Chapter 393.
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CHAP. 393.— An act to punish dealers and pretended dealers in counterfeit money and other fraudulent devices for using the United States mails.March 2, 1889. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Postal crimes. “That section fifty-four hundred and eighty of the Revised Statutes be. and the same is hereby, so amended so as to read as follows: " Sec. 5480. If any person having devised or intending to deviseUsing mails with intent to defraud. any scheme or artifice to defraud, or to sell, dispose of. loan, exchange, alter, give away, or distribute, supply, or furnish, or procure for unlawful use any counterfeit or spurious coin, bank notes,R.
S., sec. 5480, p. 1063, amended. paper money, or any obligation or security of the United States or of any State, Territory, municipality, company, corporation, or person, or anything represented to be or intimated or held out to be such counterfeit or spurious articles, or any scheme or artifice to obtainMailing letters, etc., offering to sell counterfeit money, etc. money by or through correspondence, by what is commonly called the “sawdust swindle”, or “counterfeit money fraud”, or by dealing or pretending to deal in what is commonly called “green articles,” “green coin.
” “bills”, “paper goods,” “spurious Treasury notes,” “United States goods”, “green cigars”, or any other names or terms intended to be understood as relating to such counterfeit or spurious articles, to be effected by either opening or intending to open correspondence or communication with any person, whether resident within or outside the United States, by means of the Post Office Establishment of the United States, or by inciting such other person or any person to open communication with the person so devising or intending, shall, in and for executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, place or cause to be placed, any letter, packet, writing, circular, pamphlet, or advertisement in any post office, branch post-office, or street or hotel letterbox of the United States, to be sent or delivered by the said post-office establishment, or shall take or receive any such therefrom, such person so misusing the post-office establishment shall, upon conviction, be punishablePunishment. by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars and by imprisonment for not more than eighteen months, or by both such punishments, at the discretion of the court.
The indictment, information, or complaint may severally charge offenses to the number of three when committed within the same six calendar months; but the court thereupon shall give a single sentence, and shall proportion the punishment especially to the degree in which the abuse of the post-office establishment enters as an instrument into such fraudulent scheme and device.” " Sec. 2. That any person who, in and for conducting, promoting, orPunishment for fraudulently assuming a fictitious address, etc. carrying on. in any manner by means of the Post-Office Establishment of the United States, any scheme or device mentioned in the preceding section, or any other unlawful business whatsoever, shall use or assume or request to be addressed by any fictitious, false, or assumed title, name, or address, or name other than his own proper name, or shall take or receive from any post-office of the United States any letter, postal-card, or packet addressed to any such fictitious. false, or assumed title, name, or address, or name other than his own lawful and proper name, shall, upon conviction, be punishable as provided in the first section of this act.
Sec. 3. That the Postmaster-General may, upon evidence satisfactoryIdentification may be required. to him. that any person is using any fictitious, false, or assumed name, title, or address in conducting, promoting, or carrying on, or assisting therein, by means of the Post-Office Establishment of the United States, any business scheme or device in violation of the provisions of this act. instruct any postmaster at any post-office at which such letters, cards, or packets, addressed to such fictitious, false, or assumed name or address arrive to notify the party claiming or receiving such letters, cards, or packets to appear at the post-office and 874 be identified; and if the party so notified fail to appear and be identified. or if it shall satisfactorily appear that such letters, cards, or Fictitious matter to be sent to dead-letter office.packets are addressed to a fictitious, false, or assumed name or address, such letters, postal-cards, or packages shall be forwarded to the dead-letter office as fictitious matter.
Sec. 4. That all matter the deposit of which in the mails is by thisMatter relating to spurious money, etc., nonmailable. act made punishable is hereby declared nonmailable; but nothing in this act shall be so construed as to authorize any person other than an employee of the dead-letter office, duly authorized thereto, to open any letter not addressed to himself. Sec. 5. That whenever the Postmaster-General is satisfied thatDelivery of matter to persons not residents of place of address. letters or packets sent in the mails are addressed to places not the residence or business address of the persons for whom they are intended, to enable such persons to escape identification, he may direct postmasters to deliver such letters only from the post-office upon identification of persons addressed.
Approved, March 2, 1889.