Counterfeiters copy Livestrong bands

You've seen them just about everywhere — on Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, and John Kerry. They're the fashion must-have: A yellow rubber wristband bearing the imprint "Livestrong." It's the creation of — and cause for — Tour de France king and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.

"[It's] something that they can wear and look at or give to a family member or a friend —somebody that's fighting the illness — to remind them, like it says, [to] live strong," says Lance Armstrong.

Since last summer legions have heeded that call, buying the bracelets for just a buck, with all the proceeds going to cancer research. The Lance Armstrong Foundation says they've raised $33 million to-date, all from a simple trademarked band.

A band that now has its own bandwagon.

Last year suburban kids Kyle and Sydney Allon hopped aboard. They bought and resold the Livestrong bracelets to classmates — for a dollar — as part of a family project to raise awareness about cancer. It's a cause they are passionate about since they lost their mom in 2003.

"I want to help because my mom died of cancer," says Kyle. "So I want to help people who have cancer so they don't die."

Kyle and Sydney purchased the bands directly from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, so they were surprised when they saw them for sale in a mall near their home in Connecticut. Their dad asked the store's owner about it.

"They said, 'we're not selling them for the charity, we're just selling them like any other product,'" says David Allon.

Not a dime was going toward anything close to cancer research.

"Why? Why are they doing this to get money for themselves?" asks Sydney. "Why aren't they just doing it for cancer research?"

How to know that Livestrong Band is the real deal: To avoid any unnecessary confusion, make sure you buy your band from an authorized seller. You can purchase the bracelet online through the Lance Armstrong Foundation's site (www.laf.org) or you can buy it in person at Build-A-Bear Workshops; Discovery Channel stores; and select Nike-authorized locations. Make sure the packaging the bracelet comes in or the tags attached to it bear the Lance Armstrong Foundation's logo. Again, you can find that on its Web site www.laf.org.  The band should cost you $1. Nothing more, nothing less. The authentic Livestrong bands come in one color and one color only -- yellow. You can assume any other colored band bearing the Livestrong imprint is a fake.

The fact is, the Lance Armstrong Foundation only sells its bands in four places: Its Web site, Discovery Channel stores, Build-a-Bear workshops and select Nike locations.

So was the Allon's discovery a fluke? Curious, Dateline hit the streets looking for counterfeit Livestrong bands. And sure enough, we found them, in all the wrong places.

In Chinatown, New York they were on the streets. We asked if the proceeds were going to charity. The vendor, who spoke Mandarin Chinese, had no idea.

We moved on. Another vendor had plenty of Livestrong bands for sale, in a rainbow of colors matching every outfit. The Lance Armstrong Foundation says it makes its bracelets in only one color — yellow. Anything else is a fake.

We found similar colored Livestrong bands in convenience stores all over the country.

"I just work here," one clerk told us. "Whatever they bring in, I'm selling it."

At a dollar store in Alexandria, Virginia, the clerk took a green Livestrong out of its wrapper to convince us it was the real deal. You have to wonder, where are all these bracelets — in so many colors — coming from?

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