U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team at the Chicago International Mail Branch stopped 8 shipments containing a total of 161,860 counterfeit U.S. Forever stamps last weekend.
CBP has seen a real uptick in counterfeit U.S. Postal Service postage stamps, especially around the holidays, including high-volume card holidays like Valentine’s Day.
Authentic postage stamps are produced at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing in the United States, and while the print quality of the seized postage was poor, the counterfeit quality is improving, and the average consumer may not notice a difference from an authentic stamp.
All the parcels arrived from China, and if they were genuine, the face value would be over $118,000.
“Counterfeiters only care about making a profit. They don’t care about the effect that fake postage has on your ability to send important mail and overall impacts the U.S. economy,” said LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, director of field operations-Chicago.
CBP seized the stamps for violating trademark laws.
Often, officers use their knowledge and expertise to find fraudulent shipments. These stamps were determined to be counterfeit based on the very low invoice value, the routing, and the extraordinary efforts undertaken to conceal the stamps.
