Who said that philately not a risk-free activity? At the end of August, an unscrupulous private individual incurred the wrath of the authorities when two of his parcels from Asia were intercepted by the French authorities. customs officials at the Marignane office. Inside these packages, declared as containing “decaltens of thousands of dummy stamps with the La Poste clandestinely produced in Hong Kong.

A total of 45,324 copies of these counterfeit stamps, each worth 1.29 euros, were seized by Marseille customs. This was enough to deprive the offender of 60,000 euros, who is now being held to account by La Poste. The postal operator, surprised to see its logo perfectly reproduced alongside these counterfeits, has lodged a complaint.

Destined to flood the French market

This impressive discovery brings to 100,000 the number of counterfeit stamps seized throughout France since the beginning of the year. As reported by the Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects, 30,000 copies of this counterfeit merchandise circulating by postal freight were intercepted in the Paris region in the space of three months. Finally, this summer, customs officers working in the Reims region seized 24,000 dummy stamps from the home of a private individual.

These counterfeits, designed to flood the French market, are difficult to identify with the naked eye. This is enough to fool many private individuals and expose them to a 5th class fine. “Counterfeiters exploit our economic system and deceive bona fide consumers. We all pay the price for their easy and illicit profits, which is why I would like to salute French Customs for its protective role”.congratulates Laurent Saint-MartinMinister for the Budget and Public Accounts. “Counterfeiting is a real scourge, jeopardizing know-how, innovation, companies’ intellectual property, consumer safety and also the balance of our economy and services”.he adds.