Counterfeit Automobile Stamps
The U.S.
Secret Service has smashed a mob
engaged in a conspiracy to flood the East with counterfeit $5 Federal
Motor
Vehicle Usage Tax stamps of the current issue. Counterfeit
stamps
to a face value of $10,000 were seized by agents of the Secret Service,
and a raid in Rochester, N.Y., uncovered the printing plant and the
plates
used in producing the fraudulent stamps. Other arrests were
made
in Buffalo and Syracuse. John J. McGrath, supervisor of the
New York
District of the Secret Service, stated that the ring was prepared to
produce
and deliver large quantities of the stamps and, channeled through the
underworld,
single sales were ultimately made to car owners at $3.00 per
stamp.
He added that the gang was planning the printing of counterfeit War
Savings
stamps, had the venture in automobile stamps been successful.
-
George B. Sloane
Sloane's Column Stamps August 4, 1944 Posted August 19, 1999 Index of 508 Notes from the Past Note: If the link isn't returned the first try, try again. Comments? Send me an e-mail |