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The illicit tobacco trade produces many problems for both consumers and those who try to completely avoid anything to do with smoking. It is commonly known that cigarettes are a detriment to health, but illicit tobacco is even more so. The unregulated nature of illicit tobacco means they can contain even more harmful substances while avoiding contributing to a countries tax revenue and fuelling organised crime at the same time.

I sit in my office today preparing to attend Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) week after next.  An article comes across my desk celebrating counterfeit seizures in the European Union (EU) exceeding 31 million items in 2017.  And this is why BLE is such an important show for OpSec Security.

Over 31 million items seized.  A statistic definitely worth celebration. That’s hundreds of millions of Euros that do not make their way back to the hands of criminals. That’s 31 million potentially unsafe items that do not make their way into the hands of unsuspecting consumers. 

In late June, New York State (U.S.) gubernatorial candidate, Cynthia Nixon, of Sex and the City fame, criticized America’s Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agency for the manner in which they were handling immigration on the U.S.’s southern border. She went as far as labeling the agency a “terrorist organization” and called for its abolishment.

I’m not here to debate whether or not Ms. Nixon makes a valid point. I’m not even here to debate U.S. immigration policy. But I do want to highlight that ICE does a lot more than enforce immigration law… and for that, we should be thankful.

This past Christmas I made the decision to purchase a Yeti travel mug for my wife. I had heard great things about Yeti products and their performance and thought she might enjoy using it during her daily commute. I carefully researched the type of mug I wanted to purchase, along with the price and made the purchase through Amazon. Mug arrives, wife’s happy, end of story, right?  Wrong.

Product authenticity is a problem in the olive oil industry.

If you're running a business that sells or processes olive oil, or a restaurant that utilizes it often, then chances are you've bought a watered-down mixture at some point. Product authenticity has actually become a significant problem in the olive oil industry. The problem boils down to a discrepancy between what companies say they are offering, and what they are actually distributing.

As soon as Thanksgiving comes around, sales abound, and retailers are offering deep discounts to encourage consumers to buy gifts for loved ones. Counterfeiters are also aware that this is the easiest time to scam consumers—even the most educated consumers are less suspicious of discounted prices during this time of year.  

The global market for illicit cigarettes has sunk its teeth into supply chains around the world - though substantially more so in some areas than others - and ongoing counterfeit tobacco trade could be costing some governments up to €1 billion ($1.09 billion) annually.

While counterfeiting is seen as a relatively minor problem in Australia, recent research from the Reserve Bank of Australia shows that it is actually quite significant, particularly for small businesses. 

Initially the data compiled by researchers appears to support the belief that counterfeiting isn't much of an issue in Australia.

An Ohio man was recently charged with distributing counterfeit drugs he had obtained from China and India. 

Tamacio Walls was caught selling a number of erectile dysfunction pills he had acquired through unauthorized means, and as a result, could end up serving hard time. The boxes containing the shipments of illicit medications were mislabeled.

Do you have a few wrinkles that you'd like to get rid of? Well, according to a recent Food and Drug Administration warning, if you decide on getting Botox you could have problems worse than crow's feet. 

The FDA recently warned doctors that a counterfeit make of the drug popularly used to clear wrinkles from people's faces has made its way into the U.S.