independent British business magazine. Director magazine said packaging and quality of counterfeits are now of such a high standard that customers find it virtually impossible to distinguish them from the real thing. "Counterfeit goods are now being produced and sold on an epidemic scale and are costing firms hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars)

Funny money is no joke for small-business owners. Counterfeit cash cuts into profits at firms, many of which are already struggling in the tight economy, and puts pressure on prices. The fake bills can be hard to spot with an untrained eye, and sophisticated digital printers have made it easier for criminals to create higher-quality bad bills, faster. And the problem appears to be growing. The Secret Service, which is in charge of investigating and preventing counterfeiting, said it helped remove from circulation more than $182 million in fake U.S. currency in the fiscal year that ended Sept.

Ten tons of chocolate bonbons could stuff a lot of stockings, but instead they will be under the lock and key of French customs agents. The customs service announced that officers at the giant Rungis international market outside Paris seized nearly 33,000 boxes of gold-foil-wrapped morsels, worth an estimated $312,000, on suspicion that they were counterfeit Ferrero Rochers. The counterfeit sweets are to be destroyed.

EBay Inc. won a German court ruling in a case brought by Rolex Group over sales of counterfeit watches on EBay's website. The decision in Dusseldorf found that Rolex couldn't show that any similar counterfeit goods were offered on EBay after the company had been alerted to the sales. EBay faces a hearing next month in London on similar claims by L'Oreal. EBay has had mixed success in cases over counterfeits, winning last year against Tiffany & Co. and L'Oreal. It lost to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Hermes International.

I was very disappointed to learn that the major reason the MTA is discontinuing its monthly bus passes is due to the number of counterfeit ones that have been circulating. Woe to the society that succumbs to its small criminal element over the vast majority of hard-working people who rely on public transportation to get them to their jobs! Rather than making public transportation easier and more accessible to the people in this age of traffic and air pollution, we are taking a giant step backward as we let the lawbreakers have the last word.

More than two dozen people were charged in a $325-million counterfeit ring to import knockoffs from China and Taiwan through a port in New Jersey, authorities said. Using undercover agents and wiretaps, federal law enforcement agencies uncovered "two elaborate schemes" to elude border security and transport counterfeit apparel, accessories, cigarettes and illegal drugs into the Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the U.S. district attorney's office in New Jersey said in a statement.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Counterfeit luxury items Bargain hunters should take extreme care when shopping for discounted brand-name merchandise on the Internet, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Websites such as Craigslist and EBay have been used to sell counterfeit items, the BBB said. Plus, some firms have set up their own websites to market knockoff luxury goods, which often are of poor quality and likely to disappoint buyers, the group said.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Counterfeit luxury items - Bargain hunters should take extreme care when shopping for discounted brand-name merchandise on the Internet, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Websites such as Craigslist and EBay have been used to sell counterfeit items, the BBB said. But some firms have also set up their own websites to market knockoff luxury goods, which are often of poor quality and likely to disappoint the consumer, the group said.

Mirabelle Vargas, 29, winds her way through the open-air stalls in downtown Los Angeles' bustling Santee Alley, hunting for Victoria's Secret underwear. Or at least undies with a tag that says Victoria's Secret. An authentic pair from the lingerie maker can cost $7.50 and up. But Vargas, a retail sales clerk, managed to find a table brimming with pink-and-white unmentionables. Price: two bucks a pop. "Of course they're not real, not at this price," said Vargas, decked out in a chocolate brown Victoria's Secret tracksuit, also counterfeit.

The lamb chops were cooked to perfection. Fine wines flowed. Then came the piece de resistance: a 1997 Chateau Petrus Pomerol that can fetch about $2,000 a bottle. Wine consultant Frankie Zhao was dining with a group of well-to-do Chinese businessmen at an exclusive private club in the capital. Their host was eager to share — and show off — the prized French Merlot. But after the first sip, veteran taster Zhao knew the collector had been duped. "I could tell immediately it was a fake," said Zhao, who kept silent rather than embarrass his unwitting friend.

U.S. Customs officials said Monday that they caught someone trying to import counterfeit and unsafe lighting fixtures depicting Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman. The holiday decorations were seized at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport complex between Nov. 23 and 25 in two shipments from China and had an estimated retail value of $173,000. The lighting displays had phony Underwriters Laboratories product safety certification labels and had not undergone the rigorous scrutiny required by the organization.

This should be the least of our worries these days, but I was angered to see you refer to the country of Burma as Myanmar in your article (Part A, Feb. 24) on the Thai coup. This term is sponsored by the State Law and Order Restoration Committee, the butchers who murdered thousands two years ago, suppressed popularly elected officials and ruthlessly eliminated all dissent. To follow their lead and abandon the name Burma is in a related sense an abandonment of the brave and long-suffering Burmese and minority people.

Social Security cards run about $20, green cards about $70 and a California driver's license between $60 and $250. The price jumps up for higher-quality documents, such as IDs with magnetic strips containing real information -- often from victims of identity theft. As the demand for counterfeit IDs skyrockets, the criminal organizations that produce them are increasingly relying on sophisticated technology to expand their operations and thwart authorities.

Crime-fighting canine McGruff the Crime Dog is looking to take a bite out of counterfeiting. The talking cartoon dog, sporting his trademark trench coat, is part of a new anti-counterfeiting campaign by the nonprofit National Crime Prevention Council and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is part of the Justice Department. The campaign seeks to dispel any notion that counterfeiting is a victimless crime. "It costs the U.S. economy tens of billions of dollars each year, deprives people of their livelihoods, encourages criminal activities by gangs and organized crime groups, and sometimes results in serious illness or injury," the campaign Web page said.

Federal authorities have seized 150 Web domain names they said were used to traffic counterfeit brand-name merchandise. The website seizures targeted the illegal sales of counterfeit products, including professional sports jerseys, golf equipment, DVDs, shoes, handbags and sunglasses, authorities said Monday. Visitors to the sites now find a banner that says the domain name has been seized by federal authorities and that copyright infringement is a federal crime. During the investigation, federal law enforcement agents made undercover purchases of products from online retailers, officials said.