In honor of Valentine’s Day, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement led a huge online seizure of domain names selling counterfeit accessories. The customs agents previously bought counterfeit bracelets, earrings, handbags, rings, sunglasses, wallets and watched from sites and later determined that many of the sites sold fakes. Titled appropriately as Operation Broken Hearted, it was meant to protect consumers from counterfeit Valentine’s Day products. As a result of the investigation, 18 websites’ domain names were seized without any previous warning in order to save valentines from buying fakes for their sweethearts. 

"Even on Valentine's day, American business is under assault from counterfeiters and pirates," said ICE Director John Morton. "These counterfeits represent a triple threat by delivering shoddy, and sometimes dangerous, goods into commerce, by funding organized criminal activities and by denying Americans good-paying jobs. HSI and our partners at the IPR Center will continue to work together to keep counterfeit products off our streets."

Operation Broken Hearted was the fourth phase of Operation In Our Sites, an ongoing investigation that started last year. We look forward to seeing the outcome of ICE’s undercover investigations.

A recent raid in Los Angeles this month by the L.A. Port Police led to a seizure of over $10 million in Apple Inc. products. Through deep investigation, authorities unveiled the sophisticated warehouse operation. Chief of the L.A. Port Police force told the Los Angeles Times this week, "This was a well-funded operation, and the counterfeits looked very authentic.” The goods were shipped from Asia and arrived to the United States in parts then assembled here and labeled appropriately.

(Image taken from LA Times article)

The Los Angeles Times stated that the Port of Los Angeles and the neighboring Port of Long Beach make up the nation's busiest harbor for trade with Asia. This is where law enforcement works the hardest to stop counterfeits from entering the country. This particular investigation not only involved L.A. Port Police, but the Department of Homeland Security and Border Enforcement Security Task Force as well. We have said many times that counterfeiters are getting smarter at their criminal business. It is taking multiple government agencies to crack down on more sophisticated, well thought out operations such as this one.

The Department of Homeland Security has made great strides against the counterfeit industry this month. In two raids alone, they confiscated over $700K in counterfeit merchandise.

In Milwaukee, Customs & Border Protection (CBP) officers seized over $400K in counterfeit goods. Working with the CDP, DHL and FedEx facilities made over 80 seizures of goods including fake NFL jerseys, footwear, Tiffany jewelry and DVDs.

“These seizures represent the commitment by CBP in protecting the American consumer from receiving fraudulent, inferior and in many cases potentially dangerous products.” said David Murphy, CBP director of field operations in Chicago.

In New Orleans, over $250K was seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a flea market. 16,171 pieces of counterfeit merchandise were confiscated including fake Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Oakley, Ray Ban, Coach, Chanel, Gucci, DVDs and CDs. ICE also found 3 DVD burners with the culprits and an additional 4,572 pieces of counterfeit merchandise worth $59,000 that were abandoned during the operation.

(Image taken from ICE Press Release) 

ICE is the largest division of the Department of Homeland Security that leads the U.S. in the fight against counterfeits.  They work to target criminal organizations that smuggle, manufacture, and distribute counterfeit goods and we are eager to see what programs and technologies they will use to further their quest to end counterfeiting.

In an effort to crackdown on the online counterfeiting industry, the Department of Justice and Homeland Security seized and shut down 82 website domains selling counterfeit goods and music on Cyber Monday - one of the biggest and busiest online shopping days of the year.  Counterfeiters look to draw consumers to their fake websites and counterfeit scams by providing fake goods at a discount. Most of the goods the websites sold included golf equipment, clothing, fashion accessories, and illegal copies of copyrighted DVDs for music and software. The Feds wanted the crackdown to coincide with Cyber Monday to put a damper in the counterfeit trade at the start of the holiday shopping season.

"We are dedicated to protecting the jobs, the income and the tax revenue that disappear when counterfeit goods are trafficked," the Dept. of Homeland Security told Industry Week.

How did the Feds determine the goods were counterfeit? They purchased them from the websites (This includes burberryoutletshop.com, cheapscarfshop.com, dvdcollectionsale.com, handbagcom.com, mydreamwatches.com, rapgodfathers.com, sunglasses-mall.com, torrent-finder.com and usaoutlets.net to name a few), and determined the goods they sold were counterfeit. Apparently there were loads of misspelled “designer” labels and cheap material used to make the fake products.

The seized websites now show this image:

So what do these criminals face for selling counterfeits online? As seen above, copyright infringement is a federal crime which warrants a penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Trafficking in counterfeit goods on the other hand carries a 10-year sentence and a two million dollar fine.

The best way you can help is to report a website selling counterfeit goods to us at www.fakesareneverinfashion.com.

Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Commerce has pledged that in the coming 2-8 months the country will show significant gains in its crackdown and prosecution of intellectual property crimes. As evidence of Thailand’s increasingly harsh climate for counterfeiters, the Deputy Minister announced that over 1.7 million fake articles had been confiscated in the first 5 months of the current year.

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The New York City police force started 2009 off with a big message to Canal Street vendors who peddle counterfeit “designer” goods—not in this town.  Beginning in early December, city inspectors and police officers made a series of raids, the largest of which was on 424 Broadway, a mini-mall housing thousands of counterfeit handbags and other merchandise valuing over $1 million dollars. 

Officers not only uncovered sacks of knockoff goods, but terrible working conditions that endanger the lives of those who work in the building making and selling counterfeit goods. 

“It’s a firetrap,” said Edward Mungin, an inspector with the Department of Buildings assigned to the enforcement unit. “Space heaters, hanging lights, everything about this location is illegal.” 

The raid was just the latest in a concerted effort to close down counterfeit operations in what has become known as the “counterfeit triangle,” in New York City—the blocks between Walker, Canal, and Center Streets. Last year, the city made 2,729 arrests for trademark counterfeiting in a bid to rid New York of poorly made—and illegal—goods. 

New York isn’t the only city taking note of the sharp rise in counterfeiting in the last decade—Los Angeles similarly raided multiple downtown LA locations throughout the holiday season in what they dubbed Operation Clean Sweep. The program yielded 28 arrests, 200,000 counterfeit apparel items worth $2.7 million dollars. Los Angeles businesses lose $5.2 billion annually to the counterfeit market, according to the Los Angeles Anti-Piracy Task Force. 

While counterfeiting has grown recently—encompassing everything from faulty car parts to fake chocolate—local governments have stepped up with special task forces created specifically to fight fakes. 

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