4 ms·

The issue is, the recipient is paying the fine. I send you a letter with a fake stamp, you pay. The £5 is an inconvenience, something you’d pay while tutting

The issue is, the recipient is paying the fine. I send you a letter with a fake stamp, you pay. The £5 is an inconvenience, something you’d pay while tutting “what is the world coming to”. The sender is none the wiser. 7.3bn letters delivered in 22-23 (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/272795/post-monitoring-report-2022-23.pdf https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/272795/...) If 0.01% of that are tagged as counterfeit, that’s £3,650,000 in fines.

jimnotgym 3y ago
Makes me feel like sending a load of them to the Daily Mail...
- DaSHacka 3y ago
  You kid, but I imagine this will quickly be abused by bad actors to harass victims of online doxxing as ordering pizzas and (in more serious cases) swatting is.
  - 1jbdg 3y ago
    You just don’t accept the letter, nothing to pay then
    - scotty79 3y ago
      Aren't public institution obligated to accept letters from the public?
- washadjeffmad 3y ago
  It'd be a fair campaign for everyone to return their stamps by sending them affixed to complaint cards to their local councilperson or postmaster.
michaelmrose 3y ago
It's worse than that. They introduced new stamps with barcodes and let you trade in your old lawfully obtained postage for the new barcoded stuff. They are marking some of their own lawfully obtained stamps as counterfeit and by dint of doing so stealing from their citizenry. It's roughly analogous to having bought speed guns from an incompetent vendor which sometimes read 200 kph no matter what the speed and insisting their cops continue to use them and ticketing per normal because it would be very expensive to replace the guns.
- PontifexMinimus 3y ago
  > They are marking some of their own lawfully obtained stamps as counterfeit and by dint of doing so stealing from their citizenry This is called "fraud" and in any properly-run country people would be doing long prison sentences for it. Sadly, the UK is not a properly-run country.
  - labster 3y ago
    What, you don’t think the postal court run by the Post Office will rule against the Post Office? Come on, there’s only a small chance of being sent to Rwanda in a crate if you file a case against them, hardly worth worrying about.

jimnotgym 3y ago

Makes me feel like sending a load of them to the Daily Mail...

DaSHacka 3y ago
You kid, but I imagine this will quickly be abused by bad actors to harass victims of online doxxing as ordering pizzas and (in more serious cases) swatting is.
- 1jbdg 3y ago
  You just don’t accept the letter, nothing to pay then
  - scotty79 3y ago
    Aren't public institution obligated to accept letters from the public?
washadjeffmad 3y ago
It'd be a fair campaign for everyone to return their stamps by sending them affixed to complaint cards to their local councilperson or postmaster.

michaelmrose 3y ago

It's worse than that. They introduced new stamps with barcodes and let you trade in your old lawfully obtained postage for the new barcoded stuff. They are marking some of their own lawfully obtained stamps as counterfeit and by dint of doing so stealing from their citizenry. It's roughly analogous to having bought speed guns from an incompetent vendor which sometimes read 200 kph no matter what the speed and insisting their cops continue to use them and ticketing per normal because it would be very expensive to replace the guns.

PontifexMinimus 3y ago
> They are marking some of their own lawfully obtained stamps as counterfeit and by dint of doing so stealing from their citizenry This is called "fraud" and in any properly-run country people would be doing long prison sentences for it. Sadly, the UK is not a properly-run country.
- labster 3y ago
  What, you don’t think the postal court run by the Post Office will rule against the Post Office? Come on, there’s only a small chance of being sent to Rwanda in a crate if you file a case against them, hardly worth worrying about.