Phony Olympics Merchandise Floods UK Market

By Cornelius Nunev


There is nothing brand new about counterfeit sporting merchandise. It is a criminal market that takes billions a year from legitimate, authorized vendors. With the world's eyes on London this summer, United Kingdom regulators are urging tourists to watch out for sustaining criminal behavior by purchasing knock-off items. Already, hundreds have been arrested for pushing bogus products.

Counterfeiting is robbing

Selling counterfeit merchandise is robbing because it takes advantage of other people to make cash off of it. It is just like bootlegging movies and music.

There was a massive Major League Baseball merchandise ring in KS City that Gilbert Trill and his team stopped. Trill is an assistant special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in the area. He explained:

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

A ton of Olympic fraud

ABC reported seizure of thousands of pounds of phony merchandise at Port of London on June 8 including 400 vests, 500 cigarette lighters and 7,000 Olympic tote bags.

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

"We're really busy and getting busier."

Child labor involved

Counterfeit 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, kid 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

There is only one place to purchase legitimate Olympic mementos outside of Olympic Park. It is on Rotten Row in London's Hyde Park as a temporary structure. All legitimate mementos will also have a holographic tag that rotates on it. Even though it is hard to tell the phony stuff from the real now with all the technology out there, these are some guidelines to follow.

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

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



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