Parasitic postage indicia

A system enabling higher incidents of scanning for discouraging fraud and facilitating improved accounting and auditing, the system comprising:

• a postage system in communication with postal service provider infrastructure and at least one mailer system, wherein the postage system is configured to generate and account for a parasitic postage indicium in response to a request for a postage indicium from a mailer system of the at least one mailer system, wherein the parasitic postage indicium comprises:
• a postage indicium data packet including data sufficient to satisfy requirements of postal service provider for proof of payment for postal services, and
• thin indicium information configured to be carried in one or more components of a mail scan block of a mail item without alteration of a structure of the mail scan block for use in postage indicia processing except to insert thin indicium information into one or more otherwise unaltered fields of the mail scan block, wherein the thin indicium information includes mailer identification information and postage data identification information, wherein the mailer identification information is configured to indicate that the mail scan block includes the postage data identification information and the postage data identification information is configured for identifying the corresponding postage indicium data packet, wherein the thin indicium information provides substantially unique identification of the corresponding postage indicium data packet, and wherein the mail scan block comprises a scan block for which components of postal service provider infrastructure are configured to scan for a purpose other than for postage indicia;
• the mailer system of the at least one mailer system having a printer, wherein the mailer system is in communication with the postage system and is configured to use the printer to print the mail scan block including the thin indicium information having the mailer identification information and the postage data identification information disposed on the mail item for scanning during a routing operation performed with respect to the mail item;
• and
• scanning equipment of the postal service provider infrastructure configured to scan the mail scan block, as printed and carried on the mail item, in a routing operation performed with respect to the mail item, wherein the thin indicium information is extracted from the mail scan block by the scanning equipment and used to determine if the mailer identification information of the thin indicium information comprises reserved information that indicates the mail scan block includes the postage data identification information and initiate processing to determine validity of postage indicium of the postage indicium data packet identified by the postage data identification information of the thin indicium information.

A system comprising:

• a postage system in communication with postal service provider infrastructure and at least one mailer system, wherein the postage system is configured to generate and account for a parasitic postage indicium in response to a request for a postage indicium from a mailer system of the at least one mailer system, wherein the parasitic postage indicium comprises:
• thin indicium information configured to be carried in at least a mailer identification component and a sequence number component of an intelligent mail barcode of a mail item without alteration of a structure of the intelligent mail barcode for use in postage indicia processing except to insert thin indicium information into unaltered mailer identification and sequence number fields of the intelligent mail barcode, wherein the thin indicium information includes mailer identification information and postage data identification information corresponding to a postage indicium data packet, and
• the postage indicium data packet corresponding to the thin indicium information and including data sufficient to satisfy requirements of a postal service provider for proof of payment for postal services,
• wherein the thin indicium information provides substantially unique identification of the corresponding postage indicium data packet, and wherein the intelligent mail barcode comprises a barcode for which components of the postal service provider infrastructure are configured to scan for routing purposes;
• the mailer system of the at least one mailer system having a printer, wherein the mailer system is in communication with the postage system and is configured to print the intelligent mail barcode that includes the thin indicium information using the printer;
• scanning equipment comprising a portable processor device configured to scan the intelligent mail barcode, as printed and carried on the mail item, at a point of pickup of the mail item by a carrier, wherein the thin indicium information is extracted from the intelligent mail barcode by the scanning equipment;
• and
• a mail server of the postal service provider infrastructure configured to:
• accept input of mail item information, including the thin indicium information, from the scanning equipment;
• and
• determine if the mailer identification information of the intelligent mail barcode includes reserved information that indicates the intelligent mail barcode includes the postage data identification information and if so perform proof of payment verification processing to determine whether proper payment has been made for the postal services with respect to the mail item using the postage indicium data packet corresponding to the postage data identification information of the thin indicium information.