China is usually regarded as the country responsible for producing more counterfeit products than any other, and counterfeit memorabilia from the Beijing Olympics will likely be circulating for months to come. News reports suggest the Chinese government took a strong stance against such items, but they're still circulating in countries around the world.

Where will consumers find these fake items? They're likely going to be sold primarily by street vendors and on eBay. Buyers will be offered pins, T-shirts, hats, and other clothing that is not officially licensed, meaning they aren't "authentic" Olympics items.

Some buyers might not care whether their new t-shirt is an official one or not. But advocates of licensing rights say that selling knock-offs is wrong because products with the Olympic logo should only be sold by those who have paid the licensing fees entitling them to do so.

Probably the best way to spot a fake is by its price. If the price is far below the price of the authentic goods, you can be almost certain that you're buying a fake. Consumers might want to shop only at sites that are known to be authorized to sell Olympics goods. (Think major brand names.) Stay away from eBay, which is likely to have many fakes, as well as other fly-by-night sites. Don't invest a lot of money in items suspected of being fakes, as they won't have much value in the years to come.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Also read: Brand piracy bites China

Former Major League Baseball player Julio Mateo -- who is currently playing in the minor leagues -- was arrested on suspicion of forgery last weekend after police found counterfeit $100 bills in his hotel room.

Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty but The Associated Press found this gem in the police report: "Before officers informed him of why we were there, Julio stated that he did not know anything about fake money,"

Aha! A clue worthy of a particularly obvious episode of Murder, She Wrote, and also a good tip for any would-be criminals out there who are reading WalletPOP: don't deny that you've committed a certain crime before you've been accused of it.

But maybe we're being too hard on Mr. Mateo. I mean, with the federal government planning to spend $482 billion more than it has in 2009, is paying a cab fare with fake greenbacks really that big of a deal? Just saying. . .

Auction site eBay won a big victory in federal court yesterday. Tiffany & Co. sued eBay in 2004 after asking the company to remove listings with the Tiffany name in them. Tiffany claimed that eBay knew many counterfeit goods were being auctioned on the site, and that eBay had a responsibility to stop them.

The court ruled in eBay's favor, saying that it is Tiffany's responsibility to protect its own trademarks, not the auction company. The judge said that general knowledge of trademark infringement didn't make eBay responsible for the infringement.

Last week, eBay lost a similar suit in France, brought by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA. The maker of luxury goods won a judgment of over $61 million against eBay because of the sale of counterfeit purses, perfume, and accessories.

Earlier this week, police raided warehouses in New York City and Long Island, seizing over $25 million of counterfeit merchandise. The goods taken by the police included knock-off Nike shoes, Duracell batteries, Louis Vuitton handbags, and more. Two men running these warehouses were arrested, and the machines used to put fake logos on the merchandise were seized too.

These knock-offs are typically sold by street vendors and at flea markets. Are you one of the many Americans who regularly buy fake designer bags, shoes, and more? Does a crackdown like this upset you?

The way I see it, these operations deserve to be shut down. I know that a lot of consumers justify operations like this because they want the designer name without paying the designer price. But the fact remains that the logos and the names are the property of the companies that own the original designs. Others should not be able to profit off their names without paying some fee or royalty to them.

This type of illegal profit might be fun and rewarding to the consumers, but it's not fair to the companies that have invested money in the brands and the advertising. This is not a victimless crime, no matter how you slice it. And I'm glad that the authorities take it seriously and do something to help protect the good names and reputations of the true owners of these brands.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Counterfeit $100 bills are circling the globe, and their story is intriguing. These bills are so well done that that it's next to impossible to tell that they're fakes. They've been dubbed "supernotes" because of their precision.

Experts say these are the most sophisticated examples of counterfeit U.S. currency ever seen. They are made of the exact same cotton and linen mix from which legitimate U.S. currency is made. They even have the proper-colored microfibers and an embedded strip that glows under ultraviolet light... both key pieces of currency that are supposed to be difficult to counterfeit. The fake bills also have the proper microprint and optically variable ink (OVI) that distinguishes authentic U.S currency.

Authorities say the bills haven't been printed in large quantities. Only $50 million of supernotes have been found since 1989, which is estimated to be too little to even cover the cost of the sophisticated printing process required.