GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – Postal inspectors are warning about a new scam involving counterfeit postage stamps that could result in Christmas gifts being destroyed before reaching their destinations.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is seeing a surge in counterfeit postage stamps sold online to unsuspecting victims. The phony stamps are so convincing that they are almost impossible to tell apart from real ones.
However, the postal system can detect the fakes, and the USPS has implemented a new policy that mail with counterfeit stamps will not be delivered and will not be returned to senders.
U.S. Postal Inspector Breslin Steverson said that some big box stores may sell stamps at a very small discount, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
“If you go to a website that says ‘Stamps 50% Off’, that is a lie,” Steverson said. “If you see somebody on Facebook Marketplace selling rolls of stamps for high discounts, those are fake stamps; do not use them. Because if you put those fake stamps on your gift you’re trying to send to a loved one, it’s going to get scanned by our system, it’s going to get kicked out of the system, and it’s going to be destroyed as if it’s abandoned mail.”
