Attention owners of Cisco Systems routers and other networking devices: Check those products carefully.
A federal grand jury in New Jersey has returned an indictment against a Florida man accused of trafficking in over $1 billion in counterfeit Cisco networking equipment between 2014 and 2022.
According to the allegation, Onur Aksoy, also known as Ron Aksoy or Dave Durden, ran almost two dozen New Jersey and Florida-based companies as more than a dozen Amazon storefronts and almost a dozen eBay storefronts (collectively Pro Network Entities) hawking fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco devices imported from Hong Kong.
The devices were usually older, lower-model products and castoffs modified to appear genuinely new, enhanced and more expensive devices, some with pirated Cisco software and unauthorized components, including components circumventing license circumvention detection software.
Chinese counterfeiters used fake Cisco labels, stickers, boxes and documentation to make them appear factory-sealed.
The devices would fail, malfunction and cause “significant” damage to users‘ networks, in some cases thousands of dollars worth.
Cisco had yet to return a request for comment about whether it had any way to help people identify whether they had counterfeit equipment. ■
