Fake tech products flood the market
Wednesday, 03 March 2010, 00:42 IST
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Fake tech products flood the market
Bangalore: As distributors hunt for counterfeit tech products, an "epidemic" of bogus chips, routers, and computers costs the electronics industry up to $100 billion annually, reports Business Week. In the past five years, counterfeit computer chips, routers, and other electronic products have "become an epidemic," says PCX Chief Executive Gil Aouizerat. According to Business Week, the number of counterfeit electronic products uncovered in the Defense Industry alone more than doubled in 2008 to 9,356, from 3,868 in 2005, according to a January 2010 report by the Commerce Department. Fake gear costs the information technology industry an estimated $100 billion a year, according to the National Electronics Distributors Association. Edward Dimmler dips a cotton swab in acetone and rubs it on the surface of a computer chip that was ostensibly manufactured by Samsung. The white tip turns black the first clue that the part may be fake. Dimmler who is the Director of warehouse operations at electronics distributor PCX, then inspects the chip under a microscope and sees the word Samsung smeared across the top of the chip. This memory chip is counterfeit and ineligible for resale. Dimmler then quarantines this in the bowels of his warehouse on one of the shelves painted red to denote knockoffs of well-known brands, including Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and NEC. "We now have to question everything," he says in an interview at PCX headquarters in Huntington Beach, Calif. "A part is considered suspect until we prove otherwise." According to Rachael King of Business Week, in January, Ehab Ali Ashoor, a Saudi citizen who lives in Texas, was convicted of purchasing and selling counterfeit Cisco Systems parts intended for use by the Marine Corps. to monitor troop movement, relay intelligence, and maintain base security in Iraq, according to the Justice Department. "Counterfeiting is a very serious issue that impacts the entire high-tech industry on a global level, and Cisco and other leading IT companies have been actively addressing this issue for several years now," says Cisco spokesperson Kristin Carvell. According to a January report by the Commerce Department, China is the source of many counterfeit electronics coming into the U.S. In many cases, parts are harvested from electronic waste sent to China for recycling. The parts then make their way to electronics marketplaces and other intermediaries before being distributed globally by suppliers. Other countries atop the Commerce Dept.'s list are Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

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