Tips For Avoiding Counterfeit Merchandise

By ABC-7 Reporter Abe Lubetkin

El Paso, Texas – This week, ICE agents cracking down on counterfeit goods across the country confiscated 26 million dollars in goods.

In El Paso, they seized nine thousand items at Fashion City and Sky Fashions.

So how do you know if an item you want is fake?

“If it seems to good to be true, it probably is,” said ICE assistant special agent Javy Pedroza.

He said if the price seems suspiciously low, it probably isn’t the real thing.

“You’ve got other telltale signs: workmanship of the product, crooked labels, loosely fastened labels, and poor quality zippers,” he said.

Sometimes it isn’t clear what brand a product might be knocking off.

“The line is drawn where the average person can’t tell the difference,” Pedroza said.

He said counterfeit goods cost the US economy billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs a year.

And that’s not all.

“Ill-gotten gains from these items can go to other serious criminal activity,” he said.

To report a store you think is selling counterfeit goods, call 1-866-477-2060.