Security News > 2024 > April > UK flooded with forged stamps despite using barcodes — to prevent just that
Royal Mail, the British postal and courier service began switching all snail mail stamps to barcoded stamps last year.
As Royal Mail transitioned towards barcoded stamps last year, the public had until the end of July 2023 to swap out their old paper stamps with ones carrying a 2D data matrix barcode at no cost.
"The implication of such an allegation is that one of our postmasters, or a member of their staff, has obtained fake stamps and has chosen to sell them to customers rather than selling legitimate stamps that have come from Royal Mail's secure printers. This is why we insist that any customer who thinks they may have purchased a fake stamp from a Post Office must produce an itemised receipt so that this can be looked into further."
Along with tightened "Security," these digitalised stamps arrived with a 'feature' for senders to attach videos using their smartphone that a recipient could then watch by scanning the stamp with their smartphone.
"The barcodes will not provide end-to-end public facing tracking. It is not possible to track items using these stamps as current regulation does not permit this on services offered under the Universal Service Obligation," a Royal Mail spokesperson had earlier told BleepingComputer in an email interview.
With the forged stamps now infiltrating the country, the benefits these new stamps were designed to provide have largely been rendered void.