Many Phones, Game Consoles Shipped Globally Are Counterfeit, OECD Says

Nearly one in five mobile phones and one in four videogame consoles shipped internationally are counterfeit, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said Tuesday. “Smartphone batteries, chargers, memory cards, magnetic stripe cards, solid state drives and music players are also increasingly falling prey to counterfeiters,” OECD said in a news release. On average, 6.5 percent of global trade in information and communication technology (ICT) goods consists of counterfeit products, according to an analysis of 2013 customs data, OECD said. That's significantly higher than the 2.5 percent of overall goods found to be counterfeit, in a 2016 report. “Launched just ahead of the 2017 OECD Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum on March 30-31, the report says the high value of smartphones and ICT accessories and insatiable demand makes them a lucrative target for counterfeiters, and cautions that the number and range of affected products is growing,” the organization said. “Counterfeit ICT goods entail health and safety risks, service outages and loss of income for companies and governments.”