200,000 fake US postage stamps — worth over $100K — seized in Alabama, officials say
Thousands of counterfeit forever stamps were blocked from entering postal circulation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Alabama, officials said.
A total of 200,000 postage stamps worth $146,000 from Hong Kong were seized after an inspection determined the stamps were fake, according to a Feb. 21 CBP news release.
The batch included rolls of the Flag Stamp, which according to the United States Postal Inspection Service is the most frequently seen counterfeit stamp.
About a week earlier, Customs and Border Protections officers stopped eight shipments of 161,860 fraudulent U.S. forever stamps, worth more than $118,000, officials said in a Feb. 13 news release.
“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,” officials said in the release.
A spokesperson for CBP told McClatchy News there have been 327 incidents of stamp seizures between October and February, up more than 50% from last year. In fiscal year 2024, there were a total of 450 stamp seizures, the spokesperson said.
What to know about counterfeit stamps
In fiscal year 2024, 90% of items violating Intellectual Property Right laws seized by CBP came from China and Hong Kong, CBP officials said.
Counterfeit stamps tend to be sold in bulk and discounted between 20 and 50 percent of their face value, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The Postal Inspection Service also advises all senders to purchase their postage from approved vendors to ensure it’s real.
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 10:56 AM with the headline "200,000 fake US postage stamps — worth over $100K — seized in Alabama, officials say."
