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noviembre 21, 2023
These watches, purses and sun shades may look awfully alluring when laid out on a New York Metropolis road nook — however the feds need vacation buyers to maintain strolling.
That was the message they hammered dwelling Tuesday as federal authorities warned folks to not shell out their hard-earned {dollars} for fraudulent items — whose very existence poses a shadowy menace to the nation, they stated.
“In the present day we’re right here to warn the general public once more with an outdated saying that may stand the check of time: If the deal appears too good to be true, it in all probability is,” Marina Vides, assistant particular agent-in-charge of Homeland Safety Investigations, stated from the cargo facility at John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport in Queens.
Apart from their inherent faultiness — which unveils itself by fire-prone, spyware-infested electronics or lead-laden toys from China, amongst different issues — the proceeds from the gross sales of the illicit items may fund terrorist teams abroad, the feds stated.
“At a time after we’re coping with a disaster within the Center East, we all know terrorist organizations use counterfeit items to fund their terrorist assaults,” Francis J. Russo, head of the US Customs and Border Patrol’s New York workplace, stated in the course of the information convention.
“So this 12 months, as all the time, we remind the general public that the bitterness of poor high quality lasts for much longer than the happiness of paying the [lower] worth,” Russo continued.
“Just be sure you will not be an confederate to those transnational prison organizations.”
As an instance their level, authorities organized on 4 folding tables a cornucopia of tempting-but-illicit items New Yorkers may stumble throughout — together with faux iPhones, bogus Rolexes, shoddy footwear, Legos, costly Mac make-up, Burberry sun shades, Chanel purses, Gucci cellphone instances, baseball hats and even a knockoff Oscar statue.
It could be practically inconceivable for the untrained eye to inform the faux items from the real articles — particularly as a result of they’re typically packaged in brand-appropriate bins bearing a number of the hottest logos on the planet.
However the luxurious-seeming gadgets — lots of which have been seized by customs brokers in JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports — aren’t any extra actual than that van Gogh hanging in your buddy’s front room.
And though many view shopping for a knockoff Gucci bag as a victimless crime, the feds stated that’s not the case.
Usually, they’re harmful to the buyer — brokers described surge protectors with junk wiring that would trigger fires, Legos painted with lead and iPhones that activate however don’t perform.
“We’ve got seen numerous defective electronics, cosmetics with unknown components, toys with unregulated supplies and harmful ranges of lead, and counterfeit bicycle helmets that doesn’t have the required security protections,” stated Vides.
In fact, it’s a big-money enterprise for the thieves, lots of whom are importing knockoffs from China, Hong Kong, Turkey, India and the Philippines.
US Customs brokers seize about 25 million counterfeit good every year which can be price about $2.three billion, authorities stated.
The New York metropolitan-area is a recognized goal for these criminals: Greater than 30% of the faux items seized got here by JFK or LaGuardia, Russo stated.
That type of financial loss can severely wound the nation’s financial system as prison organizations look to rob, replicate and substitute US items, he added.
“By participating in counterfeit items, these entities need to actually damage the US financial system by reducing wages and resulting in greater unemployment charges,” Russo stated.
“Make no mistake about it: They’re actually a hazard to the nation.”
