Counterfeiting cash is so yesterday. The real money is in copying a patented product’s specs, mass producing it using inferior materials at some off-shore slave-labor camp—with eight-year-old floor supervisors—and selling it on the Internet. Those cheap knockoffs carry a price that attracts unknowing firearm enthusiasts like moths to a flame, but performance is sub-par, sometimes dangerous, even illegal. The pros have some good advice on how to avoid counterfeit gun parts.
The growth of the firearm accessories industry has made it lucrative target for counterfeiters. While Covid-19 has paralyzed other industries, gun sales are setting records and demand doesn’t show any signs of slowing.
Small Gun Part Counterfeits
Even low-cost items aren’t immune. In August 2019, for example, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 52,601 firearm parts being shipped in from China, many of them knockoffs.
A genuine Glock magazine sets you back around $35, but in February 2017 U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Savannah, GA, stopped a 591-carton shipment—total street value of $2 million—illegally wearing the company trademark. Many of the fakes could have wound up in law enforcement hands.
A few weeks later, MagLula’s website posted, “Low quality Chinese counterfeit loaders cloning our patented UpLula universal pistol magazine loaders are offered for sale on Amazon and eBay…Please refrain from ordering loaders at Amazon or eBay until further notice…shop at local gun stores you trust and from companies we ship to direct: Brownells, MidwayUSA, Cabela’s, BassPro, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Turner’s, CheaperTheDirt, Sportsman’s Guide, ShopRuger.” The situation was so bad the company sued Amazon in January 2020.
Magpul’s Angled Fore Grip (AFG) has been targeted, too. “We’ve got a very aggressive program in place with U.S. Customs to stop counterfeit imports, but it can be more difficult to catch those that try to slip things through without using the actual Magpul name and logos on the packaging or in the descriptions,” company Executive Vice President Duane Liptak said. “So if you see something that really looks like an AFG in an online listing that doesn’t actually call it an AFG….it’s a counterfeit for sure, and it’s likely molded from used Pringles lids and water bottles. These things pop up regularly and we’re playing whack-a-mole with dishonest folks that are bringing them in.”
Even those CR123 batteries that are so popular in tactical flashlights are counterfeited and smuggled in without an important safety feature—the tiny vent designed to prevent overheating and fire. A report by the FAA has some harrowing stories when the subpar cells suffered full-blown incidents on airplanes.
Eye Protection Counterfeits
Revision aided in busting an illegal knockoff manufacturer at the SHOT Show a few years ago, but it didn’t end the illegal activity. Twelve months later another “company” was caught selling the counterfeits at the SnowSports Industries America Snow Show. “We created these products and it is simply unacceptable to have low-level con artists steal our property and profit from it, especially at the expense of our end-users—the soldiers and police who protect us each and every day,” said Jonathan Blanshay, CEO of Revision.
Knife Counterfeits
Knifemakers aren’t immune, either. Rod Bremer, chair of the Anti-Counterfeiting Committee of the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) and Chairman and Founder of CRKT, said counterfeiters cost U.S. business 10 percent of their revenue. “We conservatively estimate that counterfeit products cost the sporting knife and tool industry around $95 million annually…,” he added. Daniel Defense, Blackhawk, Trijicon, Kinetic Development Group and more have been victimized, and the list grows daily.
How low will the counterfeiters go? Try the March seizure of 40,000 fake and non-functioning condoms on for size. Small ticket items aren’t where the real money is, though, and according to the International Trademark Association there’s big cash involved—$460 billion in counterfeits were purchased last year alone.
Lucrative Optic market
Firearm optics provide added profit cushion for counterfeiters, and American-made Leupold has a warning on its website that reads, “Leupold is issuing a customer alert to purchasers of products, particularly via Internet sales, in regards to bogus Leupold products that are commonly illegally imported from the People’s Republic of China. These products bear many of the trademarks and trade dress of current Leupold & Stevens riflescopes making them very hard to distinguish externally from authentic Leupold products.”
Fake Leupold Mark 4s, VX-IIIs, CQ/Ts riflescopes, LCOs, Deltapoint Pros and more are being sold and, for obvious reasons, are not covered by the Leupold Full Lifetime Guarantee. “When hard-working men and women buy a Leupold product, they are putting faith in the Gold Ring and all that it stands for: American engineering, quality and relentless performance,” said Bruce Pettet, Leupold CEO. “When they purchase a counterfeit product, they are not only being taken advantage of, but potentially putting their match, their hunt or, in extreme cases, their lives at risk. We will not stand by and let this happen.”
How to Avoid Counterfeit Gun Parts
Liptak said counterfeiters cut corners, the first indicator something is amiss. “Much of the counterfeit packaging is not quite ‘right,’ although this isn’t always a dead giveaway,” he said. “Sloppy looking mold lines, messy text and old logos are other indicators….buying from known retailers and distributors really is the best defense.”
Visit the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center for more information or to report suspected counterfeits. You can also visit StopFakes.gov.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
