China accused of 'flooding the UK with fake Royal Mail stamps' in 'act of economic warfare'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/china-fake-b ... oyal-mail/

Sources close to Royal Mail said fake Chinese stamps were behind a rise in complaints that stamps bought from legitimate outlets were being deemed fraudulent, which can result in a £5 fine, the Telegraph reported.

Four Chinese suppliers are offering to print up to one million counterfeit Royal Mail stamps a week, according to the paper. The fake stamps are being sold for as little as 4p each before being sent to Britain.

Some small retailers are unknowingly buying these fake stamps, as they are allowed to purchase from wholesalers rather than direct from Royal Mail.

The forgeries have also been found on Amazon and eBay, as well as on scam websites imitating the Royal Mail site.
Stamps bought directly from the Post Office are unaffected, because it gets all of its stamps direct from Royal Mail.

Alan Mendoza, of national security think tank the Henry Jackson Society, told the paper: "It is inconceivable that a large-scale counterfeit operation like this could be occurring without the knowledge and therefore tacit approval of the Chinese Communist Party.

"It's an obvious form of economic warfare."

Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said: "It is key to prevent counterfeit stamps entering our supply chain in the UK.

"The Royal Mail must do everything possible to prevent counterfeits entering our circulation and must establish where they are coming from and how they are entering our marketplace," he told the Daily Mail.

But a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London slammed the claims as "absurd".

He told the Times: "It is totally ridiculous, absurd and ill-intentional. How could one imagine a sovereign country triggers war by bringing fake stamps?

"If this case really happened, (the) first thing to do is to have (a) thorough investigation over the internal supply chain, instead of pursuing the attention of (the) media."

It was reported last week that Royal Mail is looking into claims that people have been wrongly fined after being sent letters with new barcoded stamps that were deemed to be counterfeit.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We are working hard to remove counterfeit stamps from circulation.

"We regularly monitor online marketplaces to detect suspicious activity, such as sales of heavily discounted stamps and work closely with retailers and law enforcement agencies to identify those who produce counterfeit stamps.

"We work closely with a number of police forces across the country and in recent cases we have recovered stamps with a retail value of over £250,000."

[POSTMAN]

Says a lot when you have Royal Mail and China in the same sentence and you don't know who to believe!

[scoobydo79]

Says a lot when you have Royal Mail and China in the same sentence and you don't know who to believe!

lol I’d believe China before I believe anything Royal Mail told Me. Russia and Palestine too

[Philbag70]

I have to say, the thought has crossed my mind that RM have engineered this intentionally. Just to rip the public off even more. Who knows? The leadership of RM are so untrustworthy and deceitful, that I wouldn't rule the idea out...lol

[fb1969]

Probably find that RM are buying them from China as its cheaper than printing their own!

[yubin282]

China ?

Fake ?

Never in my life!!

I presume we keep delivering their cheap tat Shein/Temu etc.

[Mr Rush]

Probably find that RM are buying them from China as its cheaper than printing their own!

I could readily believe it. Most knock-offs are made on the same assembly line as the real deal only overnight on a ghost shift with no quality control. But thank god the stamps are barcoded or we'd never know the scale of the counterfeiting that was previously hidden over the... horizon.

[TopperGas]

"Some small retailers are unknowingly buying these fake stamps, as they are allowed to purchase from wholesalers rather than direct from Royal Mail"

If the small retailers are buying stamps at a massive discount I'd imagine it's fairly obvious they are fake, RM have created this issue themselves by allowing them to purchase stamps from wholesalers.

[portadown]

I think a lot off small retailers no what they are buying and think they are going to make a lot more money I've seen on ebay that I can buy 50 first class stamps for £20 with bar codes

[NWpostie]

There should be a downloadable app can be used to scan the stamps QR code to verify if they're real or fake.

Indeed for any other products with a QR code to sort out the genuine from the fakes.

[ted_e_bear]

There should be a downloadable app can be used to scan the stamps QR code to verify if they're real or fake.

Indeed for any other products with a QR code to sort out the genuine from the fakes.

That's a good idea, I think most phones have a QR scanner built in these days,just tested mine on my Christmas stamps and it comes out with a unique long series of letters and numbers for example

JGB S11221017031961221190006622112101 EF7E6E4FEDA546C901

Or you can scan them on the Royal Mail app to watch a video etc so that might flag up a fake.

So I wonder what the fake ones come up as maybe it just doesn't work.

[Mr Rush]

There should be a downloadable app can be used to scan the stamps QR code to verify if they're real or fake.

Indeed for any other products with a QR code to sort out the genuine from the fakes.

The 'QR codes' (actually Data Matrix) are there as a gimmick, not as an anti-counterfeit measure for which they are self-evidently useless. Something like a hologram, as seen on banknotes, would be far more useful to determine legitimacy for everyone concerned. Since this whole situation seemingly enables RM to arbitrarily levy a £5 surcharge against anyone without recourse, a cynic might suggest the new system is working as intended.

Regarding the gimmick, I haven't heard much about anyone embedding a video greeting or anything else. Perhaps because in order to scan the stamp you actually have to receive the damned thing.

[SpacePhoenix]

There should be a downloadable app can be used to scan the stamps QR code to verify if they're real or fake.

Indeed for any other products with a QR code to sort out the genuine from the fakes.

The 'QR codes' (actually Data Matrix) are there as a gimmick, not as an anti-counterfeit measure for which they are self-evidently useless. Something like a hologram, as seen on banknotes, would be far more useful to determine legitimacy for everyone concerned. Since this whole situation seemingly enables RM to arbitrarily levy a £5 surcharge against anyone without recourse, a cynic might suggest the new system is working as intended.

Regarding the gimmick, I haven't heard much about anyone embedding a video greeting or anything else. Perhaps because in order to scan the stamp you actually have to receive the damned thing.

Adding a hologram would make stamps too expensive to make. It's a case of the use of the QR codes or stamps get axed

[NWpostie]

Or actually have an actual QR code with King Charles head, everybody has a QR scanner on their phones to check if the stamps or stamp booklet is authentic.

Many products sold already can be verified by adding the serial number on the manufacturer's website.