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I was told about this about three years ago, that if you were desperate and didn't have time to buy stamps for a postcard, merely putting the code '2FABE' would get your postcard to its intended destination.

Sceptical at the time, I searched for it on Google and found nothing. Now searching for it has a couple of people asking if it's real, but no actual answer.

After being in the expatriate community in London for four years, I'd met several people who have tried this, from many countries, and aside from sending from China, word is they've all gotten through.

The obvious question would be 'is it real?' - but that doesn't seem to matter as it seems to work. The real question is WHY does it work? Is it a special code that means something? Is it an informal system like the old 'S2S' (Student to Student) code was meant to do? Or is it just blind luck that these have all made it through.

It came up in tonight's #TTOT (Travel Talk on Twitter), after I mentioned it, but nobody else had heard of it, so figured it might be a good one to ask on here.

EDIT

I don't need to know HOW to test it, that's easy - I just want to know - if it's real, WHY is it real?

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Magic and witchcraft, I say. – Ankur Banerjee♦ Oct 18 '11 at 10:55
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I did not know of the 2FABE acronym, but drawing a little head in the stamp area of a postcard in countries with stamps with royals works as well. I am afraid that this might be something that works until its secret is exposed to a larger audience (asking about it on the Internet). – Andra Oct 18 '11 at 13:45
I have to test this. I live in a country where royals rule! Has to painting to be accurate? – RoflcoptrException♦ Oct 19 '11 at 5:26
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@Roflcoptr I refrain from answering here, again tricks like this usually work if it is only known to a selected (small) group. – Andra Oct 19 '11 at 11:02
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I've gone ahead and asked: skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/9228/… – Andrew Grimm May 6 '12 at 12:22
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1 Answer

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I'd propose the "null hypothesis" that 2FABE has no special meaning, but that postal services may just handle postcards that don't have postage, either because they don't really check, or as a "tourist-friendly" policy.

One could test this by sending a bunch of postcards, some marked 2FABE, some marked with other random sequences of characters, and some with no markings at all (and perhaps some more with cartoons of the Queen). If significantly more of the 2FABE cards arrive than the others, then you have some reason to think there is something special about 2FABE, and could investigate further. It might be best to mail the postcards to and from a variety of addresses, so that they don't attract attention by all being processed or delivered together.

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