HOUSTON – As the city of Houston prepares to host the 2023 NCAA Men’s Final Four from March 31 through April 3, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is cautioning fans to be on the lookout for fake NCAA merchandise and tickets to Final Four games.
To protect fans, HSI is working with the Houston Police Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the NCAA to target counterfeiters leading up to the Final Four.
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HSI is recommending that the public take these steps to protect themselves from counterfeiters:
- Always purchase tickets through an authorized ticket broker. Tickets for the 2023 NCAA Men’s Final Four are only available through “mobile ticketing” on your smartphone. If you purchase tickets on the secondary market, stick with reputable companies and double-check the website’s guarantee.
- Shop only at authorized retail locations, rather than street vendors, flea markets or other questionable sources to purchase merchandise or apparel.
- Avoid purchasing apparel with poor stitching, ripped tags, irregular markings, or misspellings.
- Keep an eye out for items that are made of inferior quality materials or that have no official sewn-in or screen-printed labels identifying the licensee.
- Check your online bank statements. Keep a record of purchases and copies of confirmation pages and compare them to bank statements. If there is a discrepancy, consumers should report it immediately.
- If a deal seems too good to be true — it probably is. Criminals often use legit product photos on their websites but sell fraudulent products.
Between February 2022 and February 2023, HSI and CBP said it seized approximately 180,000 counterfeit sport-related items with an estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of more than $22.7 million, resulting in 75 arrests, 16 indictments, and 11 convictions. The seizures are part of Operation Team Player, an ongoing annual initiative run by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center and all major U.S. sports leagues, to prevent counterfeit sports-related merchandise and apparel from reaching fans ahead of high-profile sporting events.