Counterfeit Forever Stamps

Clearly a non-native English speaker. Now, in this person's defense, it appears that they spelled everything correctly, but the verbiage is quite clunky. It has the same clunkiness of so many electronics 'manuals' that I have seen over the last few years.

Not that there is anything wrong with non-native-English speakers.

But.... we all know where the counterfeits are coming from (not England, not Canada, and not the USA, among others), and there are very few native English speakers there.

> Clearly a non-native English speaker.

Could be, but also know that many phishing emails are intentionally written with poor grammar as a red flag to weed out the smart people from replying to the emails.

From the web, "Scammers do this to target those people who are most gullible and susceptible to believing the sincerity of the emails. Scammers insert sufficient clues into their messages so as to discourage responses from anyone who isn't sufficiently gullible so as to ultimately fall prey to the relevant scam and generate revenue for the scammer. Such mistakes make the emails more seem more relatable, and may actually help the scammer build rapport with the intended target.

Only a fool would fall for messages full of errors. And scammers are looking for that kind of people."

Given all of the counterfeit forever stamps on eBay, you'd think the one seller guaranteed to have the genuine article - the USPS - would have a presence there. But they closed their eBay store there a year or so ago and haven't reopened it. I can always buy stamps from the post office or on usps.com, but being able to buy stamps with eBay's "spendable funds" (proceeds from selling on eBay) would be convenient. Given that eBay insists on collecting sales tax on postage and the postal service does not, it's probably for the best, anyway.

While browsing this forum a moment ago this ad was displayed:

Not just FB, folks. Do a Google search in "US postage stamps" and watch the scams pop out of the woodwork.

The ads of counterfeit stamps on Facebook price all stamps the same, in this case 29c per stamp. This would make sense if they were selling just the first class forever stamps. But in the case of one company, they are selling for the same price as their forever stamps, 29c per stamp, the Colorado Hairstreak butterfly stamps (2021) - Non-machinable surcharge with a face value of 88c (Scott # 5568). A much better "deal" than the regular forever stamps-- if these were real postage stamps. Another "deal", you can buy the counterfeit Celebration Corsage two ounce stamps, with a face value of 84c (Scott# 5200) for the same, 29c per stamp, price. Or, for the best value, you can purchase panes of counterfeit Global Green Succulent Forever Stamps, face value of $1.10 (Scott# 5198) again for the same, 29c per stamp, price.

The "discount" is not so good for the sheets of Forever, Post Card rate, Coral Reefs counterfeit stamps (Scott #5363-66) that they also sell. With a face value of 44c, it's still a discount, but not the deep discount they advertise. My favorite is the company that is selling counterfeits of the Uncle Sam's Hat additional ounce stamps from 2017, (Scott #5174). These are stamps, with a face value of 21c, are being marketed as "discounted" for only 25c per stamp.

rog - that same ad pooped up for me on this site just now

I report every one as spam or inappropriate depending on where I see it.

I reported one of these links to Facebook. As part of the complaint, facebook gave me a link to their ad page. When I checked the next day the same ad site was selling kitchenware. No signs of stamps anywhere on it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275823950684

"Authentic Mint Coil of 100 2019 US Flag Forever w/MNH PSA Certification"
" this is not a replica OR a fake"

PSA???

no cert pictured

Here is a recent Ebay purchase from the same seller. Recent Silverstein & Peanuts sheets I expected they were fake, but bought them to make the point. Left side is genuine, a mild tagging...right side is counterfeit. Ebay says that if counterfeit can be demonstrated, call them and you will be refunded without return of the merchandise. I just found this out after returning these sheets.

Maybe we need to buy lots of the fakes and report 'em to eBay. $$ talks and if they really are refunding, action might finally follow.

If the USPS doesn't resort to barcoding like some other countries are doing, they should at least do something to make the stamps a little harder to counterfeit. I only ever buy forever-denominated stamps directly from the USPS, but it struck me how simple the Schulz stamps were and how easy they would be for a counterfeiter to fake. Embossing, foil applications, holograms, etc, would all make fakes a little harder to pull off convincingly and easier to spot. I'm sure there are others, besides of course the aforementioned barcoding.

The USPS is the victim here and I'm not saying it's their own fault they're getting robbed blind, but they really need to take some preventive measures, other than trying to interdict supplies of counterfeits, something that's always going to be a losing battle.

I agree 100%. That said, it is hard to ignore the plethora of ads everywhere, advertising rolls of forever stamps for $29.99 a roll - better than 50% off. We here on SCF are pretty aware that they are fakes, but I don't think the general public is really aware of that.

It would be so easy to buy a bunch of rolls, have them tested (heck, send them off to the PF) and do a consumer affairs bit on the evening news, announcing how fake these are. Interview someone in authority at the USPS and have him/her (lie) talk about the fact that mail with fake stamps will be detected (show the audience how) and thrown in a DO NOT DELIVER bin. Basically, put the fear of God into the general public over the whole thing. I would bet it would have an effect, albeit probably small.

In the end, many Americans want to save $$$ for family budget reasons. As long as their mail with 30c first class mail stamps gets through, they will continue buying them.

"Maybe we need to buy lots of the fakes and report 'em to eBay. $$ talks and if they really are refunding, action might finally follow."

I know a guy who collects counterfeits and he bought a lot of them on eBay and returned a lot of them (I guess he was fishing for different types as many issues have multiple different counterfeot types), but he returned too many for eBay's taste and the NARu'd him.