Companies and Brands

eBay Continues to Sell Fake Badges After Warnings

Paul Ausick

Published: June 21, 2016 1:35 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 6:33 am

Apparently eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) customers who want to skip all the education and work needed to become a law enforcement officer can just order up badges and identification cards that, though fake, look enough like the real thing to fool most people. After all, chances are most Americans are looking at a law enforcement officer’s badge for perhaps the first and only time in their lives. Would you know a real one if you saw it? How about a fake?

According to The Counterfeit Report, despite warnings sent to senior eBay staff including CEO Devin Wenig, the online auction and sales site “continues to provide a means to purchase FBI and a variety of other replica federal and police badges, and counterfeit identification made to order with the buyer’s name and photograph.”

In a press release dated June 21, 2016, The Counterfeit Report shows several examples of the kind of material that can be purchased on eBay. The fake FBI identification for Attorney General Loretta Lynch was made “by an eBay seller,” according the release.

“Federal, state and local laws regulate the sale, purchase, possession and display of fake badges,” according to The Counterfeit Report, which also noted that “eBay claims ‘You can’t list replicas, fakes, counterfeits, or other illegal copies on eBay’ — but the fact is that counterfeit and replica law enforcement badges and accompanying identification are being sold on eBay.”

eBay does allow the sale of historical badges “that do not resemble modern law enforcement badges … provide that the item description must clearly state that the badge is a historical piece at least 75 years old or issued by a now-defunct organization.”