I've seen fake Fuentes, Graycliffs, Davidoffs and Padrons in my travels, so they're around. Though the fake Cohibas and Montecristos always outnumber them.
[Reply]

I found this information on the Altadis Web Site regarding counterfeit cigars:

Industry experts estimate the cigar counterfeiting problem involves the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of fake and inferior products annually to unsuspecting consumers.

According to attorneys for Altadis, more and more warehouses and backrooms of tobacco retailers in South Florida have become home to tobacco counterfeiters.

The cigar counterfeiting industry has a number of levels. There are the printers of the fake cigar bands and labels that mimic the logo of well-known brands. There are individuals who sell the fake bands, labels and cigar boxes to cigar makers. And then there are cigar makers who market the bogus product. In some cases, there are financiers.
[Reply]

Yes, but these counterfeits are of Cuban cigars, not non-Cuban cigars. Altadis just has the advantage of owning the rights to those brand names in teh United States. Kind of like General Cigar winning court cases over Feauxhiba production, even though they weren't mimicking General's Cohiba.
[Reply]

Non-Cuban Cigars are produced with the market in mind for sale is the US. One reason NC cigars are at such a high rate here is because of taxes. Outside of the states if they were to be sold, they wouldn't specifically carry those taxes and thus could be at retail for a much lower rate. Thus i would think if someone wanted to retail them they would probably retail the real thing. Though I would expect if you looked for them in Europe you would be able to find fake NC's but i still would expect the fake CC's to still be more prevalent.
[Reply]

Lots of interesting opinions here. I think generally speaking my question was answered. Fake NCs exist out there, and people can be burned by them. However, they are not "common" by any means. Thanks everybody.
[Reply]