Buyer Beware: Watch Out for Counterfeit Goods This Holiday Season

With the holiday shopping season at hand, authorities Monday had a message that purportedly dates to the ancient Romans: caveat emptor -- let the buyer beware.

FBI officials joined City Attorney Mike Feuer and Police Chief Charlie Beck at City Hall to urge the public not to be taken in by the low-cost allure of pirated DVDs, fake designer handbags and clothing and other name-brand knock-offs during the holiday gift-buying season.

"Saving a little money now can have costly results down the road," Bill Lewis of the FBI's Los Angeles office said.

The counterfeit goods industry costs the U.S. economy 750,000 jobs and $250 billion a year in lost revenue, with several billion of those dollars lost just in the Los Angeles area, officials said.

Beck warned that counterfeit goods "not only gets you an inferior project, but also funds organized crime and possibly terrorism."

"Counterfeit goods victimize the consumer and legitimate businesses," Feuer said. "There is a simple message for shoppers -- if it's too good to be true, it probably is."

Some counterfeit goods can be difficult to spot, authorities said. If merchandise is sold from the back of a car, hidden away in the back of the store, or the vendor can only show a picture of the item on a cell phone, the products may be counterfeit, authorities said.

Feuer announced the filing last week of five criminal cases against vendors who allegedly sold pirated DVDs and CDs, Dodgers t-shirts and bogus "designer" wallets and handbags along city streets and in the Santee Alley downtown shopping district.

Two defendants pleaded guilty and will serve probation, with one ordered to pay a $292 fine and spend two days in county jail, Feuer said. The others await arraignment and face $10,000 to $500,000 in fines and one to two years in jail.

Feuer's office earlier this month also secured $3 million in civil penalties from a major downtown Los Angeles Fashion District counterfeiter, 28-year-old Oscar Bolanos Mejia, who sold or managed the sale of more than 1,200 fake name-brand clothing items. Mejia will also be prohibited from setting up shop in the Fashion District.

- City News Service