# Trading Standards warn of counterfeit charity wristbands

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/06/21/trading-standards-warn-counterfeit-charity-wristbands/
- Published: 2005-06-21T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The success of charity wristbands as campaigning and fundraising tools continues
to be exploited by con men, according to The Guardian.
According to Hugh Muir’s 
report in The Guardian on 11 June 2005, over 23 million charity wristbands have 
been sold.

However, some traders are overcharging for wristbands and keeping the profit themselves,
while others are simply selling counterfeit bands, with the Livestrong variety proving
particularly popular.

Bryan Lewin, the Trading Standards Institute’s lead officer for counterfeiting, 
told The Guardian: “It is dispicable that they are taking away money from such worthy
causes and conning the consumer to make money.”

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Trading Standards officers in various parts of the country have acted after receiving
phone calls from concerned members of he public. The Liverpool Daily Post for example
reports that Sefton’s Trading Standards team “had seized undisclosed quantities 
of fake wristbands in Southport and Bootle.”

The Institute of Fundraising is working with charities and the Charity Commission
to address the issue.

The counterfeit issue for charity wristbands follows on from another controversy
when some charities had to make changes to where they sourced wristbands from after
reports that some wristbands had been made in conditions that breached international
standards for working conditions.

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