cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29659002

• Some Temu sellers use fake shipping labels to avoid delivery costs within the U.S.
• Scammers advertise counterfeit USPS postage on Chinese social media, charging as little as 60 cents to deliver packages in America.
• USPS loses millions of dollars a year to counterfeit postage and is cracking down.

Some Chinese Temu merchants are padding their profits by using counterfeit postage labels to trick the U.S. Postal Service into delivering packages for free. Posts on Chinese social media openly promote fake labels for as little as 60 cents, and the scam costs the USPS millions of dollars a year, Rest of World has found from interviews with sellers, logistics operators, and USPS employees.

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Creating, distributing, and buying fake USPS labels is a crime, and overseas warehouse operators also risk significant jail time by processing parcels with these labels. It is likely that only a small minority of merchants use counterfeit labels, but these numbers could rise as logistics costs increase. Shipping is a major cost for e-commerce sellers, with USPS charging up to $10 for a parcel weighing about 2 pounds (around 1 kilogram).

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