WEB LEAGUE 

AGAINST ILLEGAL STAMPS

    One of the main objectives of the World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP) is to take actions against the illegal postage stamp issues.

    In order to support this action the Philatelic Webmasters Organization has initiated a movement called the WEB LEAGUE AGAINST ILLEGAL STAMPS (WLAIS), grouping the philatelic sites that are actively fighting against the designing and printing of illegal stamps and especially against the selling of illegal stamp through the Internet. WLAIS attains its ends by publishing information about illegal stamps on the participating sites and by actively publishing and exchanging information about philatelic sites that violate the recommendations of the WADP and of the UPU.

Sometimes the illegal stamps stamps are presented by vendors as being Cinderella (or jokes, or humor, etc.). The problem is that because they cannot be distinguished from the real postal stamps, they are usually taken for real issues by many stamp collectors. They are always issued in the name of an existing country or region, and they have a face value printed on them. A good mean to distinguish the illegals stamps from the real stamps is to consult the list of the UPU Circulars that are published on this site. Be vigilant though, because not all countries have complained at the UPU yet and for this reason the UPU list of illegal stamps is by no means exhaustive. The reputed stamp catalogues are also a good source of information, but apparently a reduced number of illegal stamps have found their way for being listed. We will come back to this subject when we will have more exact information about such cases.

   We are publishing on this page links to philatelic sites and to their pages that contribute to the fight against the illegal issues worldwide. The illegal stamps are for us by definition those that are listed as such by the Universal Postal Union in its Circulars.

 

   We invite all sites' managers and their webmasters to join us in our struggle against illegal issues. The sites that joined us will be listed on this page. They (and only they) have the right to display the Philatelic Web Watch Logo, linked to the  http://www.pwmo.org/Illegals/frame-illegals-en.htm .
  
Thanks a lot in advance for supporting our struggle! Please notice that the sites that collaborate with the PWO and with the UPU doesn't publish images of illegal stamps.

   Our readers are invited to inform us about sites that are our brothers in arms in the mentioned fight, permitting us for contacting them. Please e-mail us at PWO.


Published: 09/08/2001. Revised: 08/16/09.
Copyright © 2001 - 2009 by PWO and
by Victor Manta, Switzerland.
All rights reserved worldwide.