Royal Mail’s app lets customers detect counterfeit stamps
Following a row over £5 “fines” being levied on people who received a letter carrying an allegedly fake stamp, Royal Mail has also announced a new independent arbitrator to settle disputes about whether a stamp is genuine or not.
In the months that followed, people who received letters were forced to pay a £5 penalty fee in cases where Royal Mail suspected that a counterfeit stamp had been used by the sender.
Some customers whose letters were affected claimed that the stamps used were bought from Post Office branches, reputable retailers, or even Royal Mail’s own website.
There have also been claims that realistic fake stamps mass-produced in China are being sold online and bought unwittingly by the public and smaller retailers.
With the row gathering momentum, Royal Mail suspended the £5 penalty charges in April and said on Tuesday that it would “extend the pause” on the collection of the fee for those receiving letters carrying counterfeit stamps.
It has also added a new scanner to its free-to-use app that will enable people to check if a stamp is a known fake, thereby preventing them from “inadvertently becoming victims of fraud”.
