Groupon Australia has admitted that it sold a bunch of counterfeit condoms that may, in fact, be full of holes.

The condoms were sold between March 12 and April 10. If you do the math, and it’s not a hard one, you’ll realize there’s a good chance many of these holey condoms have been deployed already.

According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, the condoms were branded as Durex ‘Extra Safe’, ‘Thin Feel’ and ‘Performa’ varieties – but were in fact counterfeit.

“The condoms may be counterfeit products with defects such as holes in the latex,” says the ACCC. “The condoms may not prevent pregnancy or protect users against sexually transmitted diseases, which can result in serious illness or death.”

Oops.

The Australian government Department of Health has issued an advisory, saying,

“Counterfeiting is a problem for all major condom brands and consumers should be alert for potential fakes. Signs that might indicate a potential counterfeit products include suspiciously low prices, poor quality of printing on the packaging and whether information on the foil packaging of individual condoms match that on the box … In this situation, the seller was Edgelounge Enterprises (trading as Citrus Beat), who was responsible for direct shipment of the affected products to customers.”

Groupon has offered customers a full refund on any returned condoms.

“Customers are our utmost priority at Groupon and we take their health and safety very seriously. All customers who purchased the counterfeit products have been proactively contacted by Groupon notifying them of the recall and have been advised to discontinue use immediately, dispose or return the goods, and seek professional medical advice if they have concerns about their health,” said Groupon Australia in a statement.

According to The Independent, this is not a rare occurrence:

Counterfeiting is a serious problem for condom manufacturers, with cheap fake condoms being produced in their millions across the world, many of them in China.

Shanghai Police yesterday announced they had seized three million fake condoms that contained toxic metals, with officers reporting that the lubricant used to coat the condoms was so disgusting that it made them feel sick.

Bottom line: If you bought bulk condoms from a Groupon in Australia over the past month and a half – don’t use them.

Images via Shawn Latta, Flickr Creative Commons