More than 161,000 counterfeit U.S. Forever stamps from China were recently seized in Chicago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Thursday.
Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement officers at the Chicago International Mail Branch stopped eight shipments containing a total of 161,860 fake stamps that violated trademark laws last weekend, CBP said.
All the parcels were arriving from China, according to authorities, and would be valued at over $118,000 if real.
Officers, however, were able to determine that the stamps were fraudulent based on "the very low invoice value, the routing, and the extraordinary efforts undertaken to conceal the stamps," according to CBP.
LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, director of Field Operations-Chicago, praised the highly trained CBP officers and specialists who stopped the counterfeiters from profiting from the "very realistic" fake stamps.
"Counterfeiters only care about making a profit," Sutton-Burke said. "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."
"Our officers and specialists are some of the most highly trained in the nation, and their level of expertise is evident with these seizures," she continued. "CBP officers were able to identify these very realistic counterfeits and stop them from reaching their destinations."
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While the quality of the seized fraudulent stamps was poor, CBP warned that advances in counterfeiting are improving the quality so much so that most consumers may not detect the differences between fake and authentic stamps.
An uptick in counterfeit U.S. Postal Service postage stamps typically occurs around holidays, especially "high volume card holidays like Valentine’s Day," authorities said.
CBP reminded the public that authentic postage stamps are produced at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing in the United States.
