Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1475010
20 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2022 fully misrepresenting their product. I think it's helpful for everyone to see how seriously Digi- Key takes it. Johnson: Can you quantify how much counter- feit activity you have going through Digi-Key? How many of those investigations do you have open at a time? Lawrence: You'll be really surprised with my answer. Honestly, this year, we've had four full-blown counterfeit investigations. Johnson: at's all? I expected a much higher number than that. Lawrence: I attribute the number being so small because we have a robust investigation process. Prior to allowing a customer to return a prod- uct, we run it through a preemptive investiga- tion to determine—based on photos and infor- mation they're providing us—the date and lot codes. If customers say something's fail- ing, that's usually the first key information we need, in addition to the date and lot codes so we can verify the traceability and start that ver- ification process. If we can't verify that prov- enance, we don't allow them to return failing product. If they're adamant and can somehow prove they got these parts from Digi-Key, we will take them back, but that tags them already as under scrutiny. In the case where we can prove—which gen- erally we do—that Digi-Key did not ship the sus- pect or confirmed counterfeit product the cus- tomer claims we shipped to them, we will quar- antine the product and report it to the GIDEP website (Government-Industry Data Exchange Program). GIDEP is a cooperative activity between government and industry. Digi-Key utilizes GIDEP to gain preview to, and to report, suspect and confirmed counterfeit activity. Pub- licizing the information on GIDEP is our way of assisting others in the electronics industry with the information needed to prevent and mitigate similar activity in the supply chain. A Case Study The top photo depicts what the customer claims they purchased directly from the man- ufacturer in 2020. The photo on the bottom depicts what the customer claims they pur- chased from Digi-Key in 2018. Digi-Key ver- ified we had never received the date code in question (+436) from the original manu- facturer. This was confirmed via Traceability reporting of Date Codes received into Digi- Key's facility. These were products shipped back to us and determined suspicious. Returned prod- uct depicted some bent leads, parts were scratched, dented and had possible burns. Parts looked to contain deformities (incon- sistent texture). The concluded analysis was: Digi-Key testified these parts appeared to be counterfeit but did not take responsibil- ity for shipping counterfeit product. We ver- ified Digi-Key had not received, stored or shipped the product in which the custom- er returned to Digi-Key, using product trace- ability. These parts are currently in quaran- tine. (This example is from an existing histor- ical case Digi-Key has posted to GIDEP.)