It is very hard to distinguish between these bindery tears and spine ticks or stress marks. If they are in the UPC box area, they are almost certainly bindery tears. To confirm this, you have to open the book and carefully look at them from the inside of the front cover. You will be able to see that they actually go through the paper.
I did open the book to be sure. Inside cover was fine. Its just the 2 lines on the outside. I looked on the outside at first until I read another post saying the same thing as you, so I opened it up and it was not a tear through
I can take pictures if you want. Scan on the outside front cover and take a pic with my digi cam up close of the inside front cover.