Oct 5, 2009 9:41 pm US/Eastern
Bogus Excercise Equipment Flooding Online Market
BOSTON (CBS) ―
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U.S. Customs agents have seized more than 32,000 counterfeit excercise items in the last six months.
CBS
When we hear the word counterfeit, most of us think of bogus money. But there's a new warning for consumers about fake products being sold as the real thing.
"We are increasingly seeing various types of consumer products counterfeited, including the latest trend, exercise and fitness equipment," explained Therese Randazzo of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
THE BOGUS PRODUCTS
Everything from basic fitness DVDs and popular info-mercial products, to the Malibu Pilates Chair and the Bowflex Home Gym and its accessories have been seized in about two dozen stings over the past six months. Randazzo says, in all, they have seized about 32,000 items, CBS station WBZ-TV reports.
Despite this increased enforcement, U.S. Customs officials say these products still find their way onto the market.
"A number of them are being sold over the Internet, on sites like Craigslist and EBay, and then a number of them are also showing up in bricks and mortar stores," said Randazzo.
MEDICAL CONCERNS
Dr. Barbara Bushman, an expert in sports medicine, says faulty products can cause muscle pulls, as well as injure the neck, spinal cord, or face.
"Any time that we're looking at resistance training equipment that includes pulleys, levers, or bands, we want to make sure those are secure," Bushman said.
She also is concerned about other risks, like weight plates that become loose.
"We want to make sure that there's nothing that's unsteady about the base of the equipment, whether it's the equipment itself or a bench that we may be positioning our body on."
'TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE'
Most of these fraudulent products are coming from China. As Customs officials work to identify the exact source of this bogus gear, they say consumers need to be on the look out for anything unusual.
"If the manufacturer's web site says 'We only sell these via these outlets,' and you are getting it from a different outlet, then you should be questioning why that product is for sale there, and where it came from," Randazzo explained.
The first clue that you are dealing with a fake is the price tag. Although it's a cliché, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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