Counterfeit cigars

More than 3,000,000 counterfeit cigars are sold in the United States every year. These fakes are said to be Cuban but they are not. This preliminary study addresses the feasibility of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for identifying the fakes. 

Although this preliminary study strongly suggests that NIR can be a route to the detection of counterfeit cigars it is apparent that a larger data set must be incorporated. A major difficulty with any study of counterfeit/fraudulent materials is finding a valid source of samples those who possess such... 

There are a number of websites that deal with counterfeit cigars [1-5]. Most of them are essentially an offer to sell to subscribers, while some may address such items as the tax seal/stamp and various ways of packaging the cigars. None appears to deal with a scientific method of identification. Here, we take the first step with a spectrophotometric approach. 

The Ultimate Counterfeit Cuban Cigar Primer, cigarnexus.com/counsel/counterfeit/index.html... 

Franklin Liquors Cigar Page/Cuban Counterfeit Lab, franklinliquors.com/cubancigar.htm... 

Counterfeit Gallery, cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/Aficionado/Counterfeit/countgal.htm... 

Discusses non-traditional applications such as analyzing bowling lane conditions and counterfeit detection tor currency, turquoise, and cigars... 

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