U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport seized 4,080 counterfeit U.S. postage stamps during an incident this March.
CBP officers found the fraudulent stamps after inspecting packages manifested as “hand account/self-adhesive sheets,” according to a March 16 press release. Officers found poor print-quality U.S. postage stamps, including one package of 200 Forever stamps with a declared value of $10 (Forever stamps cost $0.63 each, so this package – if genuine – should have a value of $126).
“CBP officers protect the public in many ways, including keeping counterfeit products off the market and away from consumers,” said acting area port director Raul Orona. “Counterfeiters are singularly focused on making a profit at the consumer’s expense.”
Overall, CBP officers discovered phoney U.S. postage stamps in 12 shipments arriving from China. According to the law enforcement agency, an increase in the number of vendors selling counterfeit U.S. postage stamps online is “placing consumers’ packages at great risk.”
The CBP and other officials recommend purchasing U.S. postage stamps from an official U.S. Post Office or the U.S. Postal Service website, usps.com.
“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service offers this sage advice: ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,’ especially when it comes to purchasing extremely discounted postage,” said Thomas Noyes, the inspector in charge of the Fort Worth Division. “Counterfeit postage scams are harmful both to the U.S. Postal Service for a loss of revenue against services provided and to customers when their mailed item is either delayed and returned for payment or potentially disposed of.”
Far from a petty crime, forging or possessing counterfeit postage is a federal violation that carries up to five years of imprisonment.