Total Value: $809.55 Billion Number of Contraband Products: 49 Average Products Value: $16.52 Billion The Havocscope Black Market Index tracks 49 contraband products worldwide.  The financial market and values of each products are based upon publicly available documents such as news reports and research studies. Each product or activity has each own post with a market summary and [...]

Counterfeit Money Orders are unauthorized copies of Money Orders that were not created by the United States Government. Losses calculated from counterfeit money orders in FY2004 was reported at $3.7 million. Source: United States Postal Inspection Service, ” Setting the Record Straight: U.S. Postal Money Orders are as Good as Money in the Bank,” News [...]

The Human Tissue and Body Parts market consists of the buying and selling of body parts taken from human cadavers. The supply of body parts are taken from bodies that are either donated to medical schools and other organizations, or stolen from morgues and cremation centers. As USA Today reported [...]

Counterfeit Batteries is the manufacturing and sale of batteries that profits off of the trademarks and brand names of legitimate battery manufacturers. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association states that $23 million is lost to counterfeit batteries. Source: National Electrical Manufacturers Association, ” Dry Battery Counterfeit White Paper,” (last accessed: September 25, 2007).

Zippo estimates that 30 percent of their market is affected by counterfeit lighters. The company’s revenue in 2003 was in the $140 million range. Utilizing the 30 percent figure, Havocscope estimates that the counterfeit lighter market creates a loss in the area of $42 million. Sources: Associated Press, ” Zippo to lay off 15 percent of workers, knockoffs partly [...]

Havocscope is currently estimating the illicit market value for organ trafficking to be $50 million based on the following sources. 1. According to the World Health Organization, the average price paid to a kidney donor on the black market is ” likely to be about US $5000. 2. An article from Reuters quoted [...]

The Counterfeit Dollars market consists of producing and utilizing currency that was not created under the authority of the United States Government. $61 million counterfeit dollars were passed into circulation. Source: United States Treasury Department, ” The Use and Counterfeiting of the United States Currency Aboard, Part 3” , Final Report to the Congress by [...]

Counterfeit Purses are products that are sold as brand items without the authority of the legitimate brand name owner. One company estimates losses up to $70 million to counterfeit purses. Source: Caitlin Ingrassia, “Knockoffs Go Suburban,” Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2004.

According to published reports, Libya paid at least $100 million in the black market to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan for nuclear weapons equipment and expertise. Source: Matt Kelly, ” Nuclear weapons parts cost Libya $100 million,” San Diego Union-Tribune, March 16, 2004, and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Issue Brief: Non-Proliferation, A.Q. Khan Nuclear Chronology,” [...]

Counterfeit Cuban Cigars are fake cigars that are sold under Cuban brand names. Hundred of millions of dollars are believed to be lost to counterfeit Cubans annually. Source: Doreen Hemlock, ” Beware of cigar imposters” , South Florida Sun-Sentinel, April 9, 2006.