As holiday shopping season nears, bargain hunters should watch out for fake designer-brand items, like the phony Rolex shown here by federal customs officials in Chicago.
Courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Holiday shopping season is just around the corner, but heed a word of warning from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection before you seek out a bargain on a designer handbag or high-end watch for that special someone: Your fantastic find might be a fake.
“When you think you’ve found a great deal online, something well below the price you’d pay from the manufacturer, that raises a red flag about possible counterfeits,” said Steven Bansbach, CBP’s public affairs specialist in Chicago.
And if you buy a counterfeit item, you won’t be the only victim.
According to the CBP, the market for counterfeit goods sucks billions of dollars and about 750,000 jobs from the American economy.
Depending on where the goods come from — Southeast Asia, Africa and parts of Europe are among the most likely locales — your purchase also could be funding a criminal enterprise and slave labor.
“These are not just victimless crimes,” Bansbach told us Thursday.
Dangers also exist for the buyer. Unlike legit items, there are no controls over materials. Bansbach cited perfume as an example.
“Do you want to buy that for a loved one or yourself without knowing what’s in there and put it on your skin?” he asked. “It may smell like the perfume you thought you were buying, but it may contain pesticides or something else harmful.”
You might find a great deal online for a designer fragrance, but you should be sure you’re buying the real thing, federal customs officials warn. Counterfeit perfumes like these could contain dangerous chemicals.
Courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
How to spot fakes
The CBP is tasked with protecting America’s borders and ports of entry, including O’Hare International Airport, through which more than $300 billion in cargo passes every year.
Customs officers at O’Hare seized about $8 million in fake items last year, about $22,000 a day, Bansbach said.
How does the agency tell the bona fide from the bogus?
“Our first and most important asset is our officers,” Bansbach said. Those officers train with companies whose products are often counterfeited — think Apple, Rolex and Louis Vuitton — to detect fakes.
Millions of dollars of counterfeit items, like these phony designer handbags, are seized by customs officers every year at O’Hare International Airport.
Courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
While you may not have an Apple rep on standby to tell you if that iPhone you bought online is real, Bansbach said there are some steps you can take to protect yourself.
That includes being wary of deals that seem too good to be true, checking out customer reviews of online sellers and finding a working, U.S.-based phone number for the seller to call and ask questions about their policies.
Not happening
In August, we wrote about Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain’s plan to open a transitional housing program in Aurora.
The county board had approved spending $882,950 in federal COVID relief money for the program, including purchasing a building on the north side of the city to house eight men in four apartments, for up to six months, upon their release from the jail.
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain hoped to buy this building in Aurora for a transitional housing program for detainees released from the county jail, but the county board didn’t close on the purchase.
Susan Sarkauskas/[email protected], August 2024
Under Hain’s proposal, the first month’s rent would be free, and programming, such as addiction recovery meetings, would be available. He chose Aurora because up to 30% of the jail’s population comes from the city.
That plan has fallen apart, though, as the county board failed to approve a contract to buy the building.
Hain noted that several fellow Democrats blocked the plan, worried that Aurora aldermen might not want it. He also said “speculation” from a county official that the building would need $1.1 million in repairs “really muddied the waters.”
“It was just a big game at the end of the day,” Hain said of the county board’s treatment of a proposal he worked on for two years. “I’m very disappointed in how this all played out.”
Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog told us this week that many board members were in favor of the program, including her. But the county board first had to perform its “due diligence” on the purchase, and that while that was underway the building’s owner found another buyer.
The county board voted Tuesday to reallocate the money to other projects.
“I think it is a good idea,” Pierog said. “I’d like to see very much if we could get it.”
Election investigations
Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser reported Wednesday that her office investigated nine reports of election issues or shenanigans on Election Day.
None resulted in criminal charges.
About half involved allegations of electioneering — campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place. One was happening within a campaign-free zone (churches and private schools can declare themselves campaign-free zones.) Another involved someone wearing campaign clothing at that polling place. By the time assistant state’s attorneys arrived, one issue had been concluded. They discussed electioneering laws with those still there, and resolved the situation.
Two voters complained they were required to show identification to vote. The ASAs spoke with election judges and reminded them people don’t need to show ID to vote.
That resonated with Susan, because when she voted that day, an election judge told people waiting in line to have their driver’s licenses out and ready for the election judges. When she asked another election judge why, he said it was to help them look up the voter in the electronic pollbook when they presented their application to vote. He placed her license on a scanner on the pollbook. Without the license, he said, he would have to scroll manually through the list of voters.
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