BusinessWeek.com Makes it Clear That Counterfeits Risk Our Safety in More Ways That We Can Imagine

These past months I’ve written about counterfeit shampoo, toothpaste, fragrances, pharmaceuticals, and even wine to create awareness of the risks associated with purchasing unauthorized products that touch you and your family’s bodies.

It would be nice to think that we have complete control over our exposure to counterfeit goods, but I recently read an article on BusinessWeek.com titled “Dangerous Fakes, How counterfeit, defective computer components from China are getting into U.S. warplanes and ships” which explains that counterfeiting goes far beyond these household goods, and could potentially affect our national security.

In a July 24 e-mail, an F-15 engineer, whom BusinessWeek agreed not to identify, wrote: "Suppose that a part like that makes it onto a flight-critical piece of hardware or mission-essential piece of hardware. The[re] is a very good chance that the part may work...but what happens at 40[,000] ft and -50 degrees? Hardware failure. Not good."

As Harper’s Bazaar explained to me, we need to keep in mind that by purchasing goods from unauthorized retailers we are potentially funding these criminal organizations that could potentially threaten our national security.