Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:37 am
Time: 1:37 am
Results for consumer fraud
39 results foundAuthor: Australia. Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council Title: Ticket Scalping: Ticket Onselling and Consumers Summary: The Issues Paper examines current practices relating to ticket onselling and considers possible market responses, including both regulatory and non-regulatory options, and their cost and effectiveness. Details: Barton, ACT, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia, 2010. 29p. Source: Internet Resource; Issues Paper Year: 2010 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 119528 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionTicket Scalping |
Author: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Title: Targeting Scams: Report of the ACCC on Scam Activity 2010 Summary: This report explains key trends in scam activity and highlights the impact of scams on the community. It highlights the cooperative work of the ACCC, other regulators and law enforcement agencies to disrupt scams and educate consumers. Details: Canberra: ACCC, 2011. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 9, 2011 at: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=972476&nodeId=82520eb0bf4bef0d78873f4f0680557a&fn=Targeting%20Scams%20Report%202010.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Australia URL: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=972476&nodeId=82520eb0bf4bef0d78873f4f0680557a&fn=Targeting%20Scams%20Report%202010.pdf Shelf Number: 120961 Keywords: Consumer FraudFraud (Australia) |
Author: Budd, Carolyn Title: Consumer Fraud in Australasia: Results of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce Online Australia Surveys 2008 and 2009. Summary: Those who perpetrate consumer scams use a wide range of deceptive practices and methods of communication. However, all aim to trick unsuspecting consumers into parting with money or information, often to criminals located overseas. Phishing attacks, lottery and prize scams, financial investment scams and advanced fee fraud are just a few of the more common scam varieties that are used in an attempt to gain either money or personal details that will eventually be used for financial gain by offenders. The increased use of electronic forms of communication and the ease of sending mass scam invitations via the Internet has also resulted in an increase in the number of scam requests disseminated globally. Scam invitations may appear benign to those who receive them and choose not to respond. This form of spam may be seen as an unfortunate consequence of using the Internet, however, scams can cause serious financial and other harms to those who are victimised, as well as to the wider community. Consumer fraud has been estimated to cost Australia almost $1b annually, although the full extent of the losses is unknown as many choose not to report their experiences officially. Although victims of scams can lose as little as $1, some send substantial amounts to criminals, occasionally exceeding many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those who send such large amounts frequently feel ashamed of what they have done, or apprehensive that they might have acted illegally. Victims may also receive little sympathy for having being victimised and may be blamed for being gullible. These factors act to deter victims from formally reporting the scam to police. When the full circumstances of cases are known, however, the sophistication of the deception makes it clear that victims have been enticed by a serious and concerted campaign of trickery which preys on their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) includes 20 government regulatory agencies and departments in Australia and New Zealand that work alongside private sector, community and non-government partners to prevent fraud. In order to understand the dynamics of consumer fraud victimisation, the ACFT has conducted a range of fraud prevention and awareness-raising activities since 2006. One key activity of the ACFT is to hold an annual consumer fraud survey to obtain a snapshot of the public’s exposure to consumer scams, to assess their impact, to determine how victims respond and to identify any emerging typologies and issues. This report presents the results of surveys conducted in conjunction with the 2008 campaign that focused on Seduction and Deception Scams and the 2009 campaign that focused on sending the message— Scams Target You: Protect Yourself, Don’t Be a Victim of Scammers and Fight the Scammers. Don’t Respond. Overall, both surveys found that despite most respondents indicating that they had received a scam invitation over the specified 12 month period, the majority did not respond. Invitations sent by email remained the most common method of receiving an invitation, with lottery scams attracting the highest number of victims in 2008 whereas in 2009, work from home scams were the most common way respondents were scammed. Although the survey relies on self-reported data, it still provides a useful means of identifying the nature of victimisation and for identifying areas for further research into consumer fraud. The links identified between scam victimisation and factors such as age, income, reporting and jurisdiction could be used to develop more strategic consumer fraud awareness campaigns that focus on the groups more vulnerable to scam victimisation. The relationships between these variables and victimisation could then be explored more fully using representative samples of the population, or in-depth data collection techniques such as interviewing of those who have been defrauded. With a more extensive understanding of who is victimised and why, more effective scam prevention measures can be enacted. Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2011. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Technical and Background Paper No. 43: Accessed March 10, 2011 at: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tbp/41-60/tbp043.aspx Year: 2011 Country: Australia URL: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tbp/41-60/tbp043.aspx Shelf Number: 120967 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionFinancial CrimesInternet CrimesScams |
Author: Balafoutas, Loukas: Beck, Adrian Title: What Drives Taxi Drivers? A Field Experiment on Fraud in a Market for Credence Goods Summary: Credence goods are characterized by informational asymmetries between sellers and consumers that invite fraudulent behavior by sellers. This paper presents the results of a natural field experiment on taxi rides in Athens, Greece, set up to measure different types of fraud and to examine the influence of passengers’ presumed information and income on the extent of fraud. Results reveal that taxi drivers cheat passengers in systematic ways: Passengers with inferior information about optimal routes are taken on longer detours while asymmetric information on the local tariff system leads to manipulated bills. Higher income seems to lead to more fraud. Details: Munich: CESifo Group, 2011. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 3461: Accessed June 27, 2011 at: http://www.ifo.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1205745.PDF Year: 2011 Country: Greece URL: http://www.ifo.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1205745.PDF Shelf Number: 121833 Keywords: Consumer FraudTaxi Industry (Greece)Transportation |
Author: Qian, Yi Title: Counterfeiters: Foes or Friends? Summary: This paper combines a natural policy experiment and randomized lab experiments to estimate the differential impacts of counterfeiting on the sales and purchase intent of branded products of various quality levels. I collect new product-line level panel data from Chinese shoe companies from 1993-2004. Exploiting the discontinuity of government enforcement efforts for the footwear sector in 1995 and the differences in authentic companies' relationships with the government, I identify heterogeneous effects of counterfeit entry on sales of authentic products of three quality tiers. In particular, counterfeits have both advertising effects for the brand and substitution effects for authentic products. The advertising effect dominates substitution effect for high-end authentic product sales, and the substitution effect outweighs advertising effect for low-end product sales. The positive effect of counterfeits is most pronounced for the high-fashion products (such as women's high-leg boots) and for the high-end shoes of the brands that were not yet well-known at the time of the entry by counterfeiters. I provide a theoretical framework to generalize such impacts due to counterfeits. Analogous heterogeneous effects of counterfeiting on consumer purchase intent for branded products of three quality tiers are also discovered in lab experiments. Responses in the lab allude to the fact that counterfeits could increase brand awareness as well as steal business. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series; Working Paper 16785: Accessed June 28, 2011 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16785.pdf Year: 2011 Country: China URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16785.pdf Shelf Number: 121880 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit GoodsProduct Counterfeiting (China) |
Author: Van Slyke, Shanna Title: Social Identification and Public Opinion on White-Collar Crime Summary: White-collar crime accounts for billions of dollars in annual losses but traditionally has been viewed as less serious and less deserving of harsh punishment compared with street crime. This pattern can be observed in public opinion surveys, law-enforcement resource allocations, and criminal justice system sanctioning. Scholars usually distinguish between different types of white-collar crime — bitterly noting the irony that broadened definitions of white-collar crime have perpetuated status-based disparities the very concept was designed to bring to light. Some of these scholars, particularly those study public perceptions, have begun to question the conventional wisdom of widespread public apathy toward the crimes of U.S. economic and political elites. They have pointed at Watergate in the 1970s, the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the wave of national corporate financial failures emerging in 2001–2002, and they have proposed that public outrage stemming from these widely publicized political and economic scandals should serve as a catalyst for sentencing reform that would more accurately tailor punishments to the harms caused. Lengthy prison sentences given to corporate executives and chairman—such as Bernie Madoff’s June 2009 150-year prison sentence—seem to support the argument that a national attitudinal shift has translated into more severe punishments for white-collar offenders. But one could characterize recent severe white-collar sentences—most notably in this regard, Shalom Weiss’s 840-year prison term — as aberrations that are both expressively powerful and functionally indistinguishable from a life sentence with no chance of parole. As such, far from bridging the gap between harm and punishment, these extreme reactions would also fail to represent the majority of white-collar offenders’ experiences with the criminal justice system. Despite financial losses stemming from white-collar crime, most white-collar offenders are not prosecuted as criminal offenders and do not comprise the bulk of U.S. jail and prison populations. The present study addresses this paradox between harm caused, perceived seriousness and desired punitiveness, and the theoretical void in the white-collar crime literature by incorporating the concepts of ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility from the social psychological literature on social identity theory. The study’s purposes, then, are to determine whether there are observable differences in punitiveness toward white-collar and street offenders and then to test the applicability of the proposed integrated theory to explaining punitiveness by employing a representative telephone survey of 400 Floridian adults in 2008. The survey tested 10 hypotheses in several ways: An offense- and an offender-based definition of white-collar crime is used as well as nonviolent economic street crime, incarceration and disenfranchisement support serve as dependent variables; and two forms of offender identification (social and racial) and two forms of threats (offense seriousness and victim identification) are assessed. Incarceration support is modeled for six offenses: elite white-collar crime (corporate fraud and government bribery), consumer fraud white-collar crimes (false advertising and car sales fraud), and nonviolent economic street crimes (motor vehicle theft and burglary). The six offenses were then collapsed into three crime categories designed to represent three basic social status groups and to address the white-collar crime definitional debate: elite white-collar crime (high-status white-collar crime), consumer fraud white-collar crime (middle-status white-collar crime), and nonviolent economic street crime (low-status non-white-collar crime). No violent street crimes were included to enhance the comparability between the street crimes and white-collar crimes; likewise, the selected street crimes were economically motivated so they would also have the same basic motive (unlike non-violent street crimes like vandalism or drug use). Bivariate correlations revealed differences in public opinion, but the definition of white-collar crime (i.e., offense or offender based) and the measure of punitiveness (i.e., support for incarceration and for disenfranchisement) impacted the results. Multivariate logistic regression results indicate that offense seriousness had the consistent effect on increasing punitiveness for street crimes, but rarely influenced punishment recommendations for white-collar crimes—particularly those of the powerful corporate and government elites. However, little support emerged supporting the hypotheses derived from social identity theory. Rarely have past studies identified variables that are related to punitiveness toward white-collar offenders, be they theoretical or control variables. The present study, on the other hand, drew from the available research literature, identified the theoretical concept of social identification, and empirically tested this concept’s association with incarceration and disenfranchisement recommendations for white-collar and street property offenders. Social identification was not always related to punitiveness; moreover, the hypothesized positive effect of social identification interacting with perceived seriousness failed to materialize. Yet social identification itself increased punitiveness in several models and this is an advancement of our knowledge about public opinion on white-collar crime—albeit an advancement in need of refinement. Theoretically, this study introduced the idea of social identity to the study of white-collar crime, a phenomenon that has long been anecdotally characterized as crime by seemingly normal and respectable individuals, but which has recently exhibited signs of increased governmental intervention and sanctioning. The unexpected findings were explained by drawing upon labeling theory and by discussing the differential roles of information in influencing punitive attitudes. A different causal model is then suggested wherein strength of incriminating evidence is predicted to moderate the effect of social identification on punitiveness toward white-collar offenders. In this revised model to be tested in future research, social identification is not predicted to interact with seriousness to influence punitiveness; rather, it is hypothesized to influence punitiveness indirectly through its influence on perceptions of guilt. The conclusion focuses upon the contradiction between the U.S. government’s relative neglect of white-collar crime and contemporary empirical evidence on public punitiveness toward white-collar and street offenders. Bernie Madoff’s recent 150-year is revisited, and it is concluded that recent examples of harsh white-collar crime sanctioning do not reflect a significant shift in attitudes. Instead, returning to social identity theory, it is proposed that certain offenders have gotten singled out in order to for the government send a symbolic message of intolerance toward corporate crime while at the same time, the criminogenic opportunity and motivation structures of U.S. finance capitalism are left untouched and ineffectively regulated, thus perpetuating the problem of white-collar crime. Details: Tallahassee: Florida State University, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2009. 144p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 17, 2011 at: http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-10272009-160114/ Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-10272009-160114/ Shelf Number: 122424 Keywords: Consumer FraudPublic AttitudesPublic OpinionPunishmentWhite-Collar Crime |
Author: Ledbury Research Title: Counterfeiting Luxury: Exposing the Myths. 2nd ed. Summary: Building on the findings of the 2006 Edition of Counterfeiting Luxury: Exposing the Myths Report, our 2007 edition probes further into the impact that counterfeit and look-alike products has on luxury brands in the UK. Based on the results of an extensive survey of over 2,000 consumers and a number of focus groups, this report reviews what changes have taken place over the last 12 months in terms of purchasing drivers and attitudes of consumers of counterfeit and look-alike goods and provides guidance to brand owners as to how to change consumer behaviour. Details: London: Davenport Lyons, 2007. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 23, 2011 at: http://www.a-cg.org/guest/pdf/Counterfeiting_Luxury_2007_Report.pdf Year: 2007 Country: International URL: http://www.a-cg.org/guest/pdf/Counterfeiting_Luxury_2007_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 122472 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit GoodsCounterfeitingCrime Prevention |
Author: Ross, Stuart Title: Risk Factors for Advance Fee Fraud Victimisation Summary: Fraud is Australia’s most costly form of crime with the Australian Institute of Criminology estimating that in excess of $8.5b was lost to fraud in 2005 (Rollings 2008). Consumer fraud alone has been found to cost Australians almost $1b each year (ABS 2008c). Most types of consumer fraud entail the use of so-called ‘advance fee’ techniques in which individuals are tricked into paying money — an ‘advance fee’ — upfront in order to secure an anticipated financial or other benefit at a later date. However, the promises of wealth are false and victims invariably lose their payments in full. Such scams have had a huge impact globally, with Ultrascan (2008) estimating that US $4.3b was lost to advance fee fraud in 2006. To date, however, there has been only limited research on how and why people respond to such unsolicited invitations and become victims. This paper examines the characteristics of a sample of victims of advance fee frauds to determine how their behaviour and personal circumstances might have contributed to their willingness to respond to unsolicited invitations and to their subsequent loss of money or personal information. Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2011. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, No. 420: Accessed September 2, 2011 at: http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/2/1/1/%7B21101BFB-1F54-4BC5-B9A8-A837E41DE7BB%7Dtandi420.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Australia URL: http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/2/1/1/%7B21101BFB-1F54-4BC5-B9A8-A837E41DE7BB%7Dtandi420.pdf Shelf Number: 122618 Keywords: Consumer FraudFinancial Fraud (Australia) |
Author: ETH Zurick Title: Problem-Analysis Report on Counterfeiting and Illicit Trade Summary: Counterfeiting and product piracy constitute a serious and ever growing problem against legally run businesses and owners of intellectual property rights. Counterfeiting is not specific to any industry but it affects a large number of sectors such as the music, software, and luxury goods industries, and also pharmaceutical industry, automobile industry, fast moving consumer goods industry, and toys. According to the International Chamber of Commerce, “[c]ounterfeiting and piracy are growing exponentially in terms of volume, sophistication, range of goods, and countries affected - this has significant negative economic and social impact for governments, consumers and businesses [...].” Product counterfeiting has many victims: Different kinds of counterfeit products threaten the health and safety of end-users and consumers, sometimes with the most serious consequences. Legally run businesses and governments are affected by a number of direct and indirect economic losses which decreases the welfare of affected societies. By understanding and continuously surveying the problem and available countermeasures, however, companies can protect their products and mitigate the negative impacts and ensure the safety of consumers. In addition, alongside with the development of technologies that enable counterfeiting on an industry scale, technology also allows for novel countermeasures. Most importantly, mass-serialization is changing the way product information is managed by giving unique identities to individual items. One implication of this higher level of information granularity is that the physical security of products can be improved in terms of novel anti-counterfeiting techniques, as well as with the detection of illicit trade activities. The potential of RFID and the EPCnetwork in enabling these novel anti-counterfeiting and anti-fraud techniques is well recognized. Even though it seems that there will never be one silver bullet solution against illicit trade, industries and academia see mass-serialization among the most promising single countermeasures. There are two major reasons for using EPCnetwork technology in anti-counterfeiting: First, RFID allows for new, automated and secure ways to efficiently authenticate physical items. Secondly, as many companies invest in networked RFID technology for varying supply chain applications, the item-level data will be gathered in any case – so why not using it to find counterfeit products? This report will provide a problem analysis of product counterfeiting and illicit trade as a first step towards making use of the potential of networked RFID technology to counter the problem of illicit trade. Details: Paris(?): BRIDGE (Building Radio Frequency IDentification for the Global Environment), 2007. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 3, 2011 at: http://www.bridge-project.eu/data/File/BRIDGE%20WP05%20%20Anti-Counterfeiting%20Problem%20Analysis.pdf Year: 2007 Country: International URL: http://www.bridge-project.eu/data/File/BRIDGE%20WP05%20%20Anti-Counterfeiting%20Problem%20Analysis.pdf Shelf Number: 122969 Keywords: Consumer FraudCrime PreventionIllicit TradeIntellectual Property RightsProduct Counterfeiting |
Author: ETH Zurich Title: Anti-counterfeiting Requirements Report Summary: This deliverable presents the requirements analysis for the anti-counterfeiting system that is under development in this work package. The envisaged system will authenticate products and it can be used to prevent counterfeit products from entering the distribution channel of genuine products. We define authentication of products as the verification of a product’s claimed identity. Because WP5 of the BRIDGE project is a business work package without a specific intended end-user company for the investigated anti-counterfeiting solution, this deliverable focuses on analyzing how potential technical solutions fit the requirements of anti-counterfeiting rather than on describing a list of requirements of a specific system. Interviews with different industries revealed that the end-users of the product authentication system, that is companies affected by product counterfeiting, need a fast and reliable online check that could be used by all business partners and for different kinds of products. Companies would also like to have the RFID-based product authentication system to be closely linked to other services, for instance to support supply chain management activities. Different industries have different requirements regarding the specific use of the RFID-based product authentication system. These requirements mostly relate to how the RFID tags are integrated into the products, what kind of RFID tags should be used, and how the tags are read. The level of security in RFID-based product authentication systems is an important cost factor because a higher level of security is achieved by cryptographic RFID tags that are more expensive than the common RFID tags. Overall, companies desire a secure and inexpensive system but find it hard to precisely specify the required level of security. Interviews with customs revealed that having a standard solution that can be used to authenticate different products is of primary importance for them. According to the interviews, customs officers would most benefit from a system that could be used to authenticate suspicious products with mobile devices. Analysis of functional security requirements of product authentication in general shows that there are three distinct approaches to authenticate products, depending on how the tag cloning attack is mitigated. Tag cloning attack refers to copying a genuine product’s ID number onto another tag that is attached to a counterfeit product. These approaches are: tag authentication (i.e. use of cryptographic tags), location-based authentication (i.e. track and trace based plausibility check), and authentication based on object-specific security features (i.e. product’s physical fingerprint). We have identified several solution concepts to to authenticate RFID-tagged products in the EPC network. Analysis of the current EPC network’s conformance to the identified requirements revealed that the network’s support for the detection of cloned tags is far from optimal and should be improved by an automated analysis of the track and trace data of the product’s locations. Completely automated product authentication check (instead of such that relies on users of the system analyzing the traces of products by themselves) is furthermore required by the industries as well as customs. Therefore in the future steps of this work package we will opt for the development of a track and trace based product authentication system that automatically detects the cloned tags. The goal of this work package is to study how the existing RFID and EPC technologies can be applied to anti-counterfeiting. Hence, the development of completely new technical solutions such as novel cryptographic tag authentication protocols is out of the scope of work package. The technical contribution of this work package will focus on application areas of the existing techniques, such as how to use the RFID track and trace data to detect cloned tags. Details: Paris(?): BRIDGE (Building Radio frequency IDentification for the Global Environment), 2007. 85p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 3, 2011 at: http://www.bridge-project.eu/data/File/BRIDGE%20WP05%20Anti-Counterfeiting%20Requirements%20Report.pdf Year: 2007 Country: International URL: http://www.bridge-project.eu/data/File/BRIDGE%20WP05%20Anti-Counterfeiting%20Requirements%20Report.pdf Shelf Number: 122978 Keywords: Consumer FraudCrime PreventionIntellectural Property RightsProduct Counterfeiting |
Author: Martinsohn, Jann Th. Title: Deterring Illegal Activities in the Fisheries Sector: Genetics, Genomics, Chemistry and Forensics to Fight IUU Fishing and in Support of Fish Product Traceability Summary: Marine fish are a precious natural resource and their exploitation for nutrition and income is deeply embedded in human culture. However, massive fishing activity, both legal and illegal, has had dramatic impacts, and poses a threat to the future of the fisheries sector. Virtually 70% of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited or in a state of collapse. European waters are not exempt, with almost 90% of fish stocks being overexploited. IUU fishing (Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing) is vastly contributing to this situation. In 2010, the value of IUU fi shing amounted to 10-20 billion Euros annually, with at least 1.1 billion Euros worth of illegal fish being imported into the European Union every year. Furthermore, fraud along the supply chain with fish products sold under false labels, such as low-cost catfish as valuable sole or cod fillets, poses additional challenges. These illegal activities have severe adverse effects, as they undermine sustainable fisheries, cause destruction of marine ecosystems, obstruct socioeconomic development, and impede consumer information and protection. A number of nations have developed strategies to deter and fight illegal fishing activities, and numerous countries have adopted the International Plan of Action to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU Fishing (IPOAIUU), that has been developed in 2001 within the framework of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries by the FAO. The European Union has recently taken further initiatives and developped two major and complementing legal instruments: in January 2010, Council regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 (1), - the ‘IUU regulation’, entered into force, and in November 2009, Council regulation (EC) No 1224/2009[1] (2) - the new Control regulation- establishing a Community control system was adopted and is in the process of being implemented. Both regulations place emphasis on detailed catch documentation and traceability for fishery products ‘from ocean to fork’, that is, covering all stages of the supply chain from catch, to landing, transport, processing, and the markets. Traceability is generally acknowledged as being a highly powerful tool in support of monitoring, control and enforcement in the fisheries sector. However, currently it is mainly based on certificates accompanying goods, and labelling of products, both measures which are vulnerable to falsification. So how can inspectors and control and enforcement authorities validate and authenticate the information provided by documentation? How can the industry assure that the fish it is processing and selling is what it is supposed to be, e.g. the correct species and fi shed legally? And finally how can the consumer be certain that the information provided for fish products is correct? A system is needed to effectively trace fish products throughout the food supply chain that is supported by independent control measures. Likewise control and enforcement authorities need efficient analytical tools for generating evidence in court trials. Molecular techniques based on genetics, genomics and chemistry, and embedded in a forensic framework, have great potential in this respect. This JRC report describes available molecular techniques and technologies and discusses how these can be used for traceability and in support of fisheries control and enforcement. The report provides examples of cases where molecular techniques were employed to reveal fisheries fraud and to generate evidence in court cases. These examples clearly demonstrate the feasibility and operational potential of the techniques in real-world contexts. Furthermore, the report explores possibilities for translating forensic genetics and chemistry into a European fisheries control and enforcement framework, within the context of the current EU policies and legislation. Details: Brussels: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 28, 2011 at:http://ec.europa.eu Year: 2011 Country: Europe URL: http://ec.europa.eu Shelf Number: 123164 Keywords: Consumer FraudFish Trade, Corrupt PracticesFishery Law and RegulationIllegal Fishing (Europe)Natural Resources |
Author: Franses, Philip Hans Title: Diffusion of Original and Counterfeit Products in a Developing Country Summary: We study the diffusion of original and counterfeit products in three distinct categories in a developing country. The focus is on when their diffusion processes peak, how sales of original and counterfeit products are related and how marketing efforts can influence this process. Using a unique data set for Suriname (South America) on televisions, mobile phones and DVDs, we can support various predictions from theory and give recommendations for marketing management. Details: Rotterdam: Erasmus University, Econometric Institute, 2010. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Economic Institute Report 2010-08: Accessed November 3, 2011 at: http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/dgreureir/1765018260.htm Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/dgreureir/1765018260.htm Shelf Number: 123222 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit Goods (Developing Countries) |
Author: Budzilowicz, Lisa M. Title: Who's on First? Challenges Facing Prosecutors and Financial Institutions in Responding to Identity Theft Summary: Prosecutors and law enforcement struggle with how to approach victimized financial institutions and their consumers. Prosecutors rely on prompt reporting of crime and they need to access financial institutions' information, such as account data, video evidence, and witness statements, as evidence of the crimes. This report examines how prosecutors and financial institutions can work together to prevent, investigate, and prosecution identity theft. Details: Alexandria, VA: National District Attorneys Association, American Prosecutors Research Institute, 2007. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: Special Topics Series: Accessed January 13, 2012 at: http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/pub_whos_on_first_07.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/pub_whos_on_first_07.pdf Shelf Number: 123607 Keywords: Consumer FraudCybercrimeFinancial CrimesIdentity TheftProsecutors |
Author: U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (CACP) Title: No Trade in Fakes Supply Chain Tool Kit Summary: The growing problem of counterfeiting and piracy threatens businesses and consumers in nearly every region of the world. Fake products deprive legitimate businesses of revenue and undermine consumer confidence in their brand names. The damage affects both the brand and domestic and foreign subcontractors that supply materials, components, and finished products to the brand owner. Consumers are also adversely affected because they are deceived into buying fake products that don't meet the brand owner's standards and can pose health and safety hazards. Governments have a particularly critical role to play in this effort. They must create the necessary legal infrastructure to protect trademarks and copyrights effectively and enforce intellectual property laws to deter fraudulent behavior. Businesses, however, must also do their part to prevent the production and sale of counterfeit products. Many aspects of the counterfeiting problem are beyond the control of businesses. But one important area over which businesses can exert a large measure of control is the security of their supply chain. Lax security creates opportunities for counterfeit and stolen goods to make their way into legitimate production, wholesale, and retail channels. Globalization, the Internet, and advanced technology have made it easier for counterfeiters to infiltrate fake products into the supply chain and increase the availability of these products in markets around the world. Yet many businesses, particularly small and medium-size companies, do not fully appreciate the bottom-line cost of lax supply chain security and the adverse impact it has on brand value. To assist businesses and raise awareness of the importance of supply chain security, the Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (CACP) has developed a tool kit of best practices that companies in a variety of industry sectors are using to improve their internal systems and coordinate with other stakeholders, including subcontractors and government authorities. The CACP recognizes that supply chain requirements vary from industry to industry. There is not one set of best practices effective for all businesses. However, there are lessons that can be learned from businesses that take the security of their supply chains seriously. The following tool kit provides a useful guide for businesses to assess the effectiveness of their supply chain practices and consider new options for improving performance. In addition, this tool kit includes 7 case studies highlighting companies who are employing successful strategies to help protect their products from counterfeiters and modern-day pirates. Details: Washington, DC: Accenture, 2006. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 13, 2012 at http://www.fnal.gov/directorate/OQBP/sci/sci_reference_docs/SCI%20No%20Trade%20in%20Fakes%20CACP.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://www.fnal.gov/directorate/OQBP/sci/sci_reference_docs/SCI%20No%20Trade%20in%20Fakes%20CACP.pdf Shelf Number: 124469 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeitingCrime PreventionCrimes Against BusinessesPiracy |
Author: U.S. Federal Trade Commission Title: Using FACTA Remedies: An FTC Report on a Survey of Identity Theft Victims Summary: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) maintains a longstanding and comprehensive program to combat identity theft. The FTC enforces a variety of laws requiring entities to protect consumer information and ensure that such information does not fall into the hands of identity thieves or other unauthorized persons. For example, the FTC enforces the Safeguards Rule under the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act; the Fair Credit Reporting Act; and the FTC Act's proscription against unfair and deceptive acts or practices in cases where a business makes false or misleading claims about its data security procedures, or where its failure to employ reasonable security measures causes or is likely to cause substantial consumer injury that is not reasonably avoidable by consumers and not outweighed by countervailing benefits. Since 2001, the Commission has brought 35 law enforcement actions to ensure that businesses implement reasonable safeguards to protect the consumer information they maintain. In addition, the FTC manages the Identity Theft Clearinghouse, a secure online database of identity theft-related complaints, and analyzes this data to target consumer education efforts and assist criminal law enforcers. The FTC also disseminates consumer education materials on identity theft, both directly and through public and private sector partners. To further combat the problem of identity theft, in 2007, then-President Bush established an Identity Theft Task Force to craft a comprehensive national strategy. The Task Force issued a strategic plan, making over 30 recommendations for improving the federal identity theft strategy. One of the recommendations was that the agencies involved in enforcing the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) assess the impact and effectiveness of the rights established by Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) through the use of surveys. FACTA gives consumers the right to: place fraud alerts with the consumer reporting agencies (CRAs); request a free credit report from each of the three national CRAs (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) when placing a fraud alert; block fraudulent information from appearing in their credit reports; receive a notice of these and other rights from the CRAs. Accordingly, the FTC conducted a survey of consumers who had contacted the FTC to report that they were victims of identity theft. The survey was designed to determine these consumers' general satisfaction with utilizing their FACTA rights and to examine the types of problems and issues they encountered while doing so. Because almost all of the FACTA rights involve the CRAs, which maintain consumer credit files, the survey focused largely on the victims' interactions with the CRAs. This report summarizes the FTC staff's methodology in carrying out this survey, the results of the survey, and recommendations for further steps to assist consumers in utilizing their FACTA rights. Details: Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission, 2012. 73p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 13, 2012 at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2012/03/factareport.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2012/03/factareport.pdf Shelf Number: 124516 Keywords: Consumer FraudIdentity Theft (U.S.)Victimization SurveysVictims of Crime |
Author: Warner, Kimberly Title: Oceana Study Reveals Seafood Fraud Nationwide Summary: Americans are routinely urged to include more seafood in their diets as part of a healthy lifestyle. Yet consumers are often given inadequate, confusing or misleading information about the seafood they purchase. The dishonest and illegal practice of substituting one seafood species for another, or seafood fraud, has been uncovered both in the United States and abroad at levels ranging from 25 to more than 70 percent for commonly swapped species such as red snapper, wild salmon and Atlantic cod. From 2010 to 2012, Oceana conducted one of the largest seafood fraud investigations in the world to date, collecting more than 1,200 seafood samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states to determine if they were honestly labeled. DNA testing found that one-third (33 percent) of the 1,215 samples analyzed nationwide were mislabeled, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines. Of the most commonly collected fish types, samples sold as snapper and tuna had the highest mislabeling rates (87 and 59 percent, respectively), with the majority of the samples identified by DNA analysis as something other than what was found on the label. In fact, only seven of the 120 samples of red snapper purchased nationwide were actually red snapper. The other 113 samples were another fish. Halibut, grouper, cod and Chilean seabass were also mislabeled between 19 and 38 percent of the time, while salmon was mislabeled 7 percent of the time. Forty-four percent of all the retail outlets visited sold mislabeled fish. Restaurants, grocery stores and sushi venues all sold mislabeled fish and chances of being swindled varied greatly depending on where the seafood was purchased. Our study identified strong national trends in seafood mislabeling levels among retail types, with sushi venues ranking the highest (74 percent), followed by restaurants (38 percent) and then grocery stores (18 percent). These same trends among retail outlets were generally observed at the regional level. Seafood substitutions included species carrying health advisories (e.g. king mackerel sold as grouper; escolar sold as white tuna), cheaper farmed fish sold as wild (e.g. tilapia sold as red snapper), and overfished, imperiled or vulnerable species sold as more sustainable catch (e.g. Atlantic halibut sold as Pacific halibut). Our testing also turned up species not included among the more than 1,700 seafood species the federal government recognizes as sold or likely to be sold in the U.S. As our results demonstrate, a high level of mislabeling nationwide indicates that seafood fraud harms not only the consumer’s pocket book, but also every honest vendor or fisherman along the supply chain. These fraudulent practices also carry potentially serious concerns for the health of consumers, and for the health of our oceans and vulnerable fish populations. Because our study was restricted to seafood sold in retail outlets, we cannot say exactly where the fraudulent activity occurred. The global seafood supply chain is increasingly complex and obscure. With lagging federal oversight and minimal government inspection despite rising fish imports, and without sampling along the supply chain, it is difficult to determine if fraud is occurring at the boat, during processing, at the wholesale level, at the retail counter or somewhere else along the way. Our findings demonstrate that a comprehensive and transparent traceability system – one that tracks fish from boat to plate – must be established at the national level. At the same time, increased inspection and testing of our seafood, specifically for mislabeling, and stronger federal and state enforcement of existing laws combatting fraud are needed to reverse these disturbing trends. Our government has a responsibility to provide more information about the fish sold in the U.S., as seafood fraud harms not only consumers’ wallets, but also every honest vendor and fisherman cheated in the process--to say nothing of the health of our oceans. Details: Washington, DC: Oceana, 2013. 69p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 26, 2013 at: http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/reports/National_Seafood_Fraud_Testing_Results_FINAL.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/reports/National_Seafood_Fraud_Testing_Results_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 127714 Keywords: Consumer FraudFishingIllegal PracticesSeafood Fraud |
Author: De Cat, Dennis Title: Counterfeiting and Consumer Behaviour Summary: Many reports state that the overall magnitude of counterfeiting is obviously on the rise. For instance, the Taxation and Customs Union from the European Commission (EC) reports that the number of counterfeit articles detained in EU member states only, has risen from 25 million in 1999 to 178 million in 2008 (European Commission, 2008). The most frequently cited number to ‘value’ counterfeiting is the one the OECD proposes in their analysis of international trade data. They suggest that, worldwide, up to USD 200 billion of internationally traded products could have been counterfeit in 2005. However, one must remain critical. As the OECD report suggests itself, “available information on counterfeiting and piracy falls far short of what is needed for robust analysis and for policymaking”. Chaudry and Zimmerman (2008) even state it is virtually impossible to determine the real size of the worldwide counterfeit product market as it concerns an illegal activity. Green and Smith (2002) blame the fact that there exists no exact standard or agreement about the factors that should be taken into account when calculating the monetary value of counterfeiting for this non-transparency. Nevertheless, they also suggest that product counterfeiting is significant and growing. This statement is confirmed by previous research on the reasons of counterfeit growth by Vagg and Harris (2000). Not only the magnitude of counterfeiting is increasing. The same goes for the scope of counterfeiting. Chaudry and Zimmerman (2008) state that the types of products being counterfeited are broadening. Not only CD’s, DVD’s, computer equipment, clothes and shoes are being counterfeited. Other product categories frequently being imitated are toys, pharmaceuticals, automobile component parts, electrical equipment, food and beverages, tobacco and personal care products. This is confirmed by the OECD (2008) which even finds a shift from luxury goods to common consumer goods. These results are also congruent with the findings of the Taxation and Customs Union from the EC. Gentry et al. (2006) even put it more extreme: “If one can attach some value to a consumer brand, one is likely to find counterfeit imitations of it, somewhere.” This view is supported by Lewis (2009) who ads the aspect of the illegal profit margin that has to be high enough before a product is attractive for being counterfeited. Despite the fact that other product categories are on the rise, the OECD (2008) and the EC (2008) report that fashion items (i.e. clothing, jewellery, accessories and footwear) still account for the largest part of counterfeit trade, e.g. the textile sector and jewellery together make up 66,2% of all interventions by European Customs. Gessler (2009) states that counterfeiting is the major obstacle the luxury fashion industry is facing today. These astonishing numbers explain why the author opted for investigating non-deceptive counterfeiting (i.e. people are fully aware of the fact they are buying a counterfeit at the time of purchase) and consumer behaviour in the luxury fashion industry. The consequences of counterfeiting are enormous at various levels. Gessler (2009) divides ‘the true costs of counterfeiting’, i.e. the consequences of the phenomenon, in six categories: the cost to brand owners, government burdens, the effects counterfeiting has on consumers, child and forced labour issues in the production of these counterfeits, organised crime and terrorist funding activities of counterfeiters and the moral cost of counterfeiting. Later on in this paper the author will make a distinction on the basis of personal and societal harm counterfeit trade causes. One thing is clear: counterfeiting may no longer be seen as a victimless crime as it has a damaging effect on businesses, national economies, consumers and on society as a whole (UNICRI, 2009; Santos and Ribeiro, 2006). In the anti-counterfeiting literature many authors propose different strategies to counter product and brand counterfeiting. These anti-counterfeiting tactics range from the use of RFID tags (Tuyls and Batina, 2006) to the development of new legal frameworks (Bush et al., 2001). However, Berman (2008) states also companies can contribute to the reduction of the counterfeiting problem through the development of consumer education programs that publicize the personal and societal dangers counterfeiting causes. A part of this education process is that ‘marketers need to develop advertising campaigns that focus on the significant safety, performance and financial risks associated with the purchase of counterfeit merchandise’. To the author’s best knowledge, no such research has been conducted before that classifies and investigates the potential consequences of counterfeiting in such an extensive way. Furthermore, by integrating the construct of ‘societal harm’, this research responds to the critical remark Gessler (2009) made: ‘Unfortunately, the societal impact of counterfeiting remains largely under researched and often neglected’. In this research we will assess the impact of consumers’ awareness of societal consequences on their attitudes toward purchasing CLFI. Altogether, the main interest of this research goes out to examining consumers’ attitude toward purchasing counterfeit luxury fashion items (CLFI) and their intention to purchase CLFI. More specifically, the author will be investigating if there exists a difference in attitude toward purchasing CLFI if one is being informed about the personal harm counterfeits cause rather than being informed about the societal consequences bound to counterfeit trade. In addition, several factors proven important in previous research (e.g. subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, etc.) will be reinvestigated in a Belgian context. The relationship between the price level, the quality level and perceived quality will be examined as well. Finally, the linkage between attitudes and intentions is assessed in a counterfeit-related context. Details: Ghent, Belgium: Ghent University, 2010. 109p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed March 7, 2013 at: http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/459/733/RUG01-001459733_2011_0001_AC.pdf Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/459/733/RUG01-001459733_2011_0001_AC.pdf Shelf Number: 127865 Keywords: Consumer BehaviorConsumer FraudCounterfeit GoodsCounterfeiting |
Author: Kukorowski, Drew Title: Please Deposit All of Your Money: Kickbacks, Rates, and Hidden Fees in the Jail Phone Industry Summary: At a time when the cost of a phone call is approaching zero, one population is forced to pay astronomical sums to stay in touch: the families of incarcerated people. For a child to speak with her incarcerated parent, a family member or friend is forced to pay almost $1 per minute, plus a long list of other fees that easily double the total cost of the call. Faced with phone bills that can total hundreds of dollars, many families have to choose between paying for calls and paying for basic living expenses. Social science research shows that strong community ties are one of the best predictors of success after release from prison or jail, but the prison telephone market threatens those ties because it is uniquely structured to create a counter-productive cycle of exploitation: prison systems and local jails award the monopoly contracts to the phone company that will charge the highest rates and share the largest portion of the profits. The prisons and jails get their commissions, the phone industry gets the fees, and the families get the hefty bills. While previous research has documented the unjustifiably high calling rates in the prison phone industry, this report is the first to address in depth the many fees prison phone customers must pay. We find that meaningful regulation of the prison phone industry must stem from a comprehensive analysis of the customers' whole bills, rather than limiting the discussion to addressing the high per-minute calling rates alone. This report finds that fees have an enormous impact on prison phone bills, making up 38% of the $1 billion annual price of calling home. This report details the fees that prison phone companies charge for "services" such as: •accepting customers' money (deposit fees of up to $10/deposit) •holding on to customers' money (monthly account fees as high as $12) •closing customers' accounts (refund fees of up to $10) This report reveals that these fees are but the tip of the iceberg, though, as many other charges are far less transparent. For example, some companies operate "single call programs" that charge customers who do not have preexisting accounts up to $14.99 to receive a single call from a prison or jail. Some companies have hidden profit-sharing agreements with payment processors such as Western Union, which are not disclosed to the correctional systems that award contracts. Other companies give their fees government-sounding names, even though the fees are not required by the government and may not even be paid to the government. Unlike in most industries, bad customer service is a key source of revenue for prison phone companies. For example, most of the industry finds it economically advantageous to use poorly calibrated security systems to drop phone calls and trigger additional connection charges. Other companies show no hesitation to triple the cost of a call made to a local cellphone by charging consumers the more expensive long distance rate. Previous research has generally focused on the price to call home from state and federal prisons, but we find that limiting the scope to prisons only significantly understates the sheer number of families that must bear the burden of exorbitant phone bills. This report expands the discussion to also include the families and friends of the more than 12 million people who cycle through 3,000 local jails across the country every year. To our knowledge, almost no local jails refuse commission payments in order to make calling home more feasible. Because the opportunities for consumer exploitation in this broken marketplace are almost endless, regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the only permanent, nationwide solution that would remove the inherent conflicts of interest between the facilities that award monopoly contracts, the companies that execute them, and the families that pay the price. The FCC should craft a regulatory solution that is based on a comprehensive view of the prison phone industry, taking into account each of the components that contribute to customers' high bills, including fees. Details: Northampton, MA: Prison Policy Initiative, 2013. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 30, 2013: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/pleasedeposit.html Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/pleasedeposit.html Shelf Number: 128874 Keywords: Consumer FraudFamilies of InmatesJailsPrisoners (U.S.)Telephones |
Author: Holtfreter, Kristy Title: Final Report: Financial Exploitation of the Elderly in a Consumer Context Summary: National studies document that financial exploitation (e.g., fraud victimization) of elderly consumers has become an increasingly prominent problem, one likely to assume greater urgency as larger proportions of Americans enter the ranks of the elderly. Indeed, all 50 states have enacted elder abuse statutes, many of which focus on addressing financial exploitation of the elderly. Yet, remarkably little is known about the (1) true prevalence of elderly fraud victimization, save that it appears to be greatly underreported, (2) the risk and protective factors, other than physical limitations, associated with such victimization, or (3) what is effective in reducing it. These significant gaps make it difficult to develop effective policies. Which types of frauds are most common, and what are risk factors should be targeted in reducing them? Compared to the national average, the population of citizens age 60 and older is significantly higher in the states of Arizona and Florida. These population characteristics, coupled with current crime prevention efforts by both states' Attorneys General, point to a unique opportunity to shed light on financial exploitation and, more pointedly, to provide guidance to these and other states on how they might best focus their efforts to reduce such victimization. To this end, we propose a timely and cost-effective, multi-method study to address these important research and policy gaps. The study's goals are to provide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers with a greater, empirically-based understanding of the distribution and causes of, as well as solutions to financial exploitation of the elderly in a consumer context. The objectives are: (1) To determine the nature, incidence, and prevalence of fraud victimization among elderly consumers in Arizona and Florida; (2) To identify risk and protective factors associated with fraud victimization in this population; and (3) To evaluate the effectiveness of service providers, including assessment of the elderly population's awareness of state based programs, barriers to and facilitators of program use, and impacts on victimization. This 2-year study includes a telephone survey of 1,000 Arizonians and 1,000 Floridians over the age of 60, as well as interviews with elder service providers. We will examine (1) indicators of the nature and prevalence of financial exploitation, including identification of the victim offender relationship and dollar amount lost; (2) risk and protective factors (e.g., financial risk-taking, trust propensity, lifestyle characteristics, routine consumer activities, and personal characteristics); and (3) respondents awareness and use of state Attorney General services, including assessment of potential barriers to and facilitators of program use, as well as reporting behavior to law enforcement and perceptions of law enforcement responsiveness. The research team will conduct descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. Particular emphasis will be given to identifying theoretically-informed variables that predict fraud victimization and reporting behavior. Regression analyses will allow us to identify risk and protective factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of fraud victimization and reporting. Data obtained from semi-structured interviews with service provider staff will help identify barriers to and facilitators of program success. Details: Final Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2014. 186p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2014 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/245388.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/245388.pdf Shelf Number: 132217 Keywords: Consumer FraudElderly VictimsFinancial CrimesFinancial Exploitation |
Author: Cheney, Julia Title: Identity Theft as a Teachable Moment Summary: This paper examines how instances of identity theft that are sufficiently severe to induce consumers to place an extended fraud alert in their credit reports affect their risk scores, delinquencies, and other credit bureau variables on impact and thereafter. We show that for many consumers these effects are relatively small and transitory. However, for a significant number of consumers, especially those with lower risk scores prior to the event, there are more persistent and generally positive effects on credit bureau variables, including risk scores. We argue that these positive changes for subprime consumers are consistent with the effect of increased salience of credit file information to the consumer at the time of the identity theft. Details: Philadelphia: Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 2014. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 14-28: Accessed October 1, 2014 at: http://www.phil.frb.org/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2014/wp14-28.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.phil.frb.org/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2014/wp14-28.pdf Shelf Number: 133523 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionCredit Car FraudIdentity Theft (U.S.) |
Author: Cho, Soo-Haeng Title: Combating Strategic Counterfeiters in Licit and Illicit Supply Chains Summary: Counterfeit goods are becoming more sophisticated, from shoes to infant milk powder to aircraft parts, creating problems for consumers, firms, and governments. By comparing two types of counterfeiters-deceptive, so infiltrating a licit (but complicit) distributor, or nondeceptive in an illicit channel-we provide insights into the impact of anticounterfeiting strategies on a brand-name company, a counterfeiter, and consumers. Our analysis highlights that the effectiveness of these strategies depends critically on whether a brand-name company faces a nondeceptive or deceptive counterfeiter. For example, by improving quality, the brand-name company can improve her expected profit against a nondeceptive counterfeiter when the counterfeiter steals an insignificant amount of brand value. However, the same strategy does not work well against the deceptive counterfeiter unless high quality facilitates the seizure of deceptive counterfeits significantly. Similarly, reducing price works well in combating the nondeceptive counterfeiter, but it could be ineffective against the deceptive counterfeiter. Moreover, the strategies that improve the profit of the brand-name company may benefit the counterfeiter inadvertently and even hurt consumer welfare. Therefore, firms and governments should carefully consider a trade-off among different objectives in implementing an anticounterfeiting strategy. Details: Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business, 2014. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 16, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1525743 Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1525743 Shelf Number: 135682 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionCounterfeit ProductsCounterfeitingSupply Chains |
Author: Camerini, Diana Title: Estimating the counterfeit markets in Europe Summary: Counterfeiting is a global phenomenon that threatens the economic stability and sustainable growth of countries. A growing number of researchers, stakeholders, and public or private institutions have been producing a wide variety of studies and estimates on counterfeit markets. However, these studies are varied in scope and sometimes based on unclear methodologies. This prevents comparisons across time and space. In recent decades, Transcrime has contributed to the development of transparent and rigorous methodologies for the analysis of illegal activities. This study presents an update of the approach used by Transcrime to estimate the size of the various counterfeit markets at EU level. It starts with a brief review of what is known about counterfeiting in the EU (i.e. routes, products, consumers and previous studies). It then proposes new estimates of the expenditures for ten different counterfeit markets in the 28 EU Member States using a demand-size approach. Finally, it discusses policy and research implications Details: Trento: Transcrime, 2015. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Transcrime Research in Brief 03: Accessed march 29, 2016 at: http://www.transcrime.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Estimating-the-counterfeit-markets-in-Europe.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://www.transcrime.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Estimating-the-counterfeit-markets-in-Europe.pdf Shelf Number: 138453 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit Goods Counterfeit Products |
Author: Kroll Title: Global Fraud Report: Vulnerabilities on the Rise. Annual Edition 2015/16 Summary: 768 senior executives from a broad range of industries worldwide were polled this year-and the results yielded some surprising insights. The overall picture is that fraud has continued to increase, leaving businesses feeling more vulnerable and at risk than ever before. Details: New York: Kroll, Inc., 2015. 85p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 7, 2016 at: http://www.kroll.com/global-fraud-report Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://www.kroll.com/global-fraud-report Shelf Number: 138599 Keywords: Consumer FraudCrimes Against BusinessesFraud and Corruption |
Author: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) Title: Counterfeit Medicines and Organised Crime Summary: Counterfeit medicines are among the counterfeit products with the greatest potential for harming the health of consumers. The production of pharmaceuticals is heavily regulated in order to ensure product compliance with the highest quality and safety standards. All drugs must undergo clinical trials before being marketed in order to test their efficiency, verify their quality and exclude the potential existence of side effects on patients. These institutional and technical measures are meant to work as a safety valve to guarantee the quality of medicines. Counterfeit products do not respect any of these regulations and requirements. Despite the existence of controls, counterfeit products exist in the market, creating consequences ranging from ineffective therapeutic results to severe health problems or death. Before considering the various elements of the problem, the term "counterfeit drug" The meaning associated with "counterfeit medicines" may also incorporate other cases that -- for various reasons -- are ascribable to the adulteration/replication of a product and/or tampering of the packaging: - products containing the same active ingredients and the same excipients of the original pharmaceutical agent and that are correctly packaged and labelled but which have been illegally imported into a country; - products containing the same ingredients of the genuine medicine and with genuine packaging but which contain incorrect amounts of ingredients; - products which -- despite being identical from an external point of view and have genuine packaging -- do not contain any active ingredient; - products externally similar to the originals and with genuine packaging but that contain harmful substances instead of the correct active ingredients; - products with counterfeit packaging and correct amounts of active ingredients; - products with counterfeit packaging but with different amounts of active ingredients; - products with counterfeit packaging that contain a different active ingredient or harmful substances; - products with counterfeit packaging that do not contain active ingredients. should be defined. According to the 1992 World Health Organization (WHO) definition, a counterfeit drug is a pharmaceutical product "which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source." The WHO further clarifies that this definition applies to both branded and unbranded medicines, the so-called generics, and it includes products "with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with insufficient active ingredients or with fake packaging." This definition stresses out the adulteration, inappropriateness, illegality and by extension, the danger of these products. Details: Turin: UNICRI, 2012. 119p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 10, 2016 at: http://www.unicri.it/topics/counterfeiting/medicines/report/Ctf_medicines_and_oc_advance_unedited2013.pdf Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.unicri.it/topics/counterfeiting/medicines/report/Ctf_medicines_and_oc_advance_unedited2013.pdf Shelf Number: 139367 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit GoodsCounterfeit MedicinesOrganized Crime |
Author: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Title: Report and Recommendations: Fighting Elder Financial Exploitation through Community Networks Summary: Elder financial exploitation destroys the financial security of millions of older Americans annually. In response to this crisis, hundreds of communities across the United States have created collaborative networks to protect their older residents. To increase our understanding of how elder financial protection networks can grow and endure, the CFPB conducted research nationwide. This report highlights what elder financial exploitation prevention and response networks do, how they work, how they can work better, and how they can be established. The report presents CFPB's recommendations to existing networks and key stakeholders to develop and enhance their community's collaborative efforts to fight financial exploitation. Accompanying this report is a Resource Guide with promising practices, sample documents, and resource materials. Details: Washington, DC: CFPB, 2016. 49p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 30, 2016 at: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/report-and-recommendations-fighting-elder-financial-exploitation-through-community-networks/ Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/report-and-recommendations-fighting-elder-financial-exploitation-through-community-networks/ Shelf Number: 140079 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionElder AbuseFinancial AbuseFinancial Exploitation |
Author: U.S. Presidential Task Force on combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud Title: Presidential Task Force on Combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud: Action Plan for Implementing the Task Force Recommendations Summary: On June 17, 2014, the White House released a Presidential Memorandum entitled "Establishing a Comprehensive Framework to Combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud." Among other actions, the Memorandum established a Presidential Task Force on Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud (Task Force), co-chaired by the Departments of Commerce and State with 12 other federal agency members. The Task Force was directed to report to the President within 180 days with "recommendations for the implementation of a comprehensive framework of integrated programs to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud that emphasizes areas of greatest need." Those recommendations were provided to the President through National Ocean Council and published in the Federal Register on December 18, 2014. The 15 recommendations are broad in scope and call on agencies to take concrete and specific actions to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud throughout the seafood supply chain. By circumventing conservation and management measures and engaging in fraudulent practices, entities engaging in IUU fishing and seafood fraud undermine the sustainability of U.S. and global fish stocks and negatively impact general ecosystem health. At the same time, IUU and fraudulent seafood products distort legal markets and unfairly compete with the catch and seafood products of lawabiding fishers and seafood industries. The actions to address these issues fall under four general themes: 1) combating IUU fishing and seafood fraud at the international level; 2) strengthening enforcement and enhancing enforcement tools; 3) creating and expanding partnerships with non-federal entities to identify and eliminate seafood fraud and the sale of IUU seafood products in U.S. commerce; and 4) increasing information available on seafood products through additional traceability requirements. Each of these components is inter-related and complementary such that information and action developed under one supports the others. For example, these actions include establishing an integrated program that traces the path of seafood products from harvest or production to entry into U.S. commerce. This traceability program will feed enhanced information streams into improved enforcement targeting of illegal or fraudulent seafood products through newly integrated risk assessment and enforcement strategies. Similarly, the actions include efforts to improve the international governance of seafood harvest and trade that will complement our domestic efforts. Further, federal agencies are called upon to work with Congress to ensure that officials have the range of authorities necessary to identify and keep IUU seafood and fraudulent seafood products out of U.S. commerce. Details: Washington, DC: The Task Force, 2016. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 2, 2016 at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/iuu/noaa_taskforce_report_final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/iuu/noaa_taskforce_report_final.pdf Shelf Number: 140120 Keywords: Consumer FraudFishing IndustryIllegal FishingPort SecurityUnregulated Fishing |
Author: Cross, Cassandra Title: The Reporting Experiences and Support Needs of Victims of Online Fraud Summary: Although fraud has been practiced throughout history, the advent of the internet has created new and effective avenues for targeting potential victims. Victims of online fraud experience substantial financial and other harms, resulting in annual losses in Australia of more than $2b, significant organisational disruption and devastating human suffering. Prior research in this area has generally been conducted through victim surveys and the analysis of official administrative datasets, but little research has involved speaking with victims of online fraud about their experiences. This paper presents the results of in-depth interviews conducted with a sample of 80 individuals from across Australia who lodged complaints of online fraud involving losses of $10,000 or more over the preceding four years. Their stories illustrate the financial impact of fraud and the emotional, psychological, interpersonal and physical impacts of their victimisation. They also document the barriers they faced in reporting these crimes. The paper concludes by identifying the support needs of victims of online fraud. Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2016. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Trends & Issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 518: Accessed September 3, 2016 at: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi518.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Australia URL: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi518.pdf Shelf Number: 145630 Keywords: Consumer FraudFraudOnline VictimizationVictims of Crime |
Author: Lonsdale, Jeremy Title: National Trading Standards -- Scams Team Review Summary: Mass marketing fraud (MMF) is broadly defined as a misleading or deceptive business practice in which uninvited contact and false promises are used to con people out of money. These could include lottery and prize draw scams, inheritance scams, get-rich-quick schemes and the selling of bogus products and services. Relatively inexpensive modes of communications, such as the Internet, telephone and direct mail, have transformed MMF activities in the UK and worldwide. National Trading Standards (NTS) established a Scams Team in 2012, initially as a pilot, hosted by East Sussex County Council Trading Standards. It was developed out of a desire to deal more effectively with MMF on a local, regional and national level, and to support victims. The Scams Team's activities are guided by five objectives: To identify victims of fraud To intervene and protect victims from further victimisation To investigate criminal activity To inform local authorities and agencies on how to work with and support scam victims To influence people at local, regional and national levels to take a stand against scams Goals During 2015 and 2016, NTS commissioned RAND Europe to undertake an independent review of the Scams Team to help inform its future development, delivery and effectiveness. The review included: An assessment of the Scams Team in its current form Recommendations for service improvements and future provision in the context of the Consumer Landscape Reforms, building on ideas generated by delivery partners Recommendations for existing measures and measure of consumer detriment Methodology The project team used four main sources to carry out the review: A review of academic and grey literature Interviews with partners, local authorities, Scams Team and NTS members A survey of all 200 local Trading Standards Services A review of documents and data provided by the Scams Team and NTS, which included data on 30,000 UK victims of MMF In addition, the researchers also held a 'Theory of Change' workshop with staff from the Scams Team, to examine how the Team's activities are expected to lead to the overall objectives, also to examine the Team's current methodology for measuring consumer detriment and savings. Findings Based on the analysis of data on 30,000 UK victims of MMF, it was found that these victims lost, on average, $6,744 to scams over their lifetime. The amount lost varied across victims, with the majority losing around $100 to $100; however, one per cent were found to lose more than $100,000. Older people tended to be the most prominent victims of MMF; however, no particular group should be isolated or ignored as potential victims. MMF was found to affect all members of society regardless of their age, class, occupation, socio-economic background, race or gender. Many perpetrators of MMF are based outside the UK, making it a truly global issue. In addition, these perpetrators are often linked to international organised crime, as they are selling MMF models internationally and also involved in other types of crime. There is clear evidence that the work of the Scams Team has helped to identify more victims of MMF and, through interventions with local Trading Standard Services, has helped to reduce the impact of MMF on these victims. The Scams Team has facilitated a coordinated national approach to tackling MMF in the UK, while also introducing a variety of innovative approaches and pilot projects. Based on the evidence available, the Scams Team appears to be delivering significant value for money. Through its work, it was estimated that the Team is saving $27 per $1 invested. Even when only taking into account the savings that the Scams Team is able to identify with a high degree of precision, these are still high - $12 per $1 invested over three years. Details: Santa Monica, CA; Cambridge, UK: RAND, 2016. 96p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2016 at: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1500/RR1510/RAND_RR1510.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1500/RR1510/RAND_RR1510.pdf Shelf Number: 140263 Keywords: Consumer FraudFraudMass Marketing FraudScamsWhite Collar Crime |
Author: Jorna, Penny Title: Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce: Results of the 2014 online consumer fraud survey Summary: The Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) is a group of 22 government regulatory agencies and departments in Australia and New Zealand. It works with private sector, community and non-government partners to prevent fraud. The ACFT has run a range of fraud prevention and awareness-raising activities since 2005. One of its key initiatives is to run an annual consumer fraud survey to take a snapshot of the public's exposure to consumer fraud and fraudulent invitations, to assess their impact, determine how victims respond, and identify emerging typologies and issues. The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), as a taskforce member and chair of its research subgroup, hosts the survey on behalf of the ACFT. It should be noted that the survey participants were not randomly sampled and so survey findings are not representative of the general population. This report presents the results of the 2014 survey, which ran for six months from 1 January 2014. This period encompassed National Fraud Prevention week, which coincides with global fraud awareness-raising activities. The theme of the 2014 campaign was Know who you're dealing with, and it was aimed at raising awareness about relationship scams by asking people to think twice before transferring money to people they did not know personally. Details: Sydney: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2016. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 21, 2016 at: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/rr/001/rr001.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Australia URL: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/rr/001/rr001.pdf Shelf Number: 145574 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionFinancial Crimes |
Author: Grocery Manufacturers Association Title: Consumer Product Fraud: Deterrence and Detection Summary: n recent years, more than 150 instances of food and consumer product fraud have been documented at a projected cost to the food industry of $10 to 15 billon per year, plus human pain and suffering, and loss of consumer confidence. Food and consumer product fraud, or economic adulteration and counterfeiting, is increasingly a critical problem for the food and consumer products industries. As a result, The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) Science and Education Foundation engaged A.T. Kearney to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of the problem. The research report, Consumer Product Fraud: Deterrence and Detection, demonstrates that the industry needs to find ways to collaborate to address this problem on a global basis. A better understanding of the problem and its impact begins with mapping categories of adulteration and counterfeiting, and analyzing significant examples. Details: Washington, DC: GMA, 2010. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 11, 2016 at: http://www.gmaonline.org/downloads/research-and-reports/consumerproductfraud.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.gmaonline.org/downloads/research-and-reports/consumerproductfraud.pdf Shelf Number: 145411 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionCounterfeit Goods |
Author: Jorna, Penny Title: The relationship between age and consumer fraud victimisation Summary: he Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates consumer fraud costs Australians $1.4b per year. Advances in technology allow fraudsters to reach an increasing number of potential victims. Age has long been considered a potential factor in the risk of victimisation; however, it remains unclear which age groups are most vulnerable. This paper examines the relationship between age and the risk of consumer fraud, using the results of online surveys conducted by the AIC on behalf of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce in 2011 and 2012. The surveys found statistically significant relationships between age and how invitations were received; age and frauds resulting in victimisation; and age and those who sent money in response to invitations. Targeted, age-specific awareness-raising campaigns may be an effective means of reducing the risk of consumer fraud. Initiatives that address the risks associated with lifestyle factors such as social networking, online dating and the use of both new and existing technologies may be of particular benefit. Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2016. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 519: Accessed December 6, 2016 at: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi519.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Australia URL: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi519.pdf Shelf Number: 147923 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionFinancial Abuse Financial Exploitation |
Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office Title: Protecting consumers from scams, unfair trading and unsafe goods Summary: The UK consumer protection system has made some progress in the last five years, with some individual bodies making good impacts. The system as a whole, however, has not yet demonstrated that it provides value for money in protecting consumers from modern scams, unfair trading, and unsafe goods according to the National Audit Office. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (the Department) has overall responsibility for consumer policy but does not routinely calculate the total cost of the consumer protection system. The NAO, however, estimates it to have cost £165 million in 2015-16. Local Trading Standards services received an estimated £124 million and Citizens Advice received £18 million, Although there is limited robust data on the overall scale of consumer detriment, the NAO estimates that consumers lost at least £14.8 billion in 2015, of which £4.2 billion is estimated to be hidden and unreported detriment from problems such as mass marketing fraud and counterfeit goods. The Government has created opportunities for a more preventative approach to consumer protection. The Department has ensured better co-ordination across the landscape, in particular by bringing together the consumer protection bodies in the Consumer Protection Partnership, and integrating case management across the system. National Trading Standards, which was set up in 2012 following a previous NAO report, has made a good impact into consumer protection issues, having prevented £345 million worth of detriment to consumers since April 2014, with a cost-benefit ratio of around 12.6 to 1. Funding for this is still, however, small compared with the size of the problem, and annual budgeting prevents proper long-term planning. While the system has made progress at the national level, it is not keeping pace with the growth in online consumer fraud. The UK’s E-commerce market is now the third largest globally, with over a third of non-food retails sales being conducted online. A national e-crime team has been established but Trading Standards has lost e-crime expertise at the local level. Furthermore, the interaction between the consumer protection bodies and other government agencies tackling online consumer fraud is not yet well developed. The majority of law enforcement is carried out by local authority Trading Standards services. While the consumer protection bodies have improved data on consumer threats, significant gaps remain, with some local authorities having no or few intelligence logs. At the same time, Local Trading Standards have become increasingly small, as local authorities have moved funds to other areas. Overall, local Trading Standards have lost 56% of full-time equivalent staff since 2009, with 20 services in England having funding cut by over 60% since 2011. Some services now have only one qualified officer. Despite this lack of funding, Local Trading Standards teams are expected to enforce 263 different pieces of legislation for different government departments with little direction from government on the priority of these. Local Trading Standards teams are being incentivised to prioritise local issues, in particular safeguarding, with few resources available to either undertake enforcement cases or to organise services on national priorities. The changing nature of commerce has meant more consumer issues are occurring at national and international levels, however only 7% of local trading standards teams base their priorities on nationally-advocated ones. The Competition and Markets Authority is also making good impacts in addressing market-wide consumer issues and estimates that its consumer enforcement work generates at least £74 million of direct financial benefits to consumers annually for a cost of £6 million. Details: London: NAO, 2016. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 15, 2016 at: https://www.nao.org.uk/report/protecting-consumers-from-scams-unfair-trading-and-unsafe-goods/ Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.nao.org.uk/report/protecting-consumers-from-scams-unfair-trading-and-unsafe-goods/ Shelf Number: 140477 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionCounterfeit GoodsScams |
Author: Di Nicola, Andrea Title: Fakecare: Developing expertise against the online trade of fake medicines by producing and disseminating knowledge, counterstrategies and tools across the EU Summary: This project seeks to develop expertise in the online trade of counterfeit medicines, and develop strategies for the detection of illegal online pharmacies. The aim of the project is to develop expertise in tackling the trade of fake medicine through the Internet. It will do this by: developing in-depth knowledge of this criminal market, through innovative methods producing counterstrategies and tools (including an ICT tool) to disrupt such a trade, based on this knowledge disseminating knowledge, counterstrategies and tools to relevant stakeholders across the EU. Details: Trento, Italy: eCrime, University of Trento, 2015. 122p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 2, 2017 at: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/eCrime_Research_Reports_02.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/eCrime_Research_Reports_02.pdf Shelf Number: 141262 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit MedicinesFake MedicinesMedicinesPharmaceuticals |
Author: Hall, Alexandra Title: Search and Stop: Guidelines to tackle the online trade of falsified medicinal products Summary: In Europe, the online market in falsified medicinal products in expanding at a rapid rate, Tackling the online trade of falsified medicinal products is a challenge for law enforcement agencies. This report offers a series of guidelines which aims at producing and disseminating knowledge, counterstrategies and tools across the EU to solve and mitigate this online trade. Details: Trento, Italy: eCrime, University of Trento, 2015. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 2, 2017 at: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/FAKECARE-Guidelines_for_LEAs.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://www.fakecare.com/images/pdf/FAKECARE-Guidelines_for_LEAs.pdf Shelf Number: 144430 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit MedicineFake MedicinesMedicinePharmaceuticals |
Author: NetNames Title: Counting the Costs of Counterfeiting: A NetNames Report Summary: Today, the ease and reach of digital commerce presents extraordinary opportunities and serious threats to businesses, brands and consumers alike. The collision of counterfeiting, globalization and the fast-growing digital world has created a perfect storm, allowing the supply and demand for fake goods to converge. EXTRAORDINARY GROWTH In an environment where counterfeiting is as profitable as illegal drugs, but remains far less risky for criminals, we are seeing explosive growth. Expanding by over 15% every year, counterfeiting now costs more than 2% of total global economic output, or around $1.8 trillion per year. There is little doubt as to the crucial role played by the digital world in this meteoric rise, with a 15% increase in sales of counterfeit goods online last year. The internet has made counterfeiting a shifting problem that is difficult to combat. Rogue websites, online auctions and digital piracy all give counterfeiters lucrative and anonymous channels for their activities. PHARMA WORST AFFECTED While counterfeiting is a major challenge for every industry, pharma is the worst affected sector by any metric. Counterfeiters have claimed around a third of the entire market - worth some $200 billion - and are implicated in the deaths of up to one million people each year due to toxic or ineffective drugs. ENTER THE DRAGON: THE ROLE OF CHINA The United States, Europe and Australasia - the largest markets for fake goods - are all attempting to harmonize and intensify their multi-pronged strategy to combat counterfeiting and digital piracy. However, the tidal wave of counterfeit and grey-market goods from China shows little sign of being stemmed, remaining responsible for 70% of worldwide seizures. While global companies depend on Chinese manufacturing, this same ecosystem provides a haven of cheap labor and raw materials for counterfeiters. COST AND CONVENIENCE DRIVE CONSUMERS TO COUNTERFEITS Consumers remain largely innocent victims in this struggle, with 90% seeing counterfeiting as morally wrong. However, the demand for branded goods and the desire to find lower prices online mean that 28 consumers unknowingly buy fake goods for every person that does so intentionally. When consumers do deliberately consume counterfeit and pirated goods, cost and convenience are the major factors in their decision: 19% purchase fake products when the original is too expensive, while 22% will turn to digital piracy when there is no legal alternative. THE HEAVY TOLL ON BRANDS Counterfeiting creates a heavy financial burden for brands eroding profitability, market share and outside investment. While fake goods destroy around 10% of top-line revenues, they also force brands to make further investments in combatting the problem, and leave them less able to invest in future innovations. Even more insidious are the risks to both brand reputations and customers. Online, reputations can be instantly damaged in front of a global audience: 78% of consumers would shun a brand if they found themselves on a bogus website, even though the company itself was not negligent. Meanwhile, the risks to customers are not just financial, but also physical. G20 countries now see an estimated 3,000 deaths annually due to counterfeit consumer goods alone. NEW TECHNOLOGIES CREATE NEW RISKS Counterfeiters will continue to exploit the potential of new technologies and the digital world to further their reach, profitability and anonymity. The rise of mobile and social is fragmenting the online landscape - exposing brands not just to counterfeiting, but also to evolving threats such as phishing, cybersquatting, traffic diversion and other forms of online fraud. ACTION IS ESSENTIAL New technologies will also be critical to the fight against counterfeiting, with RFID, digital authentication and new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) all allowing brands to strengthen their posture against fraudsters. In particular, given the skyrocketing risks from the combination of digital channels and fake goods, a proactive and effective online anti-counterfeiting strategy is now essential for every brand to safeguard customers, revenues and reputation. Details: London: Digital Citizens Alliance, 2015. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 13, 2017 at: https://www.netnames.com/assets/shared/whitepaper/pdf/NetNames-Counterfeiting-Report-A4-2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: https://www.netnames.com/assets/shared/whitepaper/pdf/NetNames-Counterfeiting-Report-A4-2015.pdf Shelf Number: 144902 Keywords: Consumer FraudConsumer ProtectionCosts of CrimeCounterfeit GoodsCounterfeitingFake GoodsFraudOnline Victimization |
Author: Levinson, Bruce Title: Counterfeit Products, Genuine Harm: How Intellectual Property Theft Fuels Organized Crime While Undermining American Communities Summary: On July 24, 2011, President Obama signed Executive Order 13581 blocking the control of property by transnational crime organizations. The Order was part of the National Security Council's Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime. In the Order, the President made a formal determination that significant transnational criminal organizations constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat. Most of the organizations named in the Executive Order as examples of transnational crime organizations, and many similar criminal organizations, profit from trafficking in counterfeit items ranging from industrial parts to consumer products. Trafficking in counterfeit products harms the public both directly, through the sale of dangerous parts and products, and indirectly by providing financing support to violent organizations and by undermining legitimate economic activity. Moreover, the social harms from the trafficking in counterfeit, pirated and otherwise contraband (untaxed) consumer goods falls disproportionately on predominately African American communities which are targeted by the traffickers as venues for their crimes. Effectively countering the counterfeiters will require, as described in the President's Strategy, building "international consensus, multilateral cooperation, and public-private partnerships to defeat transnational organized crime." In terms of specific policies and actions, effectively countering the counterfeiters will require: 1. Consumer refusal to buy counterfeit/contraband/pirated products; 2. Enhanced law enforcement actions by all levels of government against counterfeiters; and 3. Federal regulatory policies that limit the opportunities for counterfeiting Details: Washington, DC: Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, 2013. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 29, 2017 at: http://www.thecre.com/cc/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Counterfeit_Products-Genuine_Harm.compact.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.thecre.com/cc/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Counterfeit_Products-Genuine_Harm.compact.pdf Shelf Number: 146933 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit Products Counterfeiting Intellectual Property Theft Organized Crime |
Author: union des fabricants (unifab) Title: Counterfeiting and terrorism Summary: Remember that counterfeiting is defined as the reproduction or total or partial use of an intellectual property right without authorisation from its owner. It currently represents up to 10% of world trade and costs an estimated 40,000 jobs per year in France and 2.5 million to G20 countries. In 2009, the OECD assessed the global financial impact of counterfeiting at between $250 billion and $500 billion. We estimate that in 2015, "counterfeiting will represent a turnover of over $1.700 billion world-wide. This is more than the value of drugs and prostitution combined". The counterfeiter therefore aims to create confusion between the original product and the counterfeit product, in order to benefit from another's reputation or the result of investments made by the true holder of an intellectual property right. From a legal viewpoint, digital piracy (music, film, software, book, graphic) is therefore a form of counterfeiting, as is the production of fake brand items. In France, counterfeiting is governed by the Code of Intellectual Property in Articles L 335-2 to L 335-9 for the infringement of copyright and related rights, L 513- 4 for the violation of pictures and models, L 613-3 for the infringement of patents, and L 713-2 and L 713-3 for the infringement of trademarks and services. In France, counterfeiting is covered under both civil and criminal law. Thus, under criminal law, counterfeiting is punishable by three years imprisonment and a 300,000 euro fine, with penalties increased to five years' imprisonment and a 500,000 euro fine when the acts are committed by an organised group, or when they concern products that are hazardous to consumer health or safety. However, the proven presence of counterfeiting within terrorist organisations raises questions about the adequacy of current criminal penalties, and particularly how they are applied. Terrorism is also punishable under the Criminal Code. This defines a terrorist act as an act pertaining to "an individual or collective undertaking aimed at seriously disturbing public order by intimidation or terror" (Article L 421-1 CC amended by Law of 13 November 2014). It covers two categories of offences: - First, existing offences committed in relation to a terrorist undertaking. It therefore concerns common crimes in specific circumstances which give them a specific nature; - Second, a number of offences defined independently, without reference to an existing offence. The funding of a terrorist undertaking therefore represents a specific offence (Article 421-2-2 of the Criminal Code). Which is punishable by 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of 225,000 euros. However, the penalty is increased to 20 years' imprisonment, with a fine of 500,000 euros for those directing or organising a terrorist group. Unifab' publication of this report aims to provide an insight into the links between terrorism and counterfeiting, as well as demonstrating that this illegal activity is a favourite method for financing terrorist actions. This study deals with industrial and commercial counterfeiting, in addition to the infringement of copyright. However, it excludes the falsification of means of payment and administrative papers. Moreover, it is primarily based on information collected from companies, the media, professional and public organisations, and european and international agencies. Details: Paris: unifab, 2016. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 30, 2017 at: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/documents/11370/71142/Counterfeiting+%26%20terrorism/7c4a4abf-05ee-4269-87eb-c828a5dbe3c6 Year: 2016 Country: France URL: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/documents/11370/71142/Counterfeiting+%26%20terrorism/7c4a4abf-05ee-4269-87eb-c828a5dbe3c6 Shelf Number: 146942 Keywords: Consumer FraudCounterfeit ProductsCounterfeitingTerrorist Financing |
Author: Kroetz, Kailin Title: Examining Seafood Fraud Through the Lens of Production and Trade: How Much Mislabeled Seafood do Consumers Buy? Summary: Key findings -- Due to the globalized nature and complexity of seafood markets, unraveling the causes and consequences of seafood mislabeling will require novel approaches with multiple types of data. Mislabeling rates can be integrated with import and production data to produce estimates of apparent consumption of mislabeled seafood. Estimating apparent consumption of mislabeled products, however, is currently limited by the quality of consumption and mislabeling data, of which the latter is particularly problematic and challenging. More coordinated and targeted research is needed in order to understand to seafood mislabeling and its potential impacts. Details: Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2018. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 18, 2019 at: https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/examining-seafood-fraud-through-the-lens-of-production-and-trade-how-much-mislabeled-seafood-do-consumers-buy/ Year: 2018 Country: International URL: https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/examining-seafood-fraud-through-the-lens-of-production-and-trade-how-much-mislabeled-seafood-do-consumers-buy/ Shelf Number: 155455 Keywords: Consumer FraudFishing IndustryIllegal PracticesSeafood Fraud |
Author: Euromonitor International, Title: Size and Shape of the Global Illicit Alcohol Market Summary: Alcoholic beverages are deeply ingrained in most societies worldwide, with global consumption in 2017 generating US$1.6 trillion in legally registered sales1 of 222.8 million hectolitres of pure alcohol ("hectolitres of alcohol equivalent", or hl lae). However, despite the efforts of policy-makers, law enforcement officials, and legitimate alcohol manufacturers, illicit alcoholic beverages still account for a significant share of the total volume of alcohol consumed in many countries. This white paper explores critical issues affecting the problem of illicit alcohol in today's global alcohol industry. To this end, the paper analyses research conducted in 24 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, and examines the major factors shaping their illicit alcohol markets. Illicit alcohol is prevalent in these countries: Of the 42.3 million hl lae of total alcohol consumed each year, approximately 25.8% is illicit. In other words, nearly 10.9 million hl lae of illicit alcohol is consumed annually in these 24 countries alone. This suggests they represent an effective sample for exploring this important topic. Illicit alcoholic beverages are defined as those not complying with the regulations and taxes in the countries where they are consumed, resulting in serious health risks to consumers, revenue loss, and brand degradation for legitimate manufacturers, as well as reduced tax revenue for governments. These products are responsible for hundreds of cases of death and illness due to accidental methanol intoxication, millions of dollars used to fund other criminal activities, and the fiscal loss of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes. Health risks affect the poorest and most vulnerable consumers by contributing to widening health inequalities. The most significant risks and costs for each country depend on the characteristics of the local market for illicit alcohol. The landscape of illicit alcohol is varied and complex, ranging from homemade artisanal beverages sold without the proper sanitary permits to legitimately branded bottles of alcohol smuggled illegally into a country. However, although market characteristics differ across countries, the problem of illicit alcohol exists in every region, in developed and developing countries, urban and rural areas, and higher-income and lower-income neighbourhoods alike. Governments, businesses, and civil society organizations - all stakeholders with vested interests in curbing illicit trade - have responded to this problem from many angles. The approaches are as varied as the markets themselves, but have often been partial or ineffective, especially due to rapid adaptation of illicit businesses to new regulations and restrictions This white paper analyses and summarises findings that may help stakeholders better understand the illicit alcohol trade. In particular, the paper identifies five themes that are shaping the global illicit alcohol trade and affecting the stakeholder initiatives intended to reduce it. Details: London: Author, 2018. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 24, 2019 at: https://www.tracit.org/uploads/1/0/2/2/102238034/illicit_alcohol__-_white_paper.pdf Year: 2018 Country: International URL: https://www.tracit.org/uploads/1/0/2/2/102238034/illicit_alcohol__-_white_paper.pdf Shelf Number: 156727 Keywords: Alcohol IndustryConsumer FraudIllicit AlcoholIllicit MarketsIllicit ProductsIllicit TradeOrganized Crime |