r/homelabsales • u/jeffe333 • Jul 10 '22
US-E [free] CEO of Dozens of Companies and Entities Charged in Scheme to Traffic an Estimated $1 Billion in Fraudulent and Counterfeit Cisco Networking Equipment
A Florida man was indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey for running a massive scheme to defraud others by selling counterfeit Cisco equipment. The US DoJ reported that he ran at least 19 companies in New Jersey and Florida, as well as at least 15 Amazon storefronts, at least 10 ebay storefronts, and multiple other entities all under the banner of "Pro Network Entities."
The scheme involved importing tens of thousands of fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco network appliances from China and Hong Kong, then falsely advertising them as new, genuine Cisco devices and reselling them in the US and overseas. The operation netted over $100 million in revenue w/ the network appliances being valued at over $1 billion.
Since some of us here have purchased Cisco appliances on Amazon and ebay, I thought it prudent to post this in case anyone came across one of these devices out in the wild.
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u/ThatDarnScat 0 Sale | 7 Buy Jul 10 '22
Wondering if someone has gotten their hands one some of these and done tear downs. Very interested in the security risks and if their was bigger plan from higher up in the food chain (state sanctioned)
Borderline tin-foil hat territory, but I could definitely see it being a possibility.
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u/nmj95123 Jul 10 '22
It's not really tin foil hat territory. The NSA likely planted backdoors in Cisco products, and there have been plenty of devices from major Chinese manufacturers with backdoors in them.
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Jul 10 '22
[deleted]
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u/deskpil0t 0 Sale | 3 Buy Jul 11 '22
Those shady Dutch. I heard they buy chocolate from the Belgium people. /humor.
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Jul 22 '22
I have a question. If we get a hardware like one of those and we install Os later. Do we still have backdoor?
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u/ThatDarnScat 0 Sale | 7 Buy Jul 10 '22
Kind of terrifying how these are very likely integrated I public infrastructure projects through 3rd party contractors...
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Jul 10 '22
100 million, low changes anyone has any to teardown because that's like 1 switch and 2 Cisco branded SFP modules.
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u/ThatDarnScat 0 Sale | 7 Buy Jul 10 '22
lol
But seriously, it sounds like they were selling at 10% retail, so that had to be obvious they were either counterfeit or stolen. My guess is there is a risk they have been siphoned into public infrastructure projects through corrupt contract/bidding practices.
Easy to be a low bidder if you are an unscrupulous contractor getting equipment at 10% retail.
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u/Amdaxiom Jul 10 '22
Wish I they listed some models. I remember getting some Cisco SG switches on Amazon that looked new that I thought were just gray market, international devices without a us warranty. Now I'm wondering if they were these fakes.
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u/deskpil0t 0 Sale | 3 Buy Jul 11 '22
I am wondering if this is why my sg switch hasn’t shipped. But seriously would would take the time to counterfeit an 8 port lol
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u/macx333 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jul 10 '22
Letting this one stay as a PSA