There was a 20th century scam which purported to sell a "License for Reduced Postage" .
The ad would be in a tabloid, like National Enquirer, so the scammer knew he was already dealing with the gullible.
The mark had to send in a small amount- a dime or a quarter- in cash or postage stamps to get a brochure and an application form.
So the scammer was sure to get at least a dime from each mark. Overhead covered.
The brochure was sent in an envelope that had only a single penny stamp.
The brochure arrived, because the PO is too busy to look closely at every envelope. That it did arrive was "proof" that the "License" was legit.
And the License cost -- more. But not too much.
Send a $5.00 bill , no checks accepted, for the license. Send $10 and the scammer would include 500 penny* stamps.
Pure profit.
And again, most of the underpaid letters would go through.
Then the post offices introduced tagging, which meant no human was looking at the envelopes because the machine said the postage was paid when it saw the tags.
After a couple of years the PO was told about this and stopped tagging penny stamps. And started selling labels.
I haven't heard of the scam in any organized way for some 30 years.
*Then as now mint postage stamps could be purchased from legitimate stamp dealers at discounts.
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