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Last month, Refinery29 wrote a story titled “20 Surprising Beauty Buys You Can Find At Costco.” Soon after, they started receiving emails from brands we featured asking to be removed from the slideshow. They went a little something like this: “Hi love! Can you take us out of this slideshow? Costco isn’t an authorized retailer of ours. […]

On Friday, Daofu Zhang, a Chinese citizen, pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell counterfeit computer chips used in military applications. According to Zhang’s plea agreement, the offense carries a maximum penalty of ten years of imprisonment and a $2 million fine. Zhang’s is just the latest conviction in the long, established trade of fake or […]

A belated spotlight: the trade in fakes The OECD, the industrialised world’s think-tank, will today publish its first comprehensive study since 2009 of the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods. The illicit industry is bound to have expanded in the past seven years: trade of all kind has grown as the world has recovered from […]

Coffee beans in a cup, Cristoph/ Pixabay Sip your morning coffee suspiciously, friend—it may not be what you think. The Washington Post chatted with the creators of a new testing method for coffee beans, which double checks that the name on the label of your beans matches what you’re actually getting. Although existing tests can […]

Seems to be some parts missing from the counterfeit charger on the left. Manufacturers of counterfeit Apple products often go to great lengths to make their knock-offs look genuine, which brings the added risk of concealing potentially dangerous flaws in substituted electrical components. In the past we’ve covered the efforts manufacturers go to when counterfeiting […]

A problem that was once the skeleton in the electronics industry’s closet is front and center nowadays, and has been thrust out into the spotlight even more in recent weeks. Since February 24th, when U.S. President Obama signed off on a new customs law with a provision to combat counterfeit semiconductors, it’s become clearer and […]

How the Goods Are Gotten Ever heard the phrase “It fell off the back of a truck”? No, not like that. Pharmapacks buys from the same established, law-abiding distributors that sell to national chains like Walmart, Costco, and CVS. But ask these distributors where they get the products, and some will give an answer as […]

Paul Skiscim, President of Aerospec, Inc., was arrested on federal charges of supplying defective airplane parts to the federal government for use in its aircraft, including military aircraft. The charges were announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Kenneth J. Siegler, Resident Agent-in-Charge of the Defense […]

SAN FRANCISCO—U.S. President Barack Obama indicated Thursday (Feb. 11) that he will sign into law a customs bill passed by the U.S. Senate that includes a provision to combat counterfeit semiconductors. The bill, known as the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (H.R. 644/S.1269), mandates that U.S. Customs and Border Protection share information […]

Esmerelda Mendez was grieving after her sister, who suffered from chronic pain, bought unlicensed pharmaceutical medication as an affordable alternative and died within hours of taking the drugs. The story was familiar to LA County Health professionals who were warning the public Tuesday that the cheap alternative of buying illegal prescription medicine was a dangerous […]