Page publication date: 27 December 2011 at 12:00
CET
PostNL intercepts large series of counterfeit stamps sold
through websites
Estimated damage of several million euro
27 December 2011 at 12:00 CET- PostNL has
intercepted a large series of counterfeit postage stamps
offered through public websites for a price well under face
value. PostNL could have incurred several million euro in
damage. PostNL's authenticity recognition system identifies
the counterfeit stamps after which shipment of the postal
item will be stopped. Under Article 216 of the Dutch
Criminal Code, anyone who counterfeits postage stamps or
uses counterfeit postage stamps can be sent to prison for
up to six years.
The series of counterfeit stamps can be identified because
these were always stuck on a blank sticker sheet and sold
on the websites specified below. To the untrained eye these
stamps are otherwise indistinguishable from real stamps.
For experts, however, they can be identified as false
because they lack a number of PostNL-specific authenticity
features, such as phosphor tagging. The sheets of stamps
have been encountered mainly on registered letters and
parcels, and have been used for both domestic and
international mail.
PostNL has informed the police and justice about these
fraudulent practices and will collaborate fully in possible
investigation executed by the prosecution.
Commercial Director at PostNL, Ger Jacobs: "At first sight,
these stamps are almost indistinguishable from real stamps
issued by PostNL. So I'm glad to see that our security
system was able to identify these counterfeit stamps and
that we were able to stop shipment of the mail items
concerned. We would like to emphasise to our customers that
stamps may not, under any circumstances, be sold under
their face value: by law stamps are considered securities.
This is why we have included a number of visible and
invisible authenticity features in the design of our
postage stamps."
The following websites have been identified as offering
counterfeit stamps for sale:
PostNL advises its customers who suspect they are in the
possession of counterfeit stamps to report the fraud via
the special email address or by means of a letter to the
PostNL security department. PostNL will then make sure the
police will receive these notofications.
About PostNL
Annually PostNL processes 8.8 billion addressed postal
items (including 100 million parcels) and delivers to more
than 88 million addresses in the Benelux, Germany, the UK
and Italy. PostNL's main business is mail, parcels and
e-commerce. The company also provides services in the area
of data and document management, direct marketing and
fulfilment. PostNL employs some 77,000 people. In 2010 the
company generated a turnover of nearly 4.3 billion euros.
More information about PostNL can be found on its website .
