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New Illegal Stamps Reference

I have started a new section on the site that images illegal stamps. It is a new concept. Taking a verified UPU Circular and showing every or almost every illegal stamp the circular defines. By imaging the illegal stamps it is the perfect reference for collectors, dealers and auction sites to use as reference to root out sellers of them.

 

Up until now the UPU and various other sites have stated that the illegal stamps should not be shown in images for various reasons. All of those reasons are INVALID and it is now proven that what has been done is not stopping the sales of illegal stamps. Some who say that they should not be imaged have made these statements by design. Corruption in stamp societies and even the UPU are behind this denial.

 

For years now the problem has evolved into a massive availability of illegal stamps as the sellers have become emboldened because of no retaliation from eBay or many other venues. Just look at Benin or Madagascar for example and you will see that what the circulars define as illegal stamps are blatently being sold right here on eBay. For certain years you will find that 99% of say, 140 lots, for that year alone are offers for illegal stamps.

 

Many sellers evade detection using other terms and will not post the year in the title. Some will evade by not even posting the country name in the title. Almost all are targeting topical collectors.

The ones who post the lot by the "year of issue" are indeed very bold and think they have some sort of "right" to sell them. according to international laws...they support criminals.

 

Madagascar just posted a new circular in 2016 describing certain stamps that are illegal. Those stamps are blatently being offered here on eBay right now! The evidence shows that the sellers who are offering them have direct ties to the producers or are the producers themselves. Just look at them yourself and compare with the imaged illegal stamps on the 2016 page on the site!

 

It is time for all legitimate collectors and dealers to go to war against these people. Many of these sellers are major sellers with "reputable" reputations. Many sell legitimate stamps as well. For those sellers I say don't buy ANYTHING from them if they sell illegal stamps. Let them know you will not do business with them BECAUSE they sell illegal stamps. If you do then you are only supporting the illegal stamp trade which is basically a stamp dealer who is bent on ripping you off!

 

Please visit the introductory page and check out the linked country pages at the bottom of it. I would like feedback and opinions on what is there. I have already received commendations from some leaders in the philatelic world including some tied to the U.P.U. itself! so I think I am on the right track.

 

It is still in the early stages of developement and there are many circulars to go. Ebay can use the reference to root out these sellers. All the imaged illegal stamps are verified by the circular which is posted as a pdf file for viewing on each page. And if you don't believe it, go to the UPU site and get it yourself. The WNS site is linked as well.

 

The reference pages are strictly based on the circulars. Not the WNS system which has faults.

This is my contribution to stamp collectors worldwide. Here is the link to the introduction page.

 

ILLEGAL STAMPS (An Introduction)

 

Thank you.

Message 1 of 8
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7 REPLIES 7

Re: New Illegal Stamps Reference

I stated that my reference pages do not use the WNS system which is actually an incorrect statement for certain countries. If the UPU circular has the statement like Madagascar's latest circular:

"Paositra Malagasy also takes this opportunity to point out that Madagascan postage stamps issued officially since 2002 are visible on the UPU's WNS website."

Then of course they are stating that all legitimate stamp issues are shown on the WNS site and if they are not shown....then they are illegal stamps. I apologize if there is any misunderstanding from my first post.
Message 2 of 8
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Re: New Illegal Stamps Reference

Hi, will it be possible to denounce such dealers to eBay so they can stop this practice?   It is very easy to detect these items.  There is an option on the listing "report item" but the choices offered are very limited and do not clearly include "illegal" items as per eBay's policies.

Message 3 of 8
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Re: New Illegal Stamps Reference

Reporting them seems to fall on deaf ears. I have reported numerous items as prohibited and restricted items-Stamps, currency and Coins-other currency and stamp concerns. Nothing happens. these are bigtime dealers. My take is the UPU should step in and force sales of this junk to be stopped using international means.

 

As far as reporting this stuff....maybe if more people here on eBay got involved and DID report this stuff on a massive scale eBay might take notice. I note that these sellers sell a LOT though so stopping them will take a bite out of profits for eBay which apparently is not in their interest to do. As long as there is no major players like the UPU or government involvement or massive protest by the stamp community itself, sites like this will continue to allow these rip-offs to continue to sell.

 

Also some of these sellers have been banned before but have simply changed their accounts and start up again. Until sites like eBay develop a system that detects this stuff as soon as a seller tries to put it up (image detection) and blocks them immediately this junk will be here. That is why I am developing a site using images. They could easily just collect the images from my site and put them into a detection program and easily see who is selling this stuff.. It is the only way to stop them now. They cannot sell the junk without images and therefore they are easy to detect.

 

This not only involves illegal stamps but fake British Locals and fake reproduction which have flooded the market. some of these sellers are involved in all three types....rrrr.

Message 4 of 8
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Re: New Illegal Stamps Reference

The task to detect the illegal stamps does not seem easy! Yes, indeed it is often (not always) possible to "see by eye" which stamps are not the official editions. If You report the listing with those stamps eBay will not act, just because they do not have an alive person to monitor each item, to determinate which is legal and which is not. I am just more surprised, that there are the amateur philatelists who buy all this garbage and do not understand that they are fake, otherwise if they do and yet do not care about, then it is even worse - to be collecting the paper waste or to re-sell it!!!
And, speaking of some specific countries, which are the victims of this sort of production, Benin, The Gambia, Madagascar etc etc... Their postal authorities do not fight against this, I would say, fake money (stamps do have money value, unless if they are obsolete) production. I am sure if someone brings these "stamps" to a smaller post office at Benin, it is very likely he could mail a real letter with them!!! Nobody in Benin knows what stamps circulate and what don't. On the other hand I am pretty sure that such "stamps" if they were simulacras of USPS stamps would have been fast discovered and sellers punished severely!
Message 5 of 8
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Re: New Illegal Stamps Reference

Indeed they would bulkcover! It is quite obvious who the major sellers are of these illegal stamps. As the research continues the sellers who are connected with the producers (possibly the producers themselves) are becoming obvious with the newest illegal stamps that coincide with the newest UPU circulars shows.
There is no doubt they are connected directly with the source because they offer the latest illegal stamps and at first are exclusive in selling a particular "style" within a month of the year in question.
A simple task for a person to figure out...yet the UPU, country, societies, stamp venues like eBay and the general stamp collecting community sit idly by as these crooks continue to sell this fake junk.
That is why I am producing the imaging site. So everyone can see exactly what they are and who is selling them. The sellers listed should be avoided in all regards. Even though many sell "legitimate" stamps as well and are considered by many as "reputable" in status, as long as they support the sales of illegal stamps and are on the list....don't buy ANYTHING from them. In most cases what they sell that is legitimate can be purchased from any number of legitimate dealers and 9 times out of 10 can be purchased for less than these cons offer them for.
thank you for replying to this bulkcover!
Message 6 of 8
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Re: New Illegal Stamps Reference

I posted this in the developers forum and apparently am being censored by a moderator. They will not post it in the sellers API thread so I am reposting it here. Tells me they don't want to even try to stop the proliferation of illegal stamps. Here is what I posted: Image recognition software to end illegal stamp sales Hello, My name is John and I am a stamp research specialist. In the past few years the rampant sale of illegal stamps on eBay has become intolerable. Illegal stamps are fake stamps using a countries name that has a valid postal system (or has never had a valid postal system and/or does not even exist) of which the fake stamps were never issued, ordered and have never had validity for postal use in the victim country nor anywhere else in the world. These fake stamps have been denounced by the countries postal administrations and are described and sometimes imaged in the Universal Postal Unions Circulars. I am working on a reference section that shows images of illegal stamps according to the U.P.U. Circulars and are verified as being illegal stamps. You can view this section which will be expanded on as I have time at http://golowesstamps.com/reference/Illegal%20Stamps/illegal_stamps.htm The majority of images I got from images from sellers right here on eBay. I have watermarked the images diagonally with the words "ILLEGAL STAMPS" but have retained the original images without the watermarking. These sellers depend on the images to sell the fake stamps. They sell mainly to topical stamp collectors who the majority of do not know they are fake stamps. Topical collectors are collectors who collect stamps with a given topic such as dogs or cats or flowers etc. Without the image these basically criminal sellers cannot attract their victims into buying these illegal stamps. Some of these sellers are major stamp dealers who have been getting away with selling this junk for many years now. Many sell legitimate collector stamps as well. It is about time that you as developers and eBay help stop the proliferation of the sale of these illegal stamps. It is a simple task. Image recognition software has been developed and is now highly accurate in matching in recent years. Today...as an experiment, I went to an online site called Tineye.com and uploaded an image of an illegal stamp souvenir sheet and in 2 seconds it brought up four locations where this illegal stamp was being offered on the web. Perfectly matched even though the images were in different positions and/or scanned or photographed. This shows that you can use the same image recognition software in the selling API system. Just as you use word recognition of someone selling stamps from embargoed countries like Cuba and Iran which stops the seller from going any farther in the creation of the lot for sale. Simply by maintaining a database of images of the illegal stamps that have been produced since 1998 and adding new ones that are denounced and announced on the U.P.U. website in a current fashion, you as the developers of the selling API will greatly decrease the ability of the producers and sellers of these fake stamps to sell them to victimized collectors worldwide. Simply by applying image recognition software to the selling API, as soon as a seller puts the image in the program, it will stop them from moving forward. Some of these sellers are offering hundreds of lots of these illegal stamps with names from many countries that are victimized by these criminal producers. In my book, sellers like that should have their accounts either suspended until they clean up their act or closed entirely and not be allowed to sell on eBay at all! In most cases these sellers will either stop offering them or run in fear because once known that they are illegal stamp sellers their reputations as reputable stamp dealers will be tarnished. Sellers of illegal stamps are located all over the world. Yes, some do not know they are fakes, but in the majority of cases they know exactly what they are and do not care as long as they make profits from them. By developing this system and announcing that it is in place you will be helping eBay as a whole to regain its reputation of not being a place where forgeries, illegal stamps and other problems are allowed to take place unhindered. Please view the section I have developed so far which also connects to a page that lists the user names of sellers who are selling verified illegal stamps (which almost every one is NOT describing them as such), to understand what they are. By not describing them as what they are they are already breaking eBay policies as sellers. I am volunteering to help you, the developers in the creation of this and can provide you with many images (un-watermarked) to get the ball rolling. It is time for eBay to make a stand and help in the fight against illegal stamps which are a scourge on the philatelic market and has already victimized millions of collectors worldwide. I posted this on September 15. Since then numerous posts have been added to the thread showing that it is being stopped. Interesting yes?
Message 7 of 8
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Re: New Illegal Stamps Reference

As of June 2019 I have completed and/or upgraded the following illegal stamp sections
You can now reference what is legal and what is fake before making purchases for the following countries.

BENIN
CONGO REPUBLIC
DJIBOUTI
IVORY COAST (COTE D'IVOIRE)
MALAWI
MALI
RWANDA

The fight against the counterfeit illegal stamp industry is now stronger than ever before. The main producers and distributers are being identified. Major associations like the ATA and ASDA are now beginning work to counter this two decade old problem in the stamp market. eBay and the other venues are now much more aware of the problem and are taking steps to counter it.

We have a long way to go but progress is being made. Sadly there are new producers out there that are creating a mass of newer fake issues in the name of the above countries and many more. My advise is to be wary of any new issues becoming available for most African nations, many Arab nations and now generally all nations that are known to be having these problems. As a collector or dealer you MUST do the research to verify their authenticity.

The producers and distributers are wreaking havoc on eBay and the other online auction venues constantly. These are their primary sources of income. They try to avoid detection by not using the country names in their titles and descriptions. When stopped or shut down they create new user names and start selling again. Some have multiple user accounts.

We are having good success in stopping sales by U.S. based sellers but are still having problems with foreign (outside the U.S.) sellers of which the majority of illegal stamps are coming from. This problem is being addressed within eBay and hopefully soon will be remedied.

At present the removal of illegal stamps is still in an "experimental" stage. Countries being used are Djibouti, Ivory Coast and presently Benin has been added. Thousands of sales have been removed and on eBay you can now browse those countries by their name much more safely.

There is still the problem with new listings which will always be there as there are millions of these fake stamps in dealers stocks and in collections all over the world. Advise is...if it looks odd compared to the general listings it is time to research it BEFORE you buy it. ALL illegal stamps are mainly geared to attract TOPICAL COLLECTORS. therefore if you are one of them you need to become much more aware of the problem and avoid buying the illegal stamps. If you buy them you are only supporting criminals.

Avoid listings that do not use the country of origin in the title. Not listing the country of origin within the title and/or description is AGAINST the eBay stamp policy. Selling counterfeit illegal stamps is against eBay policy. They are NOT cinderella stamps. They are NOT private issues. They are NOT local issues. Anyone who is stating they are is attempting to deceive you.

I will continue to help the stamp community to identify the counterfeits. Presently I am adding new pages for the Congo Democratic Republic. Over 1000 images of them! Please be aware that I do not have images of every single one out there. The site gives you an excellent reference to identify the majority of them.

A word of warning to illegal stamp dealers that are abusing eBay and the other online venues. We are aware of who you are. We will not relent.
As time goes on we will attack your sales and remove more and more, country by country until you have nothing left to sell. We are raising the awareness to such a degree that you will have thousands of collectors and dealers worldwide who will not deal with you and will alert others not to do so either. The people you have ripped off all these years will be coming after you as well.

I started this new war against the counterfeiters. It is fast going....out of my control now which was and is my intent. I have shown one person can make an effect against them. Soon....there will be thousands....
Your days ARE numbered.

 

http://golowesstamps.com/reference/Illegal%20Stamps/illegal_stamps.htm

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