2024-04-11 10:48:03
For several months, the British no longer understand anything about it. As they buy their timbres from official suppliers before posting their mailthe recipients of their letters are asked for a fine of 5 pounds upon receipt.
At issue: fraudulent stamps, sold in small British businesses, which are not obliged to obtain their supplies from the Royal Mail, the postal service across the Channel. The British authorities have detected trafficking in counterfeit stamps coming straight from China and which are flooding these businesses.
The Telegraph investigated these fraudulent stamps. The English media found four Chinese suppliers ready to print up to 1 million fake stamps per week for just 4 pence a piece before sending them to the United Kingdom. There, they are distributed in local shops but also, in batches, on the Internet.
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This wave of fakes is seen as a way of destabilizing the British economy
To the naked eye and for the average citizen, it is impossible to suspect that these squares of self-adhesive paper are not real stamps. Even within the Royal Mail, the difference between the fakes and the real ones is too small to be noticed by men.
“The truth is that the counterfeiters are now so good that even I, who work for the Royal Mail, can’t tell the difference just by looking at them.”admits David Gold, director of foreign policy at the institution.
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Without an official means of postage upon shipment, recipients may be subject to a small fine. Although the fine of 5 pounds seems low, on a large scale, it reduces the purchasing power of households but also the budgets of businesses, which still use postal services a lot. In this, the United Kingdom sees this attack coming from Chine as an act of “economic war”.
Counterfeiters face prosecution in Britain
“It is inconceivable that an operation of counterfeit of this magnitude takes place without the Chinese Communist Party being aware of it and therefore, tacitly, approving it”estimates Alan Mendoza, of the Henry Jackson Society think tank.
The subject is so serious that the British government has taken it up. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Markets Kevin Hollinrake has asked Royal Mail executives to “do everything in their power to prevent the circulation of counterfeits and monitor them to know where they come from and how they enter the market”.
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Stamps, like bank notes, are considered official and secure documents in the United Kingdom. Each has a unique code which allows the Royal Mail to check its authenticity. Regardless of the perfect reproduction of the profile of Charles III on a purple background, these are the codes that Chinese fakes are missing. If the source of supply were to be discovered, the individuals responsible could be prosecuted by British justice.
1713280042
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