The Ongoing Problem of Counterfeit Postage Stamps – Learnings for Tax Stamps

Although this article concerns ongoing problems with the counterfeiting of postage stamps, some of these stamps now carry a combination of physical and digital features common to tax stamps. Our industry may therefore be interested in recent developments around the counterfeiting of these ‘new-age’ 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, the UK’s Royal Mail was confronted with a 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.