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Counterfeit goods 'can be dangerous'
Consumers enjoying the increasingly popular pastime of internet shopping should refuse to buy counterfeits, the Anti-Counterfeiting Group have warned.
This area of online fraud forms a growing market - with buyers receiving counterfeited goods for often sharply reduced prices.
Research from the BBC's Money Programme has shown that one in five Britons have either bought or suspected that they have bought faked products.
Disturbingly, ten per cent saw "nothing wrong" with this practice - despite a clear majority (61 per cent) conceding that receiving such goods was theft.
Ruth Orchard, director general of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, commented: "They are cheaper than the real thing, [but] they don't last as long; they can often be dangerous if they're things like toys or clothes that haven't been safety tested - children's pyjamas that can go up in flames.
"Drying up the market for fakes is in my view the most effective thing we can aim for. If they're not buying them, then the criminals will stop doing it: the other alternative is trying to enforce the law more effectively, which takes huge amounts of resources."
Figures from the group suggest that, in the clothing and footwear sector alone, £3.5 billion each year is spent in the UK on faked goods.
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