Royal Mail is reportedly investigating issues with barcoded stamps after claims people were wrongly fined when collecting their mail because the stamps were thought to be fake.
The postmaster general said the suspected counterfeit stamps were from Royal Mail There are fears they will be mistakenly identified as fakes, The Telegraph reported, adding that people complained they had to pay a £5 fine as a result.
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake told the newspaper: “We have spoken to Royal Mail and they are investigating and they are working with the Post Office and other retailers to try to get to the root of the issue.”
This question has arisen ever since the Postal Service switched entirely to Postal Service New barcode system to be introduced in July 2023.
Royal Mail recently said its process is “secure” and uses “specialist equipment” to assess whether stamps are genuine.
Most stamps are authenticated at sorting offices using the service’s scanning equipment, and it says it has been able to significantly reduce stamp fraud through the added security feature of barcoded stamps.
Follow Sky News for all the latest news from the UK and around the world
Royal Mail said: “We want customers to buy stamps with confidence. We strongly advise customers to only buy stamps from the Post Office and other reputable high street retailers and not buy stamps online – unless they are buying from an official Royal Mail store.”
It added: “We are working hard to eliminate counterfeit stamps from circulation. We monitor regularly to detect suspicious activity, such as the sale of deeply discounted stamps, and work closely with retailers and law enforcement agencies to identify those producing counterfeit stamps.”
The Post Office said it takes any allegation of counterfeit stamps being purchased at its branches “extremely seriously”.
“The implication of this allegation is that one of our postmasters or his staff obtained counterfeit stamps and chose to sell them to customers rather than sell legitimate stamps from Royal Mail’s secure printers,” the Mail’s office said people expressed.
He added: “We welcome the recent meeting between Postal Affairs Minister Kevin Hollinrake and Royal Mail to discuss the issue of ‘counterfeit stamps’, with Royal Mail reaffirming its close cooperation with retailers and law enforcement agencies and its proactive Seek prosecution of those producing counterfeit stamps.”
Read more from Sky News:
Fatal earthquake hits Taiwan
The moon has its own time zone
Separately, Royal Mail has outlined plans to reduce second class letter deliveries to every other working day.
The company said the plans could lead to up to 1,000 redundancies if approved by Ofcom.
Royal Mail will scrap second-class mail delivery on Saturdays but will retain first-class mail delivery six days a week, the Royal Mail said in a submission to the regulator on the future of the universal postal service.
The company said its proposals also include speeding up the delivery of bulk business mail to three days instead of two, which would save up to £300m a year.
The report said daily delivery routes will be reduced by 7,000 to 9,000 within two years, which could lead to layoffs.
Royal Mail said the number of voluntary redundancies would be “fewer than 1,000” but no compulsory redundancies were expected.
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
