China is flooding Britain with fake stamps, while rogue companies are landing thousands of innocent British victims with £5 fines
- Claims that four Chinese companies print one million counterfeit stamps per week
Thousands of counterfeit stamps are entering Britain from China, forcing victims to pay a £5 fine to collect their mail.
Royal Mail was urged on Wednesday evening to investigate what security experts called ‘economic warfare’, with Far Eastern counterfeits believed to be responsible for a rise in customer complaints that stamps bought from legitimate sources are being marked as counterfeit.
It is understood that compelling copies, which sell for as little as 4p each, are being bought by smaller retailers, who are not obliged to buy directly from the Royal Mail and can instead buy them from wholesalers or online.
Websites viewed by China Post are offering sheets of 50 counterfeit stamps at a time, complete with Royal Mail’s new barcode – designed to make mail more secure and efficient – for those willing to commit to a minimum purchase of 20,000.
Last night Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake said he would work with Royal Mail and retailers to investigate the matter. He told the Mail: ‘It is vital to prevent counterfeit stamps from entering our supply chain in Britain.
Thousands of counterfeit stamps are flooding Britain from China, with Royal Mail urged to investigate what’s being called ‘economic warfare’
‘The Royal Mail must do everything possible to prevent counterfeits from entering our circulation and identify where they come from and how they enter our market.’
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith called for a criminal investigation and compared the scam to money printing.
Stamps are considered a ‘securely printed item’ in the same way as banknotes. This means that it is a crime to knowingly reuse or sell used or counterfeit stamps.
He said: ‘The criminal law is very clear on this and I don’t understand why the police aren’t cracking down. These people are counterfeiters.”
And Alan Mendoza, of the Henry Jackson Society national security think tank, accused China of “robbing British companies of revenue.”
He told the Telegraph: ‘It is inconceivable that a large-scale counterfeiting operation like this could take place without the knowledge and therefore tacit approval of the Chinese Communist Party. It is an obvious form of economic warfare.’
Stamps purchased from the Post Office are not affected as it receives all its stamps directly from Royal Mail’s secure printing facilities in Wolverhampton. They are transported to the branches in secure vans or via tamper-proof envelopes.
It is claimed that four major Chinese suppliers are printing up to a million fake stamps every week and delivering them to Britain within days.
One large factory only takes orders for more than 300,000 units, reducing costs to 4p per counterfeit.
They are then sold through scam websites that imitate the Royal Mail online store, and through marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay.
It is claimed that four major Chinese suppliers are printing up to a million fake stamps every week and delivering them to Britain within days. In the photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Both Amazon and eBay last night insisted they are strictly banning counterfeit items on their websites.
The news comes after Money Mail raised concerns about customers being fined £5 if they collect letters sent with barcoded stamps that they say were bought from legitimate sources such as the post office and supermarkets.
Royal Mail said they were counterfeits and the reasons behind this episode remain unclear.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘We regularly monitor online marketplaces 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.’