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Avoid buying counterfeits
12 December 2011
If it seems too good to be true - it probably is.
That is our advice and a warning to shoppers to be on their guard or they may get more than they bargained for when buying cheap goods online.
Fake UGG Boots, GHD hair straighteners, smart phones, tablet computers, designer clothes and Hello Kitty products are among the tens of thousands of counterfeit items we have seized in recent months.
Counterfeits are illegal to import, even if they are bought online. Cheap designer or branded goods could be counterfeit and as such are worthless, dangerous fakes and could be seized.
Inferior and dangerous
Cheap counterfeits fuel criminality, undercut honest traders and leave shoppers with goods that are at best, inferior to genuine products and at worst, dangerous.
We play a key role in safeguarding the UK from fake goods which damage the UK economy by stealing trade from legitimate businesses and depriving tax revenue.
We work closely with HM Revenue & Customs, manufacturers and local trading standards teams to deal with the continuing problem of imported counterfeit goods.
Seizing fakes
Last year our officers at Heathrow made around 1,100 seizures of counterfeit items. Already, in the first 8 months of this year they have made the same number of seizures.
Many seizures were imports on an industrial scale. In July 2011 at Stansted airport we detained counterfeit clothing worth an estimated £750,000.
One month later, officers at Southampton detained Europe's largest haul of counterfeit footwear. Nearly 45,000 pairs of counterfeit UGG boots were discovered in 6 containers.