Method and apparatus for detecting misuse of postal indica

摘要

Involves storing in a memory an information signal indicating a postal indicia applied at a sender location on a mail piece to be posted. The postal indicia is characteristic of a device which applied the postal indicia to the mail piece to be sent. The applied postal indicia is also characteristic of the mail piece to be posted. At the post office the postal indicia is read and provides a second information signal indicating the read postal indicia; the read postal indicia characteristic of a device which applied the read postal indicia, and the read postal indicia is also characteristic of the received mail piece. The first information signal is retrieved from the memory and compared with the second information signal giving a misuse signal when no match is found. An independent claim is included for an apparatus for detecting misuse.