Googling for fakes

Royal Mail is enlisting the help of internet giant Google to stamp out stamp fraud this Christmas and into the coming year.

Since 1 November, when customers using the popular search engine, type in search terms looking for cheap or discounted stamps, a link to a Royal Mail web page explaining how to spot and report stamp fraud appears near to the top of the list of search results.

Stamp fraud includes the sale of non-cancelled stamps, washed stamps or counterfeit stamps.

It is a crime to knowingly use counterfeit or re-used stamps and anyone who does so may face criminal prosecution.

Royal Mail has invested in new products, materials and analytics to make stamp fraud more difficult for criminals to achieve, and to protect our customers from buying fraudulent stamps.

Stephen Agar, MD consumer and network access, said: ‘Stamp fraud is an issue for all of us. My team has been working with Operations, Engineering, Revenue Protection and Group Communications over the past 18 months to get on top of this issue.

‘We have also been talking to the likes of Google and eBay, who have agreed to play their part in alerting the public to the dangers of fake and re-used stamps.

‘But there is always more we can do. So even at Christmas, it’s particularly important that we keep cancelling stamps and remove suspect items from the pipeline.’

If you suspect stamp fraud, speak with your local Revenue Protection team or contact the Reducing Stamp Fraud project team at heather.middleton@royalmail.com. Learn more about spotting and reporting stamp fraud to our criminal team here.