As part of a nationwide investigation into untrustworthy websites that sell phony merchandise, 22 sites have been shut down by a local Homeland Security Investigations team based in Denver.
Those sites are among 70 seized nationwide during Project Copycat, one of several phases in a two-year initiative launched to protect consumers from buying counterfeit items on the Internet.
Since its inception in 2010, the initiative, named In Our Sites, has resulted in the seizure of more than 800 domain names, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.
According to ICE Director John Morton, the operation targeted criminals that were trying to trick consumers into thinking they were buying name-brand products from legitimate websites. Instead, the products were counterfeits from imposter sites located overseas.
Many of the sites even managed to have Secure Sockets Layer certificates, a label that usually ensures a site’s authenticity.
“The imposter sites were simply a fraud from start to finish and served no purpose other than to defraud and dupe unwary shoppers,” Morton said in the release.
The sites are now shut down and their domain names are in the custody of the federal government. Seizure banner notifications were put in place on the sites to let visitors know of the copyright infringement.
To protect yourself from copycat websites, ICE urges shoppers to always be wary, ask questions, use a credit card and save copies of emails and documents involved in the transaction. But, quite possibly the most important tip is to trust your gut — if the price of an item seems too good to be true, it probably is.
The following sites were shut down by Homeland Security Investigations Denver: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Erin Udell: 303-954-1223, eudell@denverpost.com
