The Ongoing Problem of Counterfeit Postage Stamps

Although many of us can’t actually remember the last time we used a postage stamp to send a letter or parcel, a total of 13.8 billion stamps were nevertheless printed, in the US alone, in 2022. Such continually high volumes mean that postage stamps remain a very interesting target for counterfeiters, not just in the US, but worldwide.

Recently, a development in the UK brought the extent of this issue once again to the fore.

The UK’s Royal Mail is investigating a recent case of mass counterfeiting of its new barcoded stamps. The issue came to light when people started complaining they were being forced to pay a £5 fine to collect their mail, since the stamps on the mail had been identified as counterfeit.

Royal Mail introduced 2D datamatrix codes on UK postage stamps in 2022 in an effort to facilitate operational efficiencies and eradicate forgeries – which were costing the postal service tens of millions of pounds a year.