Phony Olympics Merchandise Floods UK Market

By Cornelius Nunev


Bogus sports retailing is a criminal market that nets billions a year globally. This year, there will be even more, with the world's focus on the London Olympics. British experts have already made hundreds of busts for trying to move phony souvenirs. And they are warning vacationers coming to see the games to be cautious about what they purchase.

The same as stealing

The sale of counterfeit merchandise is just as bad as bootlegging movies and music. It is still considered theft because it is taking advantage of someone to take their money.

Gilbert Trill is an assistant special agent in charge of a Homeland Security Investigations unit in KS City. Recently, he and his team cracked down on a bogus Major League Baseball retailing ring in Kansas City. He said:

"Selling counterfeit goods is stealing. Counterfeit goods steal U.S. jobs, create inferior and sometimes dangerous products, and support criminal organizations."

Just the start

There are a lot of scams around with the Olympics too. On Jun 8, regulators seized 500 cigarette lighters, 400 vests and 7,000 phony Olympic tote bags at the Port of London where thousands of pounds of phony merchandise were found.

ABC News spoke with bill Bilan, the Trading Standards Institute's Olympic strategy group chairman, who said:

"We're really busy and getting busier."

Usually contains kid labor

Bogus merchandise is generally of inferior quality, and may or may not cost less than the better-made legitimate items. But even more importantly, according to Interpol, child labor is often employed in the making of the shoddy knock-off merchandise. And the profits made from counterfeit merchandise may support criminal and terrorist organizations.

Finding fakes

In case you are looking for legitimate gear, you have to know how to tell it from the fake stuff since it has become harder than ever to tell the main difference. There is a temporary structure on Rotten Row in London's Hyde Park that sells legitimate mementos. Other than that, there are no other places outside of the Olympic Park that sell legitimate souvenirs. You will even find holographic tags that rotate on the legitimate gear.

Daily finance points out that you need to try to find misspelled names, poor stitching, uneven colors and any other thing that might indicate the product is bogus. Do not buy merchandise unless it is from a trusted vendor such as the ones mentioned above. The finance site points out that you might end up losing the merchandise in customers on the way home anyway, so it is certainly not worth it.

Do not ever buy something that is too good of a deal. It probably is a scam.



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