You've probably seen ads for a company that sells FOREVER stamps at less than half of its postal value. The target website says they buy when a place goes out of business or has large leftovers from big mailings. This makes me wonder why Ebay has so many loads of discount postage, much more time consuming to apply to mailings, at much closer to face. Why don't the loads of FOREVER stamps drive down the prices of other discount postage even further?
It is a scam, of sorts. The Forever stamps are 99% likely to be counterfeit. It is well-documented that they come out of China. If it costs them 10c (and that may be WAYYY overestimating the cost) to make a stamp that can fool people into thinking it is a 60c stamp, then there is a ton of profit to be made. The 'bait' is that they are willing to sell at much below face, to draw business to them instead of the USPS, or anyone else, and they are still making a pile of profit at 30c per.
Quote: The target website says they buy when a place goes out of business or has large leftovers from big mailings.
Sounds better than saying we are selling counterfeits, doesn't it?
What business does only one large mailing but sells off the leftovers of forever stamps which will work no the next large mailing. Plus, large mailings are not done with rolls of 100 rather that is what 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 rolls are for. Likewise, if a big company which does big mailings is running out of money they save cents per letter using a meter rather than a stamp.
By the way there are many SCF threads on fakes and counterfeit recent forever stamps.
Lowest price I have seen is $9.95 per 100 roll with free mailing with postage NOT paid by stamps.
EDIT: Check a Scott US Specialize Catalog to see the hordes of counterfeit stamps listed in Scott.
Some of the stamps probably get through on delivered mail, and it serves Uncle Sam right for issuing stamps that are so easy to counterfeit. Ease of counterfeiting is what impelled Uncle Sam to re-design $5 thru $100 Federal Reserve notes. Scott 2143 Love 22-cent looks like it could be counterfeit by a kid with a box of crayons.
I remember the 1986 Ameripex imperforate souvenir sheets of four 25-cent stamps. People would cut the sheet with scissors and apply the stamps to outgoing mail, and brain-dead ignoramuses working for USPS would return them to sender, and at least one person got a Nastygram from postal inspectors about using "non-genuine" stamps.
My complaint when they returned a letter to me got a polite answer and a 25-cent definitive stamp to replace what I spent, but the ignoramuses kept doing it. I didn't have a car at the time, but imagine a late car payment getting returned that way with a genuine stamp and now you can't get to work after your car gets repo'd. They need a rule that only a qualified supervisor can return mail for insufficient or non-genuine postage, and the supervisor's badge number must be printed clearly on the marking. One stamp show had light attendance with the ones who showed up lamenting that there was nothing in Linn's about it; and weeks after the show the organizers received that mailpiece to Linn's returned for insufficient postage.
If it is too good to be true... Have you seen the adds for home devices that defy the laws of thermodynamics and Maxwell's equations (and are sold in limited quantities)? Recall what PT Barnum supposedly said.
Quote: it serves Uncle Sam right for issuing stamps that are so easy to counterfeit. Scott 2143 Love 22-cent looks like it could be counterfeit by a kid with a box of crayons.
A little "blame the victim", eh? Do you understand the cost of the printing press required to easily counterfeit multi-colored stamps? I think not. But when a government supports such counterfeiting by not taking action against the bad actors, what is the US to do, especially when the current administration fully supports China.
The 22 cent Love Stamp has no recorded counterfeits by the way, printed nor crayon.
While I cut it from the quote, when the bad actors could purchase a printing press equal to the BEP's, as well as securing the special paper needed the BEP needed to respond. General rule of thumb, if something can be made, it can be counterfeited.
Quote: I remember the 1986 Ameripex imperforate souvenir sheets of four 25-cent stamps. People would cut the sheet with scissors and apply the stamps to outgoing mail, and brain-dead ignoramuses working for USPS would return them to sender, and at least one person got a Nastygram from postal inspectors about using "non-genuine" stamps.
#1 Revenue Protection #2 If in doubt see #1 #3 If mistake made, refund. #4 No matter what, revenue protection.
By the way, what names should you be called for your statement about an Ameripex '86 imperforate souvenir sheet? The then current postage rate was 22 cents and not 25 for airmail. Or is it you can make mistakes but anyone else not perfect is a __________(choose your word).
Quote: I remember the 1986 Ameripex imperforate souvenir sheets of four 25-cent stamps. People would cut the sheet with scissors and apply the stamps to outgoing mail, and brain-dead ignoramuses working for USPS would return them to sender, and at least one person got a Nastygram from postal inspectors about using "non-genuine" stamps.
I have a few souvenir sheets from discount postage lots, and I've been afraid to cut out the stamps and use them for exactly that reason--it seemed like straight-edged stamps might look fake to inexpert postal workers.
I was about to ask whether anyone knew of a good way to add perfs to these stamps to get them through the postal system more smoothly. But then it occurred to me that asking a stamp forum how to put fake perfs on a stamp probably wouldn't go over very well either, for an entirely different reason. Sigh.... If only we lived in a more honest world!
Go to the post office with a reference, Stamps and Stories, USPS announcement, Scott catalog or the like and show the clerk if the clerk is unfamiliar with the stamp. Once the clerk knows the stamp is good, beg for a hand cancel. Once cancelled, it should not be second guessed along the way.
The Oakland Bulk Mail facility had several (read two) workers whose job it was to okay the postage, especially the older postage when kicked out of the facer-canceller. They both retired within months of each other, and such mail was then routinely delayed until the new person got picked and up to speed. There are over valid 6000 stamp designs out there not to mention hordes of Cinderellas which can mimic valid stamps.
Here is the text of a Nastygram I am mailing today,... 16 November 2022
Criminal Investigations Service Center Attn: Mail Fraud 433 W.Harrison Street, Room 3255 Chicago, Il 60699-3255
Greetings:
The increase in offerings of counterfeit stamps can be attacked by remembering that the good guys always work best when working together against the bad guys, and not when working against each other.
When an advertiser applies to an ad platform, the ad platform people visit the advertiser's website to see if they want to run ads for it. If they see child pornography, I'm sure they would reject the ads and call the cops. USPIS needs to request similar co-operation.
Simply make test buys using delivery addresses you can set up, perhaps renting vacant apartments. If you buy stamps and they turn out to be genuine, that means USPS was paid for them, and no money is lost when USPIS bought them back. If they turn out to be counterfeit, then the credit card payment can be reversed. That's when you contact the ad platforms, establishing that you are the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and that their advertiser is selling bogus stamps. The ad platform will likely stop those ads, lucrative as they are. The same is true of the web hosting companies that host the sites offering such stamps.
The ad platforms, suspecting fraud, can suspend the ads and have postal inspectors check them out with test buys. Time is of the essence, so the process of getting an authoritative answer must not drag out just because there is a holiday weekend. Merchandise arriving on a Saturday must be inspected that day, and the web hosting company or ad platform must be alerted straight away.
It's not that I could give a fire truck about any losses incurred by the postal service, mind you. I remember when postal workers were wrongly returning mail with perfectly valid postage. The victim's car payment, already overdue, might be returned, and because of the added delay, the victim's car might get repo'd. The victim, with no way to get to work, might wind up living on the street, panhandling, and when the homeless shelter is full, the victim crawls into an alley and freezes to death, all because some brain-dead ignoramus in a postal facility decided that a perfectly valid stamp, cut from a 1989 Universal Postal Congress imperforate souvenir sheet, wasn't valid. There was no way to trace that stunt to the brain-dead ignoramus who pulled it. With a legacy of returning mail with valid postage, and issuing stamps that are easily counterfeited, the postal service deserves to lose a lot of money. (The U.S. Treasury responded to counterfeiting $5 through $100 Federal Reserve notes by re-designing them, making them more difficult to fake, but the U.S. Postal service does not care.) I worry about the innocent victims.
Go to the post office with a reference, Stamps and Stories, USPS announcement, Scott catalog or the like and show the clerk if the clerk is unfamiliar with the stamp. Once the clerk knows the stamp is good, beg for a hand cancel.
FWIW, I have done just that, and the Postmaster insisted that unless the stamps (in this case Forever stamps) were purchased in person at a physical USPS post office, they are not valid for payment of postage. As you might guess, the clerks there hate working for that person.
Quote: Postmaster insisted that unless the stamps (in this case Forever stamps) were purchased in person at a physical USPS post office, they are not valid for payment of postage.
Like it or not, the Postmaster is spot on regarding the likelihood, that Forever Stamps not purchased directly from the USPS are fake as they come in from China by the ship's container load. The real issue is that the fake are so common and it takes time and some expertise to discern them. One method for example only works for rolls of 100 or more, in which no plate number is present--useless when staring at one stamp on cover.
Quote: Here is the text of a Nastygram I am mailing today....
I salute your effort but the USPIS is far beyond where you think. It focus is interdiction of the containers of the counterfeits in mass. Another issue with your letter is that one needs to prove the sellers knew or should have reasonably known the stamps were fakes.
Quote:
USPIS, "counterfeit Stamps", last updated 8-22-2022
Don't Get Stuck with Bogus Stamps
Are you looking online for a good deal on postage stamps? Is a substantial discount of up to fifty percent off an order of United States Forever® Stamps too good to pass up? If so, keep scrolling, they're probably counterfeit. To ensure your trusted communication arrives at its destination without delay, the Postal Inspection Service wants you to be aware of–and avoid–phony postage.
The number of counterfeit stamps being sold from online platforms has escalated. Scammers peddle fake stamps on social media marketplaces, e-commerce sites via third party vendors, and other websites. Counterfeit stamps are often sold in bulk quantities at a significant discount–anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of their face value. That's a tell-tale sign they're bogus.
Purchasing stamps from a third-party wholesaler or online websites can be unpredictable. You have no way to verify whether they are genuine or not. The Postal Inspection Service recommends purchasing from Approved Postal Providers™. Approved vendors can include legitimate "big box" or warehouse retailers who do provide very small discounts on postage stamps, but this is through resale agreements with the Postal Service.
Learn more about stamps and where to safely buy them at USPS.
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Posted 11/14/2022 6:18 pm
