‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

U.S. postal inspectors shut down website selling counterfeit postage labels

281 points · 169 comments · ilamont

  1. zucked · · focus · HN ↗
    I am pretty sure I bought from a seller using this (or something similar) on eBay. It sent me down a rabbit hole of reading about this type of scam that exploded earlier this year: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.uspsoig.gov&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;reports&#x2F;2026-04&#x2F;25-072-3-r26.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.uspsoig.gov&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;reports&#x2F;2026-04&#x2F;...

    Here&#x27;s how it went down:

    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ebay.com&#x2F;fdbk&#x2F;feedback_profile&#x2F;theperfectpart" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ebay.com&#x2F;fdbk&#x2F;feedback_profile&#x2F;theperfectpart

    Note that they’ve sold so much that even 1k neutral ratings are barely registering - they have “100% positive feedback”

    I bought a cheap tool from this seller on ebay. Tracking number was provided showing my town as the destination. About four days later, I get an unprompted ebay message from the seller: “I monitor all my shipments and sometimes there are problems so I’m proactively sending you a new one, here’s a new tracking number.”

    The original tracking number showed a message I’d never seen before “Item seized - counterfeit postage”. The new tracking number showed postage that had been bought back in January, but never entered the mailstream. Huh. I suspect that buys them time while they re-ship.

    I did eventually get the item after another tracking number was provided.

    My suspicion is that the seller uses counterfit USPS postage on &#x27;x&#x27; number of packages to juice their margins. If you look at the neutral reviews, you can see a pattern — slow postage, lost package, had to replace, blah blah. Look at the positives — rave reviews at how fast things are arriving. Probably because the seller is “paying” for higher end postage via scamming the USPS.

    And only when they get caught by USPS do they need to re-ship an item. They must get away with it enough to make it worthwhile

    1. neilv · · focus · HN ↗
      Related: Not US postage labels, but suspicious US postage stamps, seemed to also be used as a crude currency.

      A third-party seller on Amazon or eBay was including sheets of suspicious US postage stamps in product shipments, unsolicited, with full-color glossy notes offering more stamps in exchange for positive reviews.

      (I took the stamps and note I received to a post office, where a manager agreed they looked suspicious, and I asked them forward it up the chain. I like the USPS as a trustworthy service and institution, and I hate counterfeiting.)

      1. lostlogin · · focus · HN ↗
        &gt; I hate counterfeiting

        There is a good book about Konrad Kujau who forged heaps of stuff before faking Hitler diaries and the getting caught. It’s worth a read.

        A line that’s stuck with me (and is hopefully remembered correctly) ‘there are efficient documents and inefficient documents.’

        <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hitler_Diaries" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hitler_Diaries

        1. ahartmetz · · focus · HN ↗
          Kujau became famous as a counterfeiter, so some people counterfeited his counterfeits.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.