USPS Oig Report On Counterfeit Stamps 16 June 2026

They counterfeited #4959, which was engraved, but the one I saw wasn't very convincing by eye (but it would have passed your fingernail test).

Here is a Linn's article on the counterfeit Scott 4959's that Eyeonwall mentioned:

https://www.linns.com/news/second-v...graved-stamp

Edit to add:

I realized after posting the article link above that it dates from 2017 and there were a slew of stories in that year about newly discovered counterfeit stamps. It hammers home how long this problem has been going on and that the scale of fraud has been massive for as long. Almost ten years on before we see a comprehensive OIG report on the issue. Think of what must be billions of dollars that were lost during that time or that customers ended up paying. What should our postage rates be today if this had been addressed years ago.

Those "political posts" showed why this problem will never go away, and should not have been removed. Things do not happen in a vacuum, and many factors which at first seem immaterial are actually a part of the problem. The specific reasons for those factors may change, but the end result remains.

While the whole fakery started with the US (due to high profitability), it now covers almost the entirety of Europe countries as well.

My guess is the only way this fakery could be stopped is if someone could get the forgers to flood China with Chinese fakes. Then the Chinese government would likely step in. As long as it's profit for them, the Chinese government won't budge a bit. Curiously, as DT is looking for excuses to levy tariffs on everything and all, he doesn't care for obvious ways to levy tariffs on China....