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