Royal Mail Crackdown As Crooks Cash In On Fake Stamps

A lot of fraud out there.
Here is a link to the article:


https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/...ash-12246684

Interesting article.

I'm always left with the same question, "Why don't they just do their job and cancel the stamps in the mail stream?" Postal services should "crack down" on their own shortcomings first.

The main burden of this is fakes, rather than real but unfranked. On the latter, all of the questions I received when advertising kiloware on ebay were about the presence of unfranked material.

The fake, postally used Machins that I have seen advertised on ebay seem to sell much better than genuine modern stamps. I bookmark them occasionally, and they all sell at prices above the minimum bid. This indicates to me that fake stamps are much less of a problem than skips/reused stamps.

Many of the auction lots I receive from the U.K. are franked with reused stamps. I know this because I remove the undamaged stamps from the envelopes. It is obvious when the stamps are reused; they are much easier to remove.. Also, some will have bent and torn corners.

The idea of postal workers closely scrutinizing mail seems a little ridiculous at the present time.

By the way, here are the 2 pieces of mail I received today with postage stamps. Notice that the U.S. piece has the canceller programmed/shifted to the left, where it will not cancel stamps put in the correct place. There was an earlier thread on SCF discussing this practice.

Perhaps they assume no-one knows how to position stamps properly anymore! I'd say that most of the domestic mail I receive is franked, but by no means all of it, especially when the package is anything other than the standard size. The problem is that the honest majority ultimately pay in increased postage costs.

Why punish the addressee in the case of forged postage? Why not a heftier penalty to the sender and if not paid, suspension of mail service until paid?

From the article:


Hahahahahahahahahahaha

As for finding other ways to deliberately lose money, USPS used to sell stamps to their philatelic agents in Europe at 20% discount, assuming stamps would all go to collectors. It came back to bite them as large quantities of stamps were re-sold in the US at 10% discount. I found out recently that the discount still applies. Idiocy is still idiocy.

Canada Post also gives a 20% discount to non-CP offices, such as Shoppers Drugmart locations.

What about fake Royal Mail letterboxes? Here is my mailbox I put together:

Is it welded plate or cast metal?

It is plate steel that is bolted. It is an Elephant Trunk brand package box, but it works like a drop box. Letters found at Hobby Lobby, crown at a junk shop, and decals custom printed for outdoor use.

Great mailbox. Hopefully the drunk and distracted drivers will avoid it.

great box GTO