DoJ Alleges Cisco Reseller Made $37 Million Selling Counterfeit Equipment 74
netbuzz writes "The latest scam involving stolen and/or fake Cisco equipment may also be one of the largest, as the Department of Justice says a 43-year-old San Jose-based reseller accumulated $37 million in ill-gotten gains over a period of years that he then poured into real estate and luxury cars. The feds say the guy also used part of the loot to set up college funds for his four children. At least four other such scams have been perpetrated against Cisco in recent years."
Re:Scams against Cisco? (Score:4, Interesting)
I assume that it is treated as a 'scam against Cisco' because their precious, precious IP rights were violated in building and branding the counterfeit gear(I'm just guessing that counterfeit shops don't exactly bother with doing cleanroom re-implementations of 100% Cisco compatible gear, which might actually be legal, save any exciting patents involved; but would also be far more valuable to one of Cisco's competitors than it would be to some slimy flea-marketeer...) and the individual customers who got stiffed aren't the ones with the resources to push a successful investigation and prosecution.
(It's also possible that, depending on what parts were on offer, the customers didn't really suspect they were getting genuine goods; but the price was good enough that they didn't much care, in which case they probably aren't lining up to tell the feds their tale of woe.)
Re:The moral of the story is... (Score:3, Interesting)
Cisco engineer here. We don't modify our equipment for anybody beyond basic CALEA-type compliance requirements. We don't even market ourselves for interception/monitoring type roles in most cases. There is a ton of money in other, less politically contentious areas.
Hope this sets some of the record straight.