Delegates are coming and going in greater and greater numbers at the Universal Postal Union’s headquarters in Switzerland’s capital, Bern, as the Fall meetings of its constitutent bodies begin.  First to assemble are the working groups of the Postal Operations Council, the working committees who undertake the work that results in improved interactions between and among posts, and better and more valuable services for postal customers.

The projects and scope of these committees range the gamut of all postal operations, and include the critical subject of protecting revenues and the integrity of the system.  A major project was launched by the Consultative Committee, the private sector’s representative body, in partnership with the Postal Security Action Group.  Chaired by Jean-Philippe Ducasse of Pitney Bowes, the committee briefed the the PSAG on its

project to protect postal revenues and assure the posts can collect what is owed them.  The committee first surveyed needs of UPU members in this area to determine the scale and complexity of this problem, and is formulating approaches to what the survey showed is of universal concern. Next steps will include regional roundtables for posts to share best practices in this important area and to share expertise. We will ask Jean-Philippe to report in more detail.

We attended a presentation in the same meeting of the Postal Security Action Group by Tonya Fox, Unit Chief of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center of the United States (ICE) which stunned us.  ICE carried out an operation called “Operation Stamp Out” earlier this year to interdict the illegal importation of counterfeit checks and money orders through the USPS  system.

This is  a huge illegal business and in FY 2007 alone the US Postal Inspection Service seized more than 540,000 counterfeit checks and money orders valued at more than $2.1 billion.  In 2008, the USPS reported that consumers presented for cashing over $30 milion worth of counterfeit US Postal money orders.

Operation Stamp Out involved teams checking inbound express mail and parcels in great detail in four facilities for one week in each of several months earlier this year in New York, Anchorage, Memphis and Louisville.  They found counterfeit USPS and grocery store money orders, personal and company and bank and travelers checks, US currency, and gold certificates.  In short, they seized counterfeits of every negotiable financial instrument in use in the United States.  Some of the postal money orders were counterfeits of new money orders first produced by the USPS only 3 months before!

The total face value of what was seized exceeded $12 billion.  Just the tip  of the iceberg, but the evidence collected will lead law enforcement back to some of the sources, but unfortunately this will never be stomped out.   It’s good to know, however, that law enforcement and the US Postal Inspection Service is out there.

The USPIS, by the way, traces its founding back to Ben Franklin in 1772, who established a “Surveyor” to audit the system.  In short, it is one of the oldest law enforcement  agencies in the Americas, let alone the United States.