I have asked many stores where they get the smokes, many claim directly from a Marlboro distributor. Which means people inside the company are in on the scam (for some reason I am not surprised).....or else Marlboro added some new chemicals (perhaps FSC now?) to the blend. Who knows, now I check the numbers everytime. Bold serial numbers are bad, thin (small dots make the text) are good. I my helper made a mistake yesterday buying, so when Johnny feels like bumming a smoke again you know which pack I'm pulling it from. I hope the guys saying to stop don't have any bad habits.