Earlier in May this year, a major case involving fake shipping labels worth up to 420 million RMB was exposed in the United States. Lijuan 'Angela' Chen, aged 50, was detained by inspectors from the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.。
On December 18th, Yiliu Rongmei published a warning article: UPS 'leaky' accounts are just the tip of the iceberg, the biggest threat is USPS.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is truly determined to take strong measures to deal with issues such as fake shipping labels and 'leaky' accounts.
Recent observations indicate that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has indeed decided to take significant action to address issues such as fake shipping labels and 'leaky' accounts. Faced with annual losses of several billion dollars, it's a situation that is becoming intolerable. Not only are there rewards for reporting these issues, but a number of lawsuits have been filed, and several customs brokers have been investigated. These customs brokers were even asked to write 'self-criticism letters'. Please continue reading for more details.
Firstly, on various e-commerce platforms, consumers have been continuously complaining that their orders, while being shipped, are suddenly marked as 'found to bear counterfeit postage', indicating that the package has fake postage, and then the delivery is halted...
The official USPS website has also made public their methods for handling packages with fake shipping labels.
The USPS official website has also publicly disclosed their approach to handling packages with fake shipping labels: they neither return nor deliver them.
Additionally, USPS has clearly stated that there are rewards for reporting 'leaky' accounts and fake shipping labels: $100,000. This does not include a share of the total fines levied.
On December 22, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled against Bradley Jon Matheni on seven counts of forging postage and three counts of smuggling. Matheni is required to pay $256,441.78 in compensation to the United States Postal Service (USPS).
USPS reviewed a total of 2898 packages sent by Matheni, of which 384 had correct postage, 613 were 'lightened' by entering a weight lighter than the actual weight of the package. There were also 1901 packages with forged shipping labels, and these forged labels also understated the weight of the packages. The proportion of fake labels was 66.6%.
Given the extensive use of USPS in cross-border e-commerce, USPS also collaborated with the FBI for a strict investigation and crackdown. Several typical cases were apprehended in the East and West coasts of the U.S., especially targeting customs brokers handling clearance for Chinese cross-border goods. As the matter is sensitive, we will only share one image for everyone to see what an American 'self-criticism letter' looks like, and you can translate the content yourselves.
The current cross-border e-commerce logistics industry is very much like the catering industry under certain specific conditions.
In a neighborhood that keeps expanding with new phases, the population is increasing, but so are the number of restaurants. On one street alone, there are seven or eight beef noodle shops, each with similar rent costs. Those with poor business start lowering their prices; one offers a bowl for 15 yuan, another undercuts at 14 yuan, and another dares to go down to 13 yuan. The ones who can't endure lower their price to 12 yuan and even throw in a marinated egg for free.
Gradually, customers notice that a bowl of noodles that used to have three slices of beef now only has two, and the broth isn’t freshly made anymore but comes from a packet. The consumers are confused; this isn’t what they wanted. Then they try the place charging 15 yuan per bowl, only to find it's the same as the 12 yuan one – two slices of beef and packet broth, no difference.
With the rise of delivery services, specialized delivery restaurants emerge that don't need a physical storefront and have no visible hygiene standards. Their costs are even lower. Most consumers don’t understand; as long as it's cheap, it's good.
The safety and health of consumers are compromised, the excessive competition is devastating for the shops, and the delivery services are heavily taxed by the platforms. It seems that no one benefits from this situation, yet it continues unabated. It's a situation that calls for urgent attention.
Ultimately, it's all caused by internal competition.
Everyone knows about it, yet everyone is still desperately involved in this involution. There's no choice; if you don't participate, you'll be out of the loop. Recently, our boss has been exerting pressure (referred to as PUA), especially on me, the top writer with the code name '88'. He insists that I come up with a solution to the involution issue. I mean, come on, if I had that kind of ability, I wouldn't be here typing away miserably for him. What’s he thinking, silly boss, no wonder he doesn’t have a girlfriend.
