Mary Sotis, vice president of legal affairs for NHL Enterprises, said consumers should watch out for cheap imitations of NHL replica jerseys and souvenir T-shirts during the weekend of All Star festivities that culminate with Sunday's game at the Air Canada Center.

The NHL licenses authentic goods that bear trademarked logos and joins other sports leagues in the Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports Logos, known as CAPS, to combat counterfeiters.

Sotis said sales of counterfeit products are believed to exceed $200 billion a year, and that CAPS in recent years has helped police seize merchandise and manufacturing equipment worth $130 million.

She said criminal networks use printing plants to manufacture the lower quality goods, and some even put on stamps and tags intended to fool buyers into thinking the articles are authentic.

"It's a year-round daily battle," she said of trying to detect counterfeit goods, especially during the high-profile periods such as the Stanley Cup playoffs and All Star weekend. "Counterfeiters go where excitement is high."

An NHL All Star Game in a Canadian city generates a lot of excitement. The annual All Star weekend events, such as the NHL skills competition and an old-timers game, expect capacity crowds, with people even getting tickets for All Star practices.

Licensed NHL products run from T-shirts that cost $7 to sweatshirts and polar fleeces in the $35-$40 range and authentic NHL jerseys worn by league players that cost $135, according to NHL Enterprises.

Counterfeit items run much cheaper, and Sotis offered the caveat to customers: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

The NHL obtained a court order in Ontario allowing it to seize any counterfeit material it finds, Sotis said. Detecting the counterfeits is difficult, she said, and consumers should make sure the goods they buy have proper NHL approved labels and the special hologram that verifies authenticity.

"These counterfeiters are pretty sophisticated, but the hologram is pretty hard to duplicate so they don't usually have it," Sotis said.

Another form of fraud involves phony autographs on photos of players that are sold on Internet auction sites, said Det. Steve Burnham of the 52nd division's fraud squad.