Mail Scams and Schemes: Art Forgeries

The United States Postal Inspection Service—one of our nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies—protects mail, post offices and postal employees. Inspectors are on the ground and on the job, from restoring postal service after a disaster to capturing drug traffickers and protecting citizens from mail fraud. We can all be partners in prevention, by learning to protect ourselves from fraud, identity theft, and other postal crimes.

Learn firsthand from retired Postal Inspector and Postal Museum Docent Dan Mihalko about real postal crimes involving counterfeit works of high art sold at a high price!

To learn more about mail fraud and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, visit USPIS.gov.

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Hi! Dan Mihalko here... your favorite docent.

Imagine buying a Salvador Dali print signed by the artist or one by Picasso, Chagall, or this one by Miro.

Great investment, right?

Yes, if it's legitimate.

The art world has also bred a subset of forgers and counterfeiters.

The prints look legitimate.

They market these counterfeits as signed, limited-edition prints and sell them for thousands of dollars.

But when buyers tried to resell the prints, they found that they were counterfeit and worth just a fraction of the price they originally paid.

Postal inspectors ran a sting called Operation Bogart and cracked a billion dollar art fraud ring.

The mastermind printed counterfeit artworks in a New Jersey warehouse, forged the artists' signatures and sold these fakes through the mail.

Postal inspectors shut down the business, seized thousands of prints, and sent three to jail.

Years later, the son pulled the same scam!

Postal inspectors arrested him, too.

These con artists give real artists a bad name...

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