Consumer alert: scammers cashing in on fake sports gear

It’s a business bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars and counterfeiters have been cashing in on the Golden State Warriors first NBA Championship in 40 years.

Counterfeit Warriors gear showed up in droves during the NBA Finals. In the last month special agents with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE, seized about 14,000 t-shirts, sweatshirts and hats throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

The haul was worth about a half million dollars.

Tatum King, Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent stays busy on the trail of counterfeiters, “We find that for criminal organizations this is very lucrative for them, so they use this to support other criminal activities. We don’t want to fund the criminals, no one wants to fund criminals, so take the extra step go to store. Go to the NBA store or go to a licensed retailer. Know your retailer and go to them.”

Investigators say criminals are making a lot of money selling these counterfeit items. They’re buying the shirts for $2 to $3 and selling them for $7 to $15. If you want to know if an item is a knock off, make sure the tag isn’t split and legitimate items will have a hologram.

ICE agents say that large sporting events are prime targets for counterfeiters to scam unwitting sports fans. How big is this business? According to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, businesses worldwide lose an estimated $600 to $700 billion annually due to counterfeiting.