CHICAGO— U.S. Customs and Border Protections (CBP) 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 to include 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 he 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 were arriving from China and if genuine, 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, Field Operations-Chicago. “Our officers and specialists are some of the most highly trained in the nation, and their level of expertise is evident with these seizures. CBP officers were able to identify these very realistic counterfeits and stop them from reaching their destinations.”
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.
CBP routinely conducts inspection operations on arriving and departing international flights and intercepts narcotics, weapons, currency, prohibited agriculture products, counterfeit goods, and other illicit items at our nation’s 328 international ports of entry.