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Consumer companies are fighting a growing global trade in counterfeit goods that is hurting their sales.

As global trade booms and free-trade zones grow, international crime syndicates are finding it easier to ship a wider variety of spurious products across borders. Counterfeiting has traditionally been a problem that companies faced in Asian markets, and counterfeiters tended to set their sights on luxury products like designer handbags. But fake versions of everyday consumable products — ranging from toothpaste to cigarettes — have now begun to make their way to developed and other markets around the world.

A June report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that the global rise in counterfeiting has been accompanied by a notable divergence from high-value luxury items to common products that affect personal health and safety. Counterfeiters have begun targeting products like food and drink, medical equipment, personal-care items, toys, tobacco and automotive parts, the OECD found.

Government and anti-counterfeiting organizations estimate that counterfeit goods overall cost U.S. companies between $200 billion to $250 billion in revenue per year. Counterfeiting and piracy globally result in lost sales of $500 billion to $600 billion a year, which is about 5 percent to 7 percent of global trade, says Katie Wilson, a spokeswoman at the global anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Counterfeit products also cost governments lost revenue in taxes. And there are other fallouts. Consumers are often willing to buy a fake Louis Vuitton handbag if it saves them a few hundred dollars, but counterfeit goods that are consumed in some form can be far more dangerous — they can potentially harm both consumers and product brands.

"Counterfeiting is no longer an issue about fake watches and handbags," says Bill Dobson, a spokesman for Bascap, or Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy, an organization started by the International Chamber of Commerce. "This is now a problem on a global scale that is posing health and safety issues."

One case highlighted the problem of counterfeiting in the United States: Colgate-Palmolive Co. said in mid-June that counterfeit toothpaste falsely packaged as "Colgate" and possibly containing harmful ingredients was found in several discount stores in four U.S. states.

When consumer products that could have harmful side effects are counterfeited, consumers may become reluctant to buy the product, said Alan Siegel, chairman of strategic branding firm Siegel + Gale. "It's a commodity market, there are 15 alternatives you can buy," he said.

The sheer scale of the problem has forced companies that are often competitors to cooperate to form international organizations to fight the problem and even hire experts to advise them.

Bascap's Dobson, a former Procter & Gamble Co. executive, was involved in P&G's anti-counterfeiting efforts in Asia in the 1990s. Dobson has worked on several anti-counterfeiting initiatives and says that over the last five years he has been seeing companies face a much bigger problem with counterfeit products being exported from Asia to other parts of the globe.

In its recent report, the OECD found that Asia is the largest source of counterfeit and pirated products, and China the single-largest source.

The tobacco industry is one that counterfeiters have found particularly profitable. Cigarettes tend to be highly taxed in many countries, and counterfeiters like selling fake cigarettes since they can walk away with higher margins as they don't pay taxes on the products they sell. Counterfeit cigarettes could contain lower-grade tobacco, or other cheap products, that would not be used in legitimate manufacturing.

Altria Group Inc. — whose Philip Morris unit sells the world's largest-selling cigarette brand Marlboro — has said in regulatory filings that it cannot quantify the amount of revenue it loses due to counterfeit cigarettes sold in international markets.

"Over the last four to five years, you've seen a shift in manufacturing (of counterfeit cigarettes) closer to the intended markets," said Greg Prager, director of external communications at Philip Morris International. China continues to be the major source of counterfeit cigarettes, but in recent years European Union law-enforcement authorities have raided counterfeit operations in countries ranging from Latvia to Germany, he said.

Altria also has an in-house brand-integrity department that works with law-enforcement agencies, governments and customs. The company also hires external investigators who take any information they find on potential counterfeit operations to the law-enforcement agencies.

Bascap's Dobson says that international crime organizations have been developing better distribution systems that allow them to ship fake products. Free-trade zones — areas where bureaucracy is lowered in order to encourage international trade — are playing an increasingly important role in the distribution systems of counterfeiters. Countries like Paraguay and Dubai that allow easy trade are becoming hubs for the distribution of counterfeit goods, Dobson said.

Counterfeit products in general tend to be sold in discount stores, flea markets or on the Internet. Experts say that shopping at well-established retail stores can prevent consumers from being duped by fake products.