USPS Oig Report On Counterfeit Stamps 16 June 2026

Understand.

We really need to inspect more of what comes in, whether it is for drugs or counterfeits. There should be money from the new tariffs (assuming some of them stick and aren't ruled illegal).

The alibaba ad is unbelievable - thanks for passing this along. Perhaps I am overestimating the federal government's ability to get anything done, but this seems like something that Congress or the administration could and should take on. These are fakes that even an untrained eye can spot, and the price for the stamps just confirms that they are counterfeit.

Going after demand will be more useful than going after supply.

After all, there's nothing to stop the criminal element from starting up production domestically. (Look at what happened with pot growing - once border enforcement was stepped up, the gangs took to cultivating in our national parks out west...!) So while I understand the need to increase inspections coming in from abroad, it's ultimately a losing game of whack a mole.

We have to instead deal effectively with demand for said stamps - whether that's choking off retail opportunities (going after the online platforms like ebay, Facebook, etc.) where the commerce actually happens, or penalizing usage (destroying mail with counterfeits, as was threatened before), or getting rid of them altogether.

That's not to say that going after the crooks should stop - I'm glad to read of that recent arrest. But thinking we'd actually be able to intercept an appreciable number of these bogus stamps pouring in is wishful thinking, and thinking that the criminals wouldn't just ramp up domestic production (higher cost, but potentially still lucrative) is wishful, too.

The frustrating thing with a site like Alibaba is that they are so blatant about it. Besides US stamps, they are openly selling counterfeit British, Canadian, and Australian stamps. Maybe a multinational effort to stop this would be in order?

Beyond stamps, they are selling fake American Silver Eagle coins, which are an official US Mint product. Where is the Treasury Department/Secret Service on this?

You know what doesn't come up if you search for it on Alibaba? Rolex watches. A private company does more to protect their brand against fakes than a government does.

Advertised on Alibaba as 'Rollex' and 'Rollexable' etc.

This seems the most effective solution if not the most popular. After 19 years of marketing and convincing everyone that Forever stamps were awesome (and it was/is a great deal for consumers) you tell the public that the money spent on their current stamps is lost because you can't solve the counterfeiting problem. In politics PR is everything and this one has "pass the stink" written all over it.

Drugs have a much more unique and obvious aroma than paper, glue, and ink, which are everywhere. I doubt that the dogs would even know where to turn first when looking for something which is in a hundred places in every room they are in.

Yesterday I said:

And the market is being flooded with rare coins like this:



My local coin shop has 13 of the 8 known copies!

Something worth thousands has more merit than chasing something worth less than a dollar.

Not only can't we keep drugs from being sold even after decades of a war on drugs, folks now see the drug users as victims and help them use drugs safely. Not to mention the huge complaints when our government blows drug carrying ships out of the water.

You want to stop the import of fake stamps, ten unload and unpack each container from ships and planes, then repack them before being moved wit all costs added to the contents of the container. Watch some Americans sue to stop the practice because they only care about themselves. Now if all imports from China were stopped, this country would be on its knees, begging for lower prices on things China used to supply.

Of course, US Stamp production could be returned to the security production of the BEP.

To stop the trade in illegal stamps, I don't think realistically you can all of a sudden end the use of stamps. To stop the illegal trade in illegal coins, would you end the use of coins? Of paper dollars? Of fake clothing brands? Of everything that is faked and counterfeited? You could raise the penalty for selling such fakes and publicize any arrests and punishments that result from those arrests. It's very hard to go after users of the fake stamps because most are so clueless they don't even know they're counterfeits. But maybe a few cases well publicized might help?

When a wealthy company finds its products being counterfeited, and if it cares enough, it goes after the counterfeiters in court with lawsuits amounting to millions of dollars. And it shuts down the sellers of such goods. This can work, so why does the entirety of the powerful federal government not do that?

One approach would be that any self-respecting government of any country anywhere in the world would demand that the trade be stopped by those countries in which counterfeit stamps were being produced. The world's major power and largest self-respecting country is the United States. To think that there are no ways to pressure China to stop this counterfeiting trade is a bit hard to believe. It requires getting angry enough to make threats and willing enough to cut off trade or do other things that will upset China so they make an effort. China is an aggressively controlling totalitarian state. It has cameras and police everywhere. Surely it can find its counterfeiters and arrest them. Apparently, we have not made this effort. Whose fault is that? It's always the fault of those in office who do not make an effort. "The Buck Stops Here," Harry Truman reminded us, but apparently not anymore.

* * * Political comments deleted by Moderator as they are not adding to the topic at hand * * *

It would also help if ebay gave a damn. But the multi-billion dollar corporation that is ebay ($46 billion to be precise) is just fine selling fakes and forgeries if they can make profits from them. ebay could continue to allow sales of all stamps except current stamps from recent years which are always the ones counterfeited. But that would take some effort. I've repeatedly contacted ebay, myself, about forged items and fakes. They never do anything because they do not care. If it cost them money, I imagine they might care.

"After all, there's nothing to stop the criminal element from starting up production domestically."

Huge difference between a foreign counterfeiter and a US counterfeiter. The counterfeiter in the US can get thrown in a US jail. The counterfeiter in China currently has no fear of being puniushed.