U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently recapped its fiscal 2020, sharing eye-opening stats regarding counterfeiting issues tied to the pandemic.
Customs said that in the 12 months after September 2020, it seized 12.7 million counterfeit face masks.
The agency also seized nearly 180,000 prohibited COVID-19 test kits and more than 38,000 prohibited chloroquine tablets.
The Wall Street Journal reported that customs also seized almost 37,000 “antivirus lanyards” that falsely claim to prevent COVID-19 infection.
According to the WSJ’s analysis, Customs said China was the origin of 51% of the seizures.
The fraudulent goods were seized between more than 300 points of entry by the agency’s 10,000 officers.
“What we are seeing is, no big surprise, a lot of counterfeits rolling through those supply chains,” CBP’s Office of Trade head told the WSJ.
