ICE-led Raids Net 132 Websites Selling Counterfeit Goods Internationally
Some 132 domain names that were allegedly illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online to unsuspecting consumers were seized in raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and law enforcement agencies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania and the U.K., and the European…
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Police Office (Europol), they said. The websites were set up to dupe consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods as part of the holiday shopping season, the agencies said. The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, recognizing the global nature of Internet crime, partnered with Europol, who, through its member countries, executed coordinated seizures of foreign-based top-level domains such as .eu, .be, .dk, .fr, .ro and .uk. In addition to the domain name seizures, officials identified PayPal accounts utilized by the infringing websites. Proceeds received through the identified PayPal accounts, in excess of $175,000, are being targeted for seizure by the investigators.