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Government Investigating Massive Counterfeit N95 Mask Scam (apnews.com) 95

Federal authorities are investigating a massive counterfeit N95 mask operation in which fake 3M masks were sold in at least five states to hospitals, medical facilities and government agencies. From a report: The foreign-made knockoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to spot and could put health care workers at grave risk for the coronavirus. These masks are giving first responders "a false sense of security," said Steve Francis, assistant director for global trade investigations with the Homeland Security Department's principal investigative arm. He added, "We've seen a lot of fraud and other illegal activity." Nearly a year into the pandemic, fraud remains a major problem as scammers seek to exploit hospitals and desperate and weary Americans. Federal investigators say they have seen an increase in phony websites purporting to sell vaccines as well as fake medicine produced overseas and scams involving personal protective equipment. The schemes deliver phony products, unlike fraud earlier in the pandemic that focused more on fleecing customers.
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Government Investigating Massive Counterfeit N95 Mask Scam

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  • "Foreign-made" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @09:52AM (#61051244)
    Why don't they just say China?
    • Re:"Foreign-made" (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nwaack ( 3482871 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @09:56AM (#61051260)
      For the same reason you can name the countries where the Covid variants came from but you can't say the name of the country where the original virus came from.
      • Gee, I've only heard it said a few thousand times. The WHO is over there right no investigating the origins of the outbreak.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Gee, I've only heard it said a few thousand times. The WHO is over there right no investigating...

          Oh, how accurate this little typo of yours, really is.

        • Re:"Foreign-made" (Score:5, Insightful)

          by sinij ( 911942 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @10:11AM (#61051352)

          The WHO is over there right no investigating the origins of the outbreak.

          Exactly. "No investigating" will produce no results. Zero surprise when China successfully regulatory-capture WHO.

        • by nwaack ( 3482871 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @10:35AM (#61051444)

          The WHO is over there right no investigating the origins of the outbreak.

          Nice job! You just proved you can have a Freudian slip while typing.

          • Is there any good way to identify counterfeit / substandard N95 masks when you see them or a box of them?
        • no[w] investigating

          Now investigating or not investigating? The supposed investigation is headed by WHO's Peter Daszak, who not only worked at the Wuhan lab himself for years, but also received Chinese government's grant money before [thepostmillennial.com].

          How do you spell "conflict of interest" — or is that "insurrection talk" too now?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Celt ( 125318 )

        We'll call Covid-19 the China Virus when the rest of the world is allowed call the "Spanish Flu" the American Virus since there's a chance it did originate there.

        The 1918 pandemic killed more people than WW1 AND WW2 combined, do you want the USA to go down in history for that?

      • Re:"Foreign-made" (Score:5, Insightful)

        by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @11:25AM (#61051672)

        For the same reason you can name the countries where the Covid variants came from but you can't say the name of the country where the original virus came from.

        That's a bit disingenuous.

        There's a massive difference between what was being done with "China virus" and "Wuhan Flu" and the like. Those were used condescendingly, to assign blame, and in the early days to convey that it was someone-else's-problem.

        Today, "the Brazil variant" isn't used that way at all. It's got zero political or emotional content to it. Why? Maybe because Brazil and South Africa aren't on the list of countries the US government wants to portray as villains or enemies.

        • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

          by Train0987 ( 1059246 )

          Blame needs to be assigned. Hundreds of millions of people have been significantly damaged by China's negligence. Regardless of whether the virus was man-made or not, it did originate in China and allowed to spread due to their dishonestly. Sheesh, an hour ago you blamed Trump in another thread: https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]

          The variants aren't treated the same because they're not the same. It's not Brazil's fault that a variant of the China/Wuhan Virus was discovered there.

        • Wait, you're basing naming conventions on if you decide someone is butt-hurt over it? How very sciency of you.

        • by nwaack ( 3482871 )

          Well, let's see. It either originated/escaped due to incredible incompetence at a lab, or it showed up because of the nasty wet markets that any self-respecting nation would've shut down decades ago. On top of that, the virus was likely covered up by their government, making things much worse. It absolutely should be used condescendingly and I'd be saying the exact same thing if it originated under similar circumstances here in the United States.

          Despite your whining and apologetics, China screwed the entire

        • by nwaack ( 3482871 )
          Also THIS [slashdot.org]. So STFU or move to the epicenter and make your excuses from there if you love them so much. The only one being disingenuous here is you and the idiots who upmodded your willfully ignorant comment.
    • Because there are pest control companies and take-away box manufacturers in England doing a better job of it. It helps if they donate money to the right politicians, and British politicians are remarkably cheap. £15,000 will generally be sufficient.

    • Seriously, there are. Did you know 84% of the hand sanitizer coming up from Mexico has the wrong (and dangerous) kind of alcohol in it (Methanol)?

      It's just as likely the Masks could be made in Mexico, Chile or the Philippians. This kind of fraud is pretty universal, and if you start tying it to one country the fraudsters are just gonna operate with impunity elsewhere while you're patting yourself on the back.
      • Dude, hand sanitizers are made with isopropyl alcohol as well. Not something to drink either.

        Professional tip: don't drink hand sanitizer.
        • *hic* I can stop anytime I want to.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Methanol is also toxic through skin exposure ... like one would expect hand sanitizer to be used.

          • Methanol readily moves through the skin/bloodstream barrier. It is highly toxic but makes great race fuel for high displacement, high compression engines.
    • Maybe because the AP is in the business of reporting, not knee-jerk speculation? The masks were stamped with "Peru", and the company that sold them is headquartered in North Carolina, with facilities on every continent. [q2labsolutions.com]

      It wouldn't surprise me if someone from the Beijing office hooked them up, but it also wouldn't surprise me if it was the Mumbai office.

  • Thats ok (Score:5, Funny)

    by LondoMollari ( 172563 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @09:52AM (#61051246) Homepage

    I am sure the new administration will severely punish the Chinese firms faking these products

    • In addition to risking lives it devalues the legitimate products, which are made by very, very large companies. So there will be powerful interests on both the left and right who want this stopped.
  • If anybody should become infected and unfortunately die after using these counterfeited masks then anybody involved in the import, sale and distribution of them needs to be brought up on murder charges. Clearly it's pre-meditated if you knowingly sell a counterfeit medical device. We may not be able to get to the folks making them, but make sure to nail every last SOB involved on this end.

    • If anybody should become infected and unfortunately die after using these counterfeited masks then anybody involved in the import, sale and distribution of them needs to be brought up on murder charges. Clearly it's pre-meditated if you knowingly sell a counterfeit medical device. We may not be able to get to the folks making them, but make sure to nail every last SOB involved on this end.

      Guess that depends on if the "SOB" on this end, was even aware.

      How many people every day, buy "authentic" merchandise from the "reputable" vendor known as Amazon?

      Make a 3M mask and charge the same price for it? That's going to be hard to spot without a proper supply chain validation process (which was clearly lacking). Time will tell if this was corrupted by Greed, or simply a victim of Ignorance.

      • “They’re not coming from authorized distributors,” said Kevin Rhodes, 3M’s vice president and deputy general counsel. “They’re coming from companies really just coming into existence.”

        AKA - company made to distribute crap - so charge them, and buyers buying for MEDICAL use that did not do their diligence to make sure they were actually an authorized distributor - so charge them too.

        • “They’re not coming from authorized distributors,” said Kevin Rhodes, 3M’s vice president and deputy general counsel. “They’re coming from companies really just coming into existence.”

          AKA - company made to distribute crap - so charge them, and buyers buying for MEDICAL use that did not do their diligence to make sure they were actually an authorized distributor - so charge them too.

          That whole MEDICAL argument, will likely be their excuse in court, if it even gets that far.

          "Medical? No, we bought these to sell as novelties. Masks are all the rage these days!"

      • How many people every day, buy "authentic" merchandise from the "reputable" vendor known as Amazon?

        At least someone's bothering with the "authentic" part. Bought a mouse from Newegg and the seller pulled a bait and switch. A much cheaper item as well as not the right one. Insult to injury Newegg will take return shipping out of my refund. One of the store reviews says this has happened before.

        • Sometimes the return is just not worth the shipping. The scammer will send some worthless item and then offer a pennies on the dollar refund in return for not needing the item to be shipped back. They will jack up the return shipping by insisting that an item shipped to you from the US must be shipped back to China and they will drag their heels over sending the return shipment address.
        • How many people every day, buy "authentic" merchandise from the "reputable" vendor known as Amazon?

          At least someone's bothering with the "authentic" part. Bought a mouse from Newegg and the seller pulled a bait and switch. A much cheaper item as well as not the right one. Insult to injury Newegg will take return shipping out of my refund. One of the store reviews says this has happened before.

          Sadly, this is why I find myself often going directly to the manufacturer.

          If the manufacturer happens to offer a link to their "official" app store on Amazon, I might consider purchasing that way. But if the price difference is shipping or speed, I'll likely order direct. If we want authenticity, going to the source is probably the best way these days.

          • That's the way I went. The main reason I didn't before is the mouse I want is out of stock on official stores, and no one knows when any new will come in. Hopefully the other seller will not try to fight me on the refund, else I'll have to go though all that charge-back stuff.

  • i am having thoughts.
    of a group of grinning show offs.
    being put to work digging graves.
    to burying the dead they created

  • I see most people wearing surgical or cloth masks. Why is nobody offering better masks or respirators? I am sure we can easily do better than N95.

    I have painter's 3M respirator with activated charcoal side filters. It is too cumbersome to wear every day, but I am sure something slightly less effective (i.e. it doesn't have to deal with toxic fumes) and slightly more usable would be popular.
    • Actually, what I don't understand is that they just leave people on their own buying masks and (in my case the UK) government doesn't do something to supply people with _good_ masks. This N95 thing is obviously fraud, but I have no idea whether the masks that I'm buying are any good or not. And how am I supposed to know?
    • Respirators (such as a P100) are banned most places, because they don't filter exhaled breath. I got one at the start of the pandemic and haven't been able to use it. The purpose of mask mandating is to prevent the mask wearer from spreading droplets everywhere. The cloth masks don't do much to protect the wearer. So the mask mandate is more about protecting others than yourself, which is why respirators are prohibited. N95 (and KN95, etc) filter in both directions, which is why they're preferred since they

      • by sinij ( 911942 )
        Replacing exhaust valve with a filter is not a hard technical problem. We have the technology.
        • I mean, no, it's not, but the problem is that the regulations in so many places state that it cannot have an exhaust valve - not that the exhaust valve can be replaced by a filter. All it takes is one jobsworth deciding to make an issue and you're screwed.
      • Put a mask over the respirator, perhaps?
      • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Funny, all the half-mask respirators I've ever seen have a filter on the exhaust. It's only the cheap disposable respirators that don't, and for those, you can just visibly tape over the exhaust valve.

        • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Then you haven't seen the industry standard 3M respirators. Here is the link [3m.com] none of them filter on exhale. They are specifically designed to make exhale as unrestricted as possible.
          • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            I own one from about a year ago, and I'm 99% sure that's a single-layer filter that I see inside the exhalation valve. It isn't a great filter — just enough to keep sneezes from contaminating your paint job — but it is almost certainly better than nothing.

            Also, anybody seriously arguing that exhalation valves should be banned should be required to go back to school and take a remedial statistics class. Someone wearing a cloth mask that gives 20% protection each way is at least an order of mag

            • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
              You got me wondering, so I had to go look at mine. All mine has is a silicone flap, and a "duct" (for lack of a better term) to direct airflow downwards. If I sneeze it's on my beer gut instead of my paint job. I'm of the same mind as you, just about anything is better than nothing. As far as your last point, I don't have the knowledge to argue. All I know is that the initial intent of the barrier is to keep people from expelling virus laden spittle everywhere for the next person to inhale or to contam
  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @10:09AM (#61051340)

    The global supply chain needs better maintenance, and updating.
    Why are we in America going to Chinese Sellers to buy product from "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company" . Sure they may have Chinese factories that makes the products, because it may be too expensive to do it in the united states, But shouldn't the hospital be able to go to 3M and say I need 200 units of the Blue N95 masks, and 3M contacts its manufactures to make them and sell them back to the hospital.

    However what they are doing, is 3M is just making the masks, companies are buying them from 3M, then reselling to the Hospitals. This means counterfeiter who just need to mold some scrap paper, dye it blue, and stamp 3M N95 on it. Can get away with it. Because they may sell to the resellers as well. As well during this time, Hospitals need to get creative to source the masks, because 3M doesn't have enough, because they had sold them all to the resellers who some may sit on them, sell at an unreasonable price, dilute with knockoffs....

    The global supply chain had become too complex to properly manage. That is why Apple has a problem with Slave Labor making its products, Counterfeit products...

    In computer science terms, if this were a Mapping Graph, the current situation will be following a Greedy Search algorithm, where the shortest path is picked and used. Vs A Star which gives the true optimal path.
    Everyone in a complex supply chain is out to make a quick buck, and the system is so complex and large, the normal "Invisible Hand of Capitalism" that suppose to help manage it, is limp, because the problem is so wide spread that it is hard to just block where the bad actors are.

    • by sinij ( 911942 )

      Why are we in America going to Chinese Sellers to buy product from "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company" .

      Outsourcing, that why. Suits in the corner office sold all of us down the river for a quarterly bonus.

      • All the people who have their money in pensions and hedge funds not to mention straight stocks complained bitterly about those bigger stock dividends such outsourcing got them. They wanted smaller pensions and hedge funds so they could proudly proclaim, "made in America". To heck with a good retirement and trying to live the current 9 to 5 which sucked for most of the middle class. Principles over progress.

    • Should every manufacturer have their own logistics company? Way more efficient to work with distributors. Especially if you're talking about an absurdly small order like 200 units. You going to send an 18-wheeler over with that right away?

      Why are we in America going to Chinese Sellers to buy product from "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company"

      If it's out of stock, you don't just buy from whatever random outfit you can find in a Google search. This is stupidity.

      Hospitals need to get creative to source the masks

      See above. They should not be trying to do this. A cloth mask is better than a fake mask because at least you know what you've got. Product re-use

      • I am stating the problem, not proposing a solution.

        They don't need to have its internal logistics, but the one they use, should be following a good set of rules, however they probably should have a better handle on their inventory management.

        If it is out of Stock, and you Really do need the product, you may have to go outside of your normal supply chain to get a product.
        Yes they shouldn't need to have to do this. But to stay in operation they need the product, if they can't get it, a hospital cannot close

      • Especially if you're talking about an absurdly small order like 200 units.

        You really think 200 units == 200 masks? A hospital administrator is going to call up 3M and say "One $40 box of masks, please!"

        • No - you're just underestimating the scale that makes it worth dealing with logistics yourself. 200 boxes of masks is what - maybe one whole pallet?

          • No one is going to roll a truck for one pallet. I wonder if other hospitals, located nearby, also need masks....?
            • More likely, the hospital would rather order where they can get their other surgical and sanitary supplies rather than placing a separate order from each brand.

              • That would be true, 99.9999% of the time, when the hospital is business as usual, with no emergency to deal with.
                • So you want the manufacturer to have an entirely separate distribution pipeline set up, but unused - just in case.

                  • Remember when whorehouses were a thing? I suppose you're not working in an job where you have to order things, or old enough to remember a time when things weren't "backordered" 50% of the time.

                    "Just in case" isn't a new problem, but ignoring it is.
                    • While your statement did get me reminiscing some pleasant memories for a while, I finally backtracked the thread and figured out the topic on hand. Anyways...

                      I remember when JIT was the latest buzzword. I thought "that's going to make things brittle". Tuning local storage is fine...you want to minimize your warehouses needed where you can. Like a memory cache, too big of a footprint is wasteful. OTOH, too small can be useless.

                      I suspect recent events will have companies reconsidering their JIT tuning.

    • The way I see it, the biggest problem with the global supply chain are unpriced externalities. [wikipedia.org] Countries decide certain business practices are harmful to the well being of society, and imposes regulations and taxes. The invisible hand of the free market sees this as inefficiency, and responds by moving those business practices to countries that don't have regulations or taxes on those activities.

      For example, if country A imposes a new law making it illegal for anyone under the age of 30 to have a job, t
    • And who's going to run the totalitarian state that tells people where they can buy things, how they should buy them?

      Capitalism functions BECAUSE of greed. Everyone has an incentive to take out cost, and lower cost is a direct measure of higher efficiency.

      This is what has allowed even the poor to enjoy the highest standard of living in all of human history. I don't think that's a bad track record.

      Command economies like you suggest, on the other hand, have a record of gross inefficiencies and abysmal result

  • by pz ( 113803 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @10:30AM (#61051428) Journal

    Often when counterfeit goods are sold, they work pretty well, but maybe not quite as well as the real deal. The article claims these masks were not tested. But I'd bet if they were good enough to pass visual inspection by people familiar with the real versions as they are, then they might be functionally adequate. Apparently one of the only ways to tell is if the seal on the box says "Peru" instead of "US", and if certain lot numbers are printed on the masks; the seal appears to be genuine suggesting that "counterfeit" in some cases might just mean "manufactured by 3M outside of the US and imported by a third party".

    In other words, they appear to be either pretty good counterfeits or genuine 3M masks intended for an international market, which leads me to ask: how well do they actually work?

    And, when it comes down to it, anything that looks like a 3M N95 mask is going to seal pretty well, and that is a huge determination of how effective they are. Even a normal surgical mask, if sealed well, apparently gives between 65% and 75% filtration (instead of the 95% of an N95).

    • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      then they MIGHT be functionally adequate

      (emphasis mine) You could have quit there. "Might" isn't good enough when it comes to PPE. Are you willing to wear a harness that MIGHT support your weight if you fall? Granted, for most of us, "close enough" is better than nothing. But for professionals who are actively in harms way it's not good enough.

    • they appear to be either pretty good counterfeits or genuine 3M masks intended for an international market, which leads me to ask: how well do they actually work?

      Problem is, it would make no sense to assume that there would be any uniformity across all of the counterfits. Unless we have reason to think that they are all made by a single source with consistent quality controls, they could be all over the dish. And I take it that this is part of the problem: the manufacturer(s) are not known.

    • Buying a product with verifications means you don't want to test every new pallet.
      Hospitals has standardized around masks with 95% dust filtration rates, with a certification. You buy masks with the cert, so you don't have to independently verify. The alternative would be to hold back payment when buying masks, test a set number of random samples in each shipping crate, and take legal action if testing fails to produce the verified results. Verification means its also possible to downgrade the rating of th

    • by randjh ( 7163909 )

      Well, it wasn't an issue of life-or-death for me. Merely injury. But I purchased a heat-proof glove at a substantial discount over the internet. I had already purchased the genuine article but wanted to be able to use both hands. When the 2nd glove arrived, it was obviously counterfeit based on the packaging, as well as its stiff feel that made it awkward to use. However, in a use test, it still afforded me adequate protection for handling hot ovenware. So yes, I'm mildly annoyed at the deception. BUT, I di

  • security, what does that means for everyone else not wearing n95 masks? It can't be a two way street. Which is it?

  • said Steve Francis, assistant director for global trade investigations with the Homeland Security Department's principal investigative arm.

    So I'll say who it is: ICE.

    ICE is the DHS counterpart to the FBI. The FBI is a waste of space as an agency. Lowest conviction rate [time.com] in federal law enforcement**, biggest budget. Notorious for outright criminal conduct by its employees, and I don't mean morally criminal, I mean legally criminal. I don't know why their IG even bothers releases new reports since they could p

    • The conviction rate is "cases that went to trial." The FBI's is below 50% now. That means the DoJ loses cases over 50% of the time the FBI is the one that did the principle investigation. Federal average is 72% conviction rate.

      You only get numbers that low when you are highly incompetent and often rely on sketchy methods that catch the baleful eye of a federal judge. The FBI is mainly feared for one reason today: they are the Chicago PD with national jurisdiction and suits, not uniform.

  • Supply chain management is a perfect application of block chain. I want to see that company X got supplies from reputable sources and made Y products with those supplies. I want to see that I bought serial numbers n-m of product Y and I want to easily verify that no one else also got serial numbers n-m. I also want to be able to see that company X didn't make 20x more Y than could possibly be made with the supplies they got.
  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @11:55AM (#61051918) Journal
    Our species has an amazing capacity for creativity, ingenuity, insightfulness, endurance, and empathy.
    Unfortunately our species also has an amazing capacity for things like greed, malice, treachery, and utter bastardry.
    If there was an alien invasion bent on the subjugation and ultimately the erradication of our species, there would be motherfuckers who would help them do it in exchange for a little power and some profit.
    Find these bastards and shoot them in the head.
  • Government Efficiency? I find it interesting that within a week of the shutdown my favorite noodle bar in town had totally retooled their operation to 100% take out model with full online touch free ordering and a streamlined touch free socially distanced safe food pickup set up. The DMV shut down 100% taking months to establish a draconian method of printing online forms then snail mailing them in with your best guess of charges. Or you could send them a blank check then wait weeks for your transaction to
    • All that kind of flies in the face of broadband justification. "But we need it to deal with government." Seems it doesn't matter how you communicate with them. Results are still the same.

  • The foreign-made knockoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to spot and could put health care workers at grave risk for the coronavirus

    "Could", eh? Has anyone tested that?

    There is a historical anecdote about counterfeit coins in Russia — minted by Demidov, who owned silver mines — having more silver in them, than the "genuine" government issue.

    These masks bearing 3M logo without authorization is certainly a crime of its own, but are they really worse than the real thing, or can we keep on usi

The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude.

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