THEY are the latest must-have item; the fashionable way to show that you care. Copying the trend set by celebrities from David Beckham to Prince William, thousands of children have bought brightly coloured wristbands sold in aid of good causes. In election year, even Tony Blair sports a wristband.

Such, though, has been the demand, organised criminals have started a lucrative trade in counterfeit copies that are depriving charities of tens of thousands of pounds. Bands are changing hands for up to 13 times their face value on the internet as children, keen to keep up with the craze, fuel the demand.

Last week more than 6,000 fake wristbands smuggled into Scotland from China were seized by customs officers in the first raid of its kind. “To cheat people into buying something which they believe is supporting a charity is callous and devious,” Councillor Iain McMillan, of Renfrewshire Council, where the raid was made, said. He described the traffic as “the lowest form of all counterfeits”. The fake bands bore the “Livestrong” logo, the official mark of the US cancer charity, the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), which started the craze last year.

Armstrong, the American cyclist who has won the Tour de France six times after beating testicular cancer, has sold 40 million yellow wristbands through his foundation since last May, creating a global fashion trend and powerful fundraising tool. Bands now exist in many colours, supporting charitable campaigns against a wide range of contemporary social and medical ills, including poverty, bullying, racism and cancer.

Charities selling the bands for £1 make anything between 40p and 85p for every one they sell. The wristbands seized in Scotland were in white, yellow and blue, but Michelle Milford, a spokeswoman for LAF, said yesterday that the charity sold only yellow ones.

British charities have tried to crack down on unauthorised internet auctions by ensuring that there is no shortage of supply of genuine products after initially running out, but much of the popularity of the blue anti-bullying band, for example, stems from the fact that it was produced as a limited edition.

Oxfam’s Make Poverty History band is readily available in all Oxfam stores for £1 and on the charity’s website, but the embossed rubber version of the band, seen on the wrist of Tony Blair last week, is in far shorter supply and has also become something of a collectable as a result.

One message posted on Oxfam’s website, from Emily in the West Midlands, sums up the situation: “I’m 17 and I think most people wear these bands as a fashion accessory. Most buy them off eBay where the money doesn't go to charities. People should see them as a cause and not as a fashion accessory if they have no interest about their meanings.”

Helen Yates, of the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre, which will be selling its own green wristband from this week, said it was likely that many young people buying counterfeit bands had no idea that the money they were spending did not go to charity.

Ms Yates said: “There are two groups of people who buy these bands: supporters who buy them as a way of helping their favourite charity and teenagers who are trying to collect as many different colours as they can as fashion items. Teenagers may buy one of ours because they don’t have a green one yet.”

BLACK Anti-band band, slogan LiveWrong, anti-fashion statement

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