Fraudulent and lottery matter

§ 4005. Fraudulent and lottery matter (a) Upon evidence satisfactory to the Postmaster General that any person is engaged in conducting a scheme or device for obtaining money or property through the mail by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises; or engaged in conducting a lottery, gift enterprise, or scheme for the distribution of money 74 Stat. 655 or of real or personal property by lottery, chance, or drawing of any kind; the Postmaster General may— (1) direct postmasters at the office at which registered letters or other letters or mail arrive, addressed to such a person or to his representative, to return the registered letters or other letters or mail to the sender marked “fraudulent” or “lottery mail”; and (2) forbid the payment by a postmaster to such a person or his representative of any money order or postal note drawn to the order of either and provide for the return to the remitters of the sums named in the money orders or postal notes. (b) The public advertisement by a person engaged in activities covered by subsection (a) of this section, that remittances may be made by mail to a person named in the advertisement, is prima facie evidence that the latter is the agent or representative of the advertiser for the receipt of remittances on behalf of the advertiser. The Postmaster General is not precluded from ascertaining the existence of the agency in any other legal way satisfactory to him. (c) As used in this section and section 4006 of this title the term “representative” includes an agent or representative acting as an individual or as a firm, bank, corporation, or association of any kind.