Counterfeit Forever Stamps

For some reason because these crimes involve postage stamps there is a different standard. Replace the stamps with fake concert tickets to Taylor Swift and refunding the money erases the crime? It's all so cynical. I have to wonder if the DOJ is actually looking at making examples of a few sellers and widely publicizing it.

18 USC 502 the punishment for knowingly producing, selling or using counterfeit postage stamps is 5 years in prison and $5000 fine PER COUNT.

Thank you, sochummy, for your clear description of what was te proper metods used in such transactions. However:

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. For copyright-specific third-party listings, platforms rely on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Safe Harbors is what protects ebay, Hip and others. They are not nor can they realistically be responsible for verifying the correctness of every listing in all subject areas.

Your claim of counterfeit is no more strong than the sellers claim of not counterfeit. How ebay handles such transactions protects all parties of the transaction, seller, buyer and ebay. And, only ebay suffers a loss, specifically the fee associated with a sold listing.

Just like drugs, the driving market force are not the sellers buy the many buyers looking for a "deal" on postage. as noted by the US Postal Inspection Service to be sure, only purchase Forever stamps from the US Post Office. While a shipping charge may apply, there is no sales tax.

Be aware tat ebay IDs can be bought and sold or otherwise transferred. Large feedback for a seller in no way impacts the veracity of the Forever Stamps sold.

Now my question to you, sochummy, is why are you buying Forever Stamps at discounts on ebay and expecting them to be valid? If you want someone to blame, blame the source, as all of the counterfeits are generated in China.

@Parcelpostguy: I think you misunderstood part of my post. I did not buy these stamps at a discount, nor was I looking for cheap postage. I am a stamp collector and bought them as collectible stamps. My comment about heavily discounted Forever stamps referred to the broader counterfeit problem on ebay, not to my purchases.

I also understand that ebay cannot authenticate every stamp in every listing. That is not what I am asking them to do.

My concern is much simpler: I reported what I found after examining the stamps and left feedback describing my experience. The seller refunded me, and the feedback disappeared. A refund settles the money issue, but it does not settle the authenticity issue.

If ebay cannot determine whether the stamps are genuine or counterfeit, that's understandable. But then why should a refund alone be enough to remove a buyer's warning about what they received?

Are you going to share the name of ebay dealer that sold the counterfeit stamps? If ebay won't do anything about sellers of counterfeit stamps, at least let others know who to avoid.

And the issue surfaces. How do you know the seller knew the stamps were counterfeit? Once pointed out the seller gave a fair refund and at no time did a lawful authority confirm the items were counterfeit.

I challenge anyone to quickly determine which stamps are counterfeit or real. The way you avoid the issue for yourself is to avoid buying discount Forever stamps on any market place.

Parcelpostguy, you are absolutely right, not buying discounted forever stamps is a way to stop yourself from buying counterfeit stamps. I can't remember where I read this, but flag stamps are the most common stamps to fake.

They knew the same way most buyers know whether they publicly acknowledge it or not, by price.

If the sellers Forever stamp price is low enough to give pause just imagine what the SELLER paid in order to cover fees and still generate a profit.

Since we are not talking about a Court of Law the innocent until guilty here doesn't apply and ebay could easily take strong action as well as leave the negative feedback. ebay takes down listings all of the time for much lesser things than counterfeit government postage. Think about the discussions of items that somehow are considered to be connected to "unapproved" Countries.

ebay has complete control of the sandbox but chooses to ignore these stamps. How do they handle counterfeit vitamins or aspirin or bird seed each contaminated with lead or worse? If you consumed a product purchased on ebay that put you in the hospital or started a house fire is ebay protected?

A crime is a crime and counterfeit stamps are a felony and no amount of dancing changes that.

Actually, identifying counterfeit forever stamps is just like any other philatelic area. Do research, study the stamps, and learn the difference in the details. There are certainly some collectors who can tell the difference of many counterfeit stamps from genuine ones.

sochummy - I agree with all you wrote.

However, "I am a stamp collector and bought them as collectible stamps." - If you already had real versions of these stamps (since you stated you compared the fakes to real ones), I'm curious why you wanted more?

And more importantly "I later made another purchase from the same seller". Why go back for seconds when the first serving was bad? Find some sellers you can trust and stick with them, don't go looking for bargains that are too good to be true.

"They are not nor can they realistically be responsible for verifying the correctness of every listing in all subject areas."

But they can act more responsibly than they are acting.

"Your claim of counterfeit is no more strong than the sellers claim of not counterfeit."

BS. He compared them to real ones and found differences.

"And the issue surfaces. How do you know the seller knew the stamps were counterfeit? Once pointed out the seller gave a fair refund"

You don't think the outrageously cheap price (so cheap he could still offer them at an outrageously cheap price) he paid for a large quantity of stamps was a clue? Plus he was already told after the first purchase they were fake. It just doesn't pass the sniff test.

The real problem has to be addressed at the federal level. This regime has clearly proven to not care about the problem, although they have probably thought a lot about how they can cut themselves in on the profits. ebay is only one way of selling these, there are ads all over the internet for them. I have seen many dozens over the years just on Facebook alone. And most are not being bought by collectors, but by people saving money in a very tight economy.

Bart, just stop. The previous administration didn't do anything about it either. Can you just leave your personal political biases out of the discussions here?