Royal Mail statement on forthcoming Panorama programme

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.news.royalmailgroup.com/news ... royal_mail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



01/07/2011


SCAM MAIL
Royal Mail is determined to do all it can to root out scam mail. We very much understand the upset and disquiet that scam mail can cause households across the country, including vulnerable people.

We do not want our postmen or women handling or delivering mail that causes harm. We have made significant progress in our efforts to root out scam mail as we intensify our drive against it.

As was announced in January 2011, Royal Mail is working very closely, through Operation Sterling, with the Metropolitan Police and Serious Organised Crime Agency to identify and stop scam mail at source. At the time the initiative was announced, the Metropolitan Police said: "We hope to send a warning to the perpetrators, that their actions will not go unhindered. Working with Royal Mail, Spring Global Mail and other members of the postal industry, we aim to clamp down on this crime and make it as hard as possible for the people responsible for it to operate. We would like to thank Royal Mail and Spring Global Mail for working with us to take this important step in the continuing fight against mass marketing fraud."

We can reveal for the first time that our work with the Metropolitan Police has resulted in almost six million scam letters being removed from the UK mail delivery network. As a result of our close co-operation, the police provided us with the information which enabled us to cancel six bulk mail contracts with foreign companies based in Austria, Australia, Canada and South Africa. In one case, mail has been seized by the police as part of a criminal investigation.

We are currently working with the Metropolitan Police on leads involving a further 10 million potential scam letters. If this turns out to be scam mail harmful to the recipients, we will stop it, irrespective of the cost and loss of revenue to Royal Mail. This significant action is in addition to 11 bulk mail contracts that we have cancelled after we acted on complaints received by the Advertising Standards Agency about the content of mailings. Royal Mail has also signed an information sharing protocol with the Office of Fair Trading which has resulted in three bulk mail contracts being cancelled.

There is open access to the mail system and under the Universal Service Obligation Royal Mail provides a delivery service to the UK’s 29 million addresses. We are doing everything we can to stop scam mail entering our postal network.

Royal Mail works closely with Spring Global Mail, in which it has a 33% share, to prevent scam mail entering the Royal Mail system. Like Spring Global Mail, we believe targeting the senders of the mail, with evidence passed to us by the police, and raising awareness with the general public are effective ways to tackle this problem. Spring Global Mail is one of many international mail companies in Europe providing services to companies which want to send mail from one country to another. Spring Global Mail collects, sorts and transports mail to over 200 destinations worldwide.

At the launch of Operation Sterling in January, Marilyn Baldwin, of the Think Jessica Campaign to raise awareness about scam mail, said: "I am thrilled that Royal Mail, Spring Global Mail and the Metropolitan Police are working together. I think we have turned a corner and along with our future awareness campaigns we are now on the right road to protecting our most vulnerable and deterring those who prey on them."

Royal Mail also provides advice to customers warning about scam mail on its website and a link to the website of Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre. http://www2.royalmail.com/customer-serv ... /scam-mail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DIRECT MAIL
We do not recognise the term "junk mail". Companies promote their products and services in different ways, including through TV and newspaper advertising, outdoor posters, the internet and the post. Companies use direct mail because it has proven results. Direct mail accounts for more than £16 billion in sales for the UK economy every year and the industry employs 280,000 people directly and indirectly.

Many households find the information useful. If they do not do so, there are many established ways of stopping it. These include signing up to the Mailing Preference Service or Royal Mail’s Door to Door Opt Out scheme for unaddressed mail or contacting companies that have sent mail asking to be taken off their database.

Since 2003, the volume of direct mail being sent to landfill every year has fallen by 80%. Direct mail now accounts for just 0.4% of the average household waste, a tiny fraction of all paper and card that goes to landfill.

The direct marketing industry is making great strides to reduce the environmental impact of its activities. Last year it was announced that 76.5 per cent of direct marketing material is now recycled - well ahead of the 2009 target of 55 per cent set in agreement with Defra and beating the 2013 target of 70 per cent.

Ends

For further information:
David Simpson
Director of News
Royal Mail Group
020 7250 2839
david.simpson@royalmail.com


James Eadie
Head of Products and Services PR
Royal Mail Group
020 7250 2826
james.r.eadie@royalmail.com

[Pinky 1]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012gn9m" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ............. for those who want to see it

[pyphon]

to be fair it's the homeowners fault for getting crap in the first place, you only get it if you sign up for it.

[Straight4ward]

I've got a poor old dear on my walk (and I use both adjectives advisedly) who receives dozens of these "competition" items daily.
She genuinely believes that she is in the running to win the cash prizes they advertise.


There was a brief lull in the quantity that she was receiving following the clamp down but the numbers are starting to rise again which indicates that that the vermin involved have easily found a way around it to continue the fraud.

[zola4ever]

I had a similar person on my previous delivery which I did for quite a few years. Anyway I used to send them back " Gone Away " Some days she had a dozen or so of these scam mails.

[DGP1]

It's not our job to police what people receive, sorry to seem cruel about this but I'm paid to deliver not to think (a quote from a manager many years ago).

[Dee Plish]

Royal Mail send out The Courier every month even if you ask to be removed from the mailing list. How much environmental waste does that cause? You could reasonably interpret said rag to be part of a scam given its content.

[music4essex]

I had the same, some old boy kept getting these scam letters from Africa,

I tried telling him just to "write not known" but he would not listen

So I asked a lady friend who visited him to say, take no notice and she said to me he had sent money off to them

After about 2yrs it has now stopped.

Essex mum

[MrPPatt]

Many households find the information useful. If they do not do so, there are many established ways of stopping it. These include signing up to the Mailing Preference Service or Royal Mail’s Door to Door Opt Out scheme for unaddressed mail or contacting companies that have sent mail asking to be taken off their database.

In our SO, all the Mailing Preference Service cards have been removed - we were told that there is some way that RM sidesteps this so they can still deliver. I hate delivering junk mail even more than I hate receiving it. It is more troublesome than normal mail, as it is often a flimsy A4 pamphlet that catches any breeze and does not want to go through letterboxes.

MrPostmanPat :|

[George door to dawes]

Royal mails response to scam mail is a joke! Most of it is so blatantly obvious its shocking that we should have to deliver with it. Yet if i found a parcel that smelt of cannabis RM would call the police! Whats the difference? If we scam mail it should be put to one side and be sent to the police. Wouldnt solve the problem but every little helps!

[Lounge Lizard]

Fair Isle Postmistress Fiona Mitchell moans about the Door to Doors up there but with an island population of just 70 she's must have a lot of time on her hands to count the leaflets !