I dodged a bullet so to speak. On my last run to the Treasure Hunt store, I saw some water filters missing a box but otherwise sealed. I decided against buying them on a whim.

It turns out those water filters were fakes. I’ve been researching the products I bought and came across some public notices issued by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) that listed Ecley as falsely claiming to be certified.

I actually found multiple brands selling the same item with only the name swapped. This makes it easier to identify the fakes.

Without a real certification, you could be putting your health or your family’s health in jeopardy.

These Ecley filters come from an “Alphabet Soup” Amazon store. To get past Amazon’s strict registration requirements, sellers from Shenzen, China will often use random characters all in CAPS as their business name. This is done mostly to avoid common names that are already trademarked.

There are actually two businesses that have similar-sounding names and are both in the water business. There is a refrigeration shop called Eckley in Pennsylvania and an Elkay from Chicago. Fun fact: You’ve probably drunk from an Elkay water fountain at some point in your life.

I also found a few other eBay sellers who were selling the Ecley brand and some others selling Frigidaire branded filters. While these other sellers are all highly rated with tens of thousands of sales, there is an issue. If you look at their negative feedback, there is a significant number of people complaining about being sent counterfeit goods.

One of these sellers (M8FILTERSTORE) has American flags and Taylor Swift plastered all over their storefront. The page heading boldly claims “USA Filter USA Stock” and the listings all include US flags and certification logos. These markings are all to send the message to buyers that they are a US-based company and that you are buying American products.

This is quite untrue. The seller (jennie-solo) is based out of China. The products are being manufactured and shipped from China.

In fact, many of the brands we associate with America are actually owned by foreign firms.

• GE Appliances is owned by Haier Group (Chinese)
• Whirlpool is largely owned by Galanz (Chinese)
• Frigidaire was sold to Electrolux (Swedish)
• Maytag was bought by Whirlpool who belong to Galanz. (Chinese)
• Kenmore, while still American-held, is largely manufactured in Asia.
• Kitchenaid is another Whirlpool brand. The parts are made in China and assembled in Connecticut.

We’ve seen news reports about unsafe products being shipped out from fly-by-night operations. Children’s toys made from lead, food products containing mercury, or bedding stuffed with garbage.

While occurrences like these are not the norm, they are on the rise. And setting numbers aside we must remember the people who unknowingly bought these goods were affected by them. While some may have been sickened, others have lost their lives as a consequence of trusting these sellers and the brands they offer.