US Stamp prices increase ~Jan. 21st. Save money by buying your commonly-used postage before then!
Second part, also very important:
Anatomy of one well-made counterfeit stamps site and how to discover if YOUR retailer is counterfeit:
Counterfeit stamps are becoming more and more prevalent. This method really works for ANY online purchase, but in this case, it's about stamps.
Because USPS is a federal agency, it is a federal crime *per stamp* to use counterfeits, fake stamps that look like the real thing. There's lot of charges that could be used like interstate fraud, if your fraudulent stamp goes from your state to another, etc. It is a serious charge and right now is an *especially* bad time to try it because the USPS is desperate for income... because Postmaster General DeJoy expects the post office to run like a business, unlike literally every other federal service. You will be made into an example and likely crushed by fines and jail time, which will put more money into the prison system than you can imagine.
OBVIOUS signs of your stamps being counterfeit:
- Do they come from a retailer like AliBaba, Ebay, Wish, or Amazon? Those are automatically fake.
- Do they come from a retailer like AliBaba, Ebay, Wish, or Amazon? Those are automatically fake.
- Compare them to the genuine thing: are they poor print quality, not the same paper, image is off from the real thing, or anything at all? By this time, you've already been scammed, but at least stop yourself from committing a felony. Report it to the USPS Help section directly. If you paid with credit card, contact them as well.
A well-made counterfeit stand-alone website:
A stand-alone website is a site that is like yoursite.com (example.) Amazon is not necessarily a 'stand-alone' because it's one hub where thousands of retailers all use the same site. Ebay and Etsy are the same. If you buy from fedex.com, you buy from ONLY Fed Ex. Anyone can sell through Wish, Temu, or Shein.
I almost fell to a very decent scam last week, advertised through Facebook.
The scam was a retailer who had bought out of date or old stamps and then sold them in bulk (must buy 5 or more packages or rolls) for a small discount.
Note that Stamps.com also legitimately sells stamps at a discount for a monthly subscription fee, and other sites do discount postage for using their services (like Etsy or Ebay.) Is it unusual for a retailer to have some kind of mass-buying bargain with USPS? Well... actually, it's plausible. When I ran a shop online for a decade, only stopping because of Etsy allowing factories- and then COVID hit, the death blow- I got discounted shipping all the time.
This site was advertised through Facebook (ANYONE can advertise there, by the way. Lots of scam sites do because they don't care who or where it is, they just want your money.)
There were no odd misspellings or grammar, but even if there were, it's a yield sign and not a red flag. Lots of people speak more than one language outside the US, and lots of people IN the US speak 2-3 languages. I met a 6 year old who was fluent in English and Portuguese yesterday. Many of my friends from the UK fluently speak 3-4 languages, and they're from *England,* the only place in the world I'd expect *English* to be the only language. People in Germany easily speak and write 4-5 out of high school. America seems to be the only country pushing a "one language" narrative. Someone got a word wrong? They're *dyslexic* or English is their 2nd, 3rd, 4th language! We park in driveways and drive in parkways. Yes, it is that hard.
The sites photographs were professionally done and had multiple sizes, so whoever downloaded the original photos did a good job of having clear, large photo options of the actual stamps released. Few to no current designs, only past years' back to ~2011. That was the reason for the discount; these are unsold, back-issue stamps, sold by USPS to discount retailers for bulk prices.
There were other things like good organisation, clear sans-serif text in a font size that was more easily able to be read, none of this grey-on-grey "aesthetic" BS that makes it difficult for people to use the website, etc.
And it was completely counterfeit.
Use Paypal or 3rd Party to Pay- Do NOT Use Credit Cards!
When buying from an 'unknown' site, anyone who is not *extremely* popular (and even then!) I use Paypal. That is because I can put my card on file with Paypal, but the transaction goes through Paypal as a middleman. I have buyer protections with Paypal and can quickly file a dispute. If I find it difficult to file a dispute electronically, I'll call them.
If I use my credit card directly through the site and they are illegitimate, that site is likely looking to trap credit card info to resell it.
Security measures ask for your ZIP code when using a credit card number, right? What a better way to get it than to set up a PRODUCT SELLING website! They ask for your address, confirm that it's your billing address (just like genuine retail sites) and then they have your credit info.
Even though you can get your money back by calling the credit card company, your credit card info is compromised now. It WILL be resold and anyone will use it.
Most fake charges are less than $5. That's because if they capture 1000 credit cards and bill for a negligible $5, most people never notice it. $5 x 1000 = $5000 on a scam, *easily.*
These scams sometimes set up real names of common uses; one credit card, compromised through Ebay, had a $10 charge for GoodRx. GoodRx at the time did have a genuine $10 gold member program! And millions of Americans use GoodRx because it's cheaper than our insurance, IF we have insurance. The problem was... I do not use GoodRx. I also check every line of my credit charges weekly. Check the charges on your credit cards to make sure they are real, even if they look like something you use.
So what ended up happening?
I have fibro + a bunch of chronic health issues that I talk about. And post-COVID... I have to tell you, 1 in 5 COVID survivors have some degree of long COVID, with dysautonomia as a prevalent set of symptoms. Normally I think to investigate a new site before buying anything, but that day I didn't. I looked into it after I got the confirmation email.
And that's exactly what these sites are looking for.
They are TARGETING people who have some kind of brain fog, ADHD (more common than you think,) autism (likelihood of believing reasonable-sounding lies: high. Also, this is 1 in 65 people.) Do you have chronic fatigue, long COVID, or just plain have WAY too many responsibilities? The brain get fatigued, just like any other part of the body when overloaded. Maybe you're having cognitive issues related to aging or a TBI from football or the military.
When you put all that together, we're looking at a potential pool of most people.
Anyone can be targeted. Yes, even you, reading this right now.
Likely, you don't fall for 500 scams attempted on you in a year. Or a month, in my case. But occasionally, every now and then, like every 5-6 years... you *will* inevitably have that one that worked on you. Even if it was just $10. $10 from 1000 people is $10,000 for the scammer, yeah?
The confirmation e-mail
When I got the confirmation email, the email sender name was not the name of the site, or "Name from Company." The subject line was a shipping confirmation, but the email read like a weird cross between a typical shipping confirmation and a scam email.
The email site origin was not the site purchased from. So website purchased from was different than confirmation@secondwebsite . That's odd. Websites usually come with 1-5 email addresses these days. It's a standard part of a website package, when you buy site building and hosting services.
Gmail makes it easier to check than others I've used. When making most purchases, Gmail will figure out that it's a purchase confirmation and put your items and total. It will show the sender's e-mail address BUT that can be spoofed (faked.) They used to just target businesses, and I think mostly they still do, but individuals can get spoofed e-mails FROM "businesses," too. IF the sender didn't mess up and send the confirmation email from a totally different site than the one you purchased from (like this scammer did,) you can check to see that the email "sent from" matches the sender.
In Gmail, use "Show original" to see more information about the email sender. It will show the message ID, date, from/to, subject line, and then some data they use to authenticate email origin.
Papa Johns fails the DMARC test, so it often goes to Spam automatically- even if it's a legit e-mail. You have to mark it as "Not Spam."
Most fake email is auto-detected though. If you make a purchase and don't get a confirmation email, check your Spam filters. If the purchase was not made on a major site that everyone's heard of, like Amazon or Ebay, and your confirmation went to spam... that site is probably run by a scammer.
address and match up domain origins. Put an IP address into Whois.com , a free IP lookup service.
Does the data in the Original Message match the data on the WhoIs lookup?
This is where the scammer failed. You can't hide your true origins.
The site name for the confirmation was different, which is an immediate red flag, but also the IP lookup for that address was registered to AliBaba. AliBaba does not sell any kind of legitimate US federal items. Therefore, these are counterfeit.
Do NOT wait! File the fraud charges ASAP!
even if you still expect to receive something. It does not matter. So what if someone sends you a t-shirt? They probably won't, but even if they do, that is a scam website that exists to harvest data from you and people like you. REPORT THEM to people who might be able to do something about it, like Paypal and your credit card company, so they can watch for charges from yourself and others.
The resolution
Easy and painless. Paypal was able to get the money back within 24 hours of filing, even though nothing had been "shipped." You don't have to wait on counterfeit or fraudulent charges. If you can't find the option easily, call them.
Because I did not put my credit card info directly into the website, they don't have it. Otherwise, I would have to call the credit card company and shut down the card.
Even so, if you don't already have a credit monitoring service, you may wish to look into options.
Experian has one for free, and I use CreditKarma, which checks my credit often- for new accounts, rotating balances, shared accounts, debts in collection, etc. CreditKarma is free and gives me the ability to dispute charges on debt collections. They also have lots of tutorials and articles on better managing your credit score. Even if you don't have a credit card right now, and really don't see the point (I mean. same.) credit score is important to your every day life. I don't care WHO or HOW you check your credit score, tbh. A better score means better rental rates on housing, lower or no security deposits, better auto loans, etc. If you never had credit before, you can't even get established in many places because you are a total unknown. And a scammer can PLUMMET your credit, fast.
I don't get paid to say any of that, sadly. I'd like to cover stuff like medical bills... but nope. just tellin' y'all so you don't pay ridiculous interest rates on stuff if you don't need to.
Stay safe out there!
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