Beware counterfeit stamps, Amazon, ebay etc.

So, we’ve (Posties) been delivering quite a few £2.50 surcharge notices to people for letters with counterfeit stamps on them. One of my deliverees opened said letter to find it was from our local GP. All of the ones we are holding look the same so I assumed all from same source so I had a word in the GPs today. “Oh yeah, we got a load of cheap stamps off amazon for a mail shot”.

So, if you are thinking of saving money for a mail shot etc. be very careful where you buy them or you might have a lot of pissed off customers. GP has already had to refund a few disgruntled patients.

There was a thread here a couple of months ago on a similar theme.

I wonder how recently the GP’s bought the stamps – back then – a few weeks before Christmas –  if you looked on amazon it was awash with listings for obviously fake stamps – listing that had only run for a few days with enough shill reviews to get some stars but if you looked at the actual feedback its clear people had been receiving fakes.  But now it seems like although the listings are all pretty legit

I might be being daft but arn’t stamps kinda like currency, as in a first class 95p stamp is 95p, you can’t buy them cheaper than face value?

Would have thought a GP surgery would have a franking machine….

Do you think the amazon shares I bought on ebay are legit? £1.00 each seemed a bargain so I bought a few 00.

I might be being daft but arn’t stamps kinda like currency, as in a first class 95p stamp is 95p, you can’t buy them cheaper than face value?

lol have you ever even seen a stamp? There’s no value on it, just says 1st/2nd etc. I think this is how (legit) companies offered discounts before (yet still turned a profit) – buy a shedload just before price rise, then split the difference between purchase price and new price. I think this is what the barcodes intend to thwart.

Would have thought a GP surgery would have a franking machine…. Yeah so would I but no..Relatively small practice that doesn’t do a ton of mailing so prob not worth it.

Edit: the blockquote thing doesn’t seem to be working.

I might be being daft but arn’t stamps kinda like currency, as in a first class 95p stamp is 95p, you can’t buy them cheaper than face value?

Yes, if your buying stamps for less than 95p they are more than likely fakes – if you buy stamps from a shop that’s not a post office they make around 2% margin on them so, again if less than 93p fake….

I think this is how (legit) companies offered discounts before (yet still turned a profit) – buy a shedload just before price rise, then split the difference between purchase price and new price. I think this is what the barcodes intend to thwart.

Nope – margins are to small, why offer a discount at all? The price rises are so small it’s just not worth buying up stamps prior to the rise unless your buying hundreds of thousands and it’s unlikely RM will sell that many at once.

The barcode does a few things, enables sorting machines to automatically verify legitimate stamps, stop fraud and prevent customers from peeling off in franked stamps and reusing them. The sorting offices have been also using UV franking for some years I believe.

Amazes me that a GP surgery would fall for something like this.

People are thick. Scammers have mountains of opportunity, particularly in an online world.

I might be being daft but arn’t stamps kinda like currency, as in a first class 95p stamp is 95p, you can’t buy them cheaper than face value?

You are Moist Von Lipwig and I claim my 5 Ankh-Morpor dollars.

A 95p stamp is 95p stamp – a stamp marked First Class could have been bought when they were priced lower a few years ago. As far as I’m aware they are still valid as first class forever.

apart from now of course when they’ve got to be used before barcode ones take over! 😀

I’ve got some £10 notes for sale at £7.50. PM me if interested.

When I were a lad, I remember putting multiple stamps on an envelope to add up to the postage cost, as they did used to have monetary values printed on them:

You can still buy monetary value stamps – they also have a barcode on them….

When I were a lad, I remember putting multiple stamps on an envelope to add up to the postage cost, as they did used to have monetary values printed on them:

I bought a bunch of  books last year from a second hand dealer by mail order and the parcel turned up smothered in stamps – all pretty picture / special occasion ones but for quite obscure occasions and in funny low denominations – like one with goats on for 17½p that didnt seem to match any of the historic first and second class price. – I can see why you’ve have ½p stamps for making up postage amounts but not 17½p ones

Turns out all those first day covers our parents collected are mostly worthless – they end up as job-lots in house clearances and dealers pick them for a few quid per box-full and just use them for postage. All the stamps on my package were originally issued in guernsey so wouldn’t have been valid as stamps for mail sent on the mainland and were also between 30 and 40 years old –  but it seemed to get through no bother