What Can Happen When You Counterfeit A Stamp You Have Never Actually Seen

The sheet is counterfeit

Woah they're counterfeiting a LOT of sheets. Is this an older or modern counterfeit? Ironically I like the counterfeit more because of how big it is

Pretty sure it is a (very) modern counterfeit, it has only come into the news recently (saw it in Linn's last month).
The Love stamps are very popular with wedding invitations. Two 44 cent stamps and a 2 cent stamp equals a 2 ounce rate of 90 cents.
With a stamp that old, the postal clerk might remember the stamp but won't remember it's actual size. Surprised they haven't yet started creating completely fake designs already. Who would be able to know. And then, it is really a counterfeit, or just a sticker?

I do not see any perfs. Are there die cuts? How are the stamps separated from the backing?

You can see die-cut perforations between the stamps on the counterfeit sheet.

Yes this a current counterfeit. And, Yes, it is perforated (with a perf gauge that pretty closely matches the real stamp)

And yes, they are kicking them out like crazy. I've acquired over 150 different counterfeit designs in the last year, 23 of which are 2023 designs (including priority mail and express mail stamps).

They are counterfeiting stamps from as far back 1998 Scott# 3259 (the 22 cent Uncle Sam stamp). They reissued Scott #3661 - 3664 (Night Friends American Bats 37c) Scott # 4002 (Common Buckeye Butterfly 24 Cent). Etc.

It is clear that there are more than one place printing these counterfeits. I have two clearly different counterfeit printings of Scott# 4575-4578 (Holiday Baubles Booklet Pane).

The reason why the counterfeiting is expanding way beyond current Forever stamps is because the counterfeiters have seen no consequences for their actions. Think about it, if the problem had been addressed aggressively years ago it may have slowed substantially since making money from it is the primary objective with the secondary objective being degrading one of our institutions. Instead, there have been no consequences. The counterfeiters sit safely in China without fear of punishment. Why not expand the product line. So what if some sellers on US soil get pinched. This entire thing works like the drug cartels. It is also why we now have less of an effort on the part of counterfeiters to put effort into replicating the real thing as closely as possible. Why make the effort when it is unnecessary. Not sure where this ends but I can't imagine it going on like this too much longer. I mean the best the USPS can do is announce that they will punish consumers using counterfeit stamps, even if unwittingly, by treating their mail as abandoned. Talk about avoiding a problem by picking low hanging fruit and punishing the wrong people.

Here's a counterfeit outfit with a depressingly wide selection - https://www.esepost.com/.

They recently contacted me (through our shop website) with the opportunity to join in - "Glad to know that you're engaged in stamps business. We're sophisticated in stamps field and we're looking for a partner in the United States for distribution business."

What a shame we're in Canada and have to pass on this outstanding opportunity... (sarcasm, obviously)

From the website selling counterfeits:




Oh, the irony.

Wow. They certainly aren't hiding. That's crazy.

They seem to be foreigners? In the ad it says that one can get $20.00 off if one "reffer" friends! (The word "reffer" is not mis-spelled by
me, it is in the ad!)


Peter

Foreigners!

English?
Australian?
Irish?
Canadian?

CHINA

Yes, they claim to be out of California, but it's a Chinese seller. The somewhat mangled English is just one clue, there's a link to a Chinese company buried somewhere on one of the pages (can't recall where on the site and not worth looking for it again).

And the "cookie cutter" fake reviews are worth a laugh or two.

I had a similar event. Wife wanted me to order some stamps for her. (Christmas) I ordered the ones she requested from a web site she told me about. Never occurred to me that the price was so low. When they arrived I could tell they were counterfeit,

Fortunately I used Pay pal and was able to get my money refunded and I kept the bogus stamps as a reminder to be more careful

Interesting MikeyToo

So I wonder if we could make an impact on this topic if we all purchased some of these counterfeits and got ebay to refund us under the 'not as described' justification.
Would ebay finally address these sellers at some point if they were paying out a lot of refunds?
Don