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Royal Mail has announced a “pause” on fines and “suspended” punishments for households who bought counterfeit stamps thinking they were legitimate. The Royal Mail has paused “fake” stamp fines after an apparent flaw in fraud scanners.
The postal company defended technology but suspends surcharge, while the app allowed customers to scan own stamps developed. Households have been forced to pay a levy of £5 to receive post if Royal Mail suspects that a fake stamp was used by the sender.
Hundreds of fines have been issued since barcoded stamps became mandatory last July. Royal Mail has insisted its technology is “robust” and blamed customers for buying bargain stamps online but has today confirmed a sudden U-turn on April 29 (Monday).
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It came afeter issuing surcharges until the end of July while it develops an app to allow customers to authentic their own stamps. Nick Landon, the chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “The combination of new barcoded stamps with added security features and Royal Mail actively working with retailers, online marketplaces and law enforcement authorities, has led to a 90 per cent reduction in counterfeit stamps.
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“We want our customers to buy stamps with confidence and always recommend that customers only purchase stamps from Post Offices and other reputable high street retailers, and not to buy stamps online – unless from the official Royal Mail shop.”
Earlier this month, The Daily Telegraph reported that China was allegedly flooding Britain with counterfeit Royal Mail stamps. Fakes from the Asian country were causing a rise in complaints that stamps bought from legitimate stores were being deemed fraudulent, which can result in the £5 penalty, the newspaper reported.
Four Chinese suppliers were offering to print up to one million counterfeit Royal Mail stamps a week, to be sold for as little as 4p each ahead of delivery to Britain, the newspaper also reported, with Amazon and eBay flooded with them.
